Xpeng predicts it will deliver fewer electric cars than Nio in the first quarter

BEIJING — Chinese electric car maker Xpeng forecast it will deliver far fewer cars than rival start-up Nio in the first three months of the year.

New York-listed Xpeng announced overnight it would likely deliver around 12,500 vehicles in the first quarter. That implies deliveries of 4,250 cars for March, based on January’s 6,015 figure and drop to 2,223 in February.

Even considering the week-long Lunar New Year holiday in mid-February, those figures fall short of Nio’s.

Last week, Nio forecast deliveries of 20,000 to 25,000 vehicles in the first quarter, implying deliveries of at least 7,197 cars in March. The company only delivers SUVs right now, and sells them in a higher price range than Xpeng’s cars.

While Nio plans to deliver a sedan to customers early next year, Xpeng launched its P7 sedan last year, which has accounted for a growing share of deliveries versus its G3 SUV. Xpeng plans to release another sedan later this year.

Li Auto, another Chinese electric car company listed in the U.S., gave the lowest forecast of the three start-ups, at 10,500 to 11,500 deliveries for the first quarter.

Despite the attention on start-ups like Nio and Xpeng, older automakers Tesla and BYD are already selling electric cars in China at a far greater scale. In January alone, Tesla sold more than 14,500 China-made Model 3s and BYD more than 7,200 of its Han model, according to figures from the China Passenger Car Association released Tuesday.

After surging in 2020, shares of U.S.-listed electric car companies have fallen in the last two months amid the U.S. stock market’s volatile start to the year.

• Shares of Xpeng fell nearly 4% overnight and are down more than 35% for the year so far.
• Nio fell 7.6% overnight and is down more than 25% year to date.
• Li Auto shares fell 5% to start the week and are down 26% for the year so far.
• Tesla shares fell more than 5% in Monday’s session and are down 20% for the year so far.

As Nio, Tesla and other car companies race to develop self-driving technology, Xpeng began rolling out its autonomous driving software to some premium P7 sedan customers this year. The technology allows users to automate tasks such as changing lanes and entering and exiting highways.

About one-fifth of more than 20,100 P7 sedans delivered as of February have activated the latest self-driving software, management said on an earnings call.

Xpeng reported total revenue rose 43% from the third quarter to 2.85 billion yuan ($437 million) in the fourth quarter. The company expects revenue to fall slightly to 2.6 billion yuan in the first quarter.

Net losses narrowed to 787.4 million yuan in the last three months of the year from 1.15 billion yuan in the prior quarter.