Chinese EV builders Li Auto, Xpeng and Nio get 2024 off to a slow start, with sharp drop in January sales

“The month-on-month fall in deliveries appears to be bigger than what dealers had expected,” said Zhao Zhen, a sales director with Shanghai-based dealer Wan Zhuo Auto.

“Consumers are more cautious about purchasing expensive items such as cars amid worries about job security and income reductions.”

Chinese EV makers delivered 8.9 million units last year, a 37 per cent year-on-year increase, according to the China Passenger Car Association (CPCA). Battery-powered cars now represent about 40 per cent of total car sales in China, the world’s largest automotive and EV market.

Tesla to open US battery plant with equipment from China’s CATL

But EV sales on the mainland could slow by 20 per cent this year, according to a forecast by Fitch Ratings in November.

Tesla does not publish its monthly delivery numbers for China, but CPCA data shows that, in December, the US carmaker delivered 75,805 Shanghai-made Model 3s and Model Ys to mainland customers. For the full year, Tesla’s Gigafactory in Shanghai sold more than 600,000 vehicles to mainland customers, up 37 per cent from 2022.

Li Auto, the top Chinese premium EV maker in terms of sales, delivered 376,030 vehicles in 2023, up 182 per cent year on year.

03:10

China’s Baidu unveils its latest autonomous vehicle, steering wheel optional

China’s Baidu unveils its latest autonomous vehicle, steering wheel optional

“We will challenge ourselves with a target of a new high of 800,000 annual deliveries, and a goal [of becoming] the bestselling premium auto brand in China,” Li Xiang, the company’s co-founder and CEO, said in a statement on Thursday.

Separately, BYD, the world’s largest EV assembler known for its cheaper cars, reported deliveries of 205,114 units last month, down 33.4 per cent from December.

The Shenzhen-based carmaker, which is backed by Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway, has been the top beneficiary of surging EV use in China since 2022, because its vehicles, priced below 200,000 yuan (US$28,158), were well received by budget-conscious consumers. It broke monthly sales records for eight months between May and December 2023.

Norway’s US$1.5 trillion wealth fund adds to EV bets in BYD, Tesla

The company said this week that its ­earnings for 2023 could jump by as much as 86.5 per cent, buoyed by record deliveries, but its profit­ability remains far behind Tesla’s, because of the US giant’s bigger margins.

BYD said in a filing to the Hong Kong and Shenzhen exchanges that its net profit for last year would come in at between 29 billion yuan (US$4 billion) and 31 billion yuan. Tesla, meanwhile, last week posted net income of US$15 billion for 2023, an increase of 19.4 per cent year on year.