Smart and Sustainable Electric Mobility
Li Auto's direct offline stores will increase to more than 800 next year, more than doubling the current number, according to local media.
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Nio has given its supply chain a full-year sales forecast of 240,000 units, according to local media.
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Li Auto (NASDAQ: LI) has updated its second-half sales forecast after seeing strong growth in the first half of the year, a new report said.
Li Auto has told its supply chain that it is raising its second-half sales forecast to about 240,300 units, local media outlet 36kr reported today.
The extended-range electric vehicle (EREV) maker expects average monthly sales of more than 35,000 units in the third quarter and more than 42,000 units in the fourth quarter, according to the report.
Li Auto is on track to see sales of more than 380,000 units for the full year, far exceeding the 300,000 sales target set at the beginning of the year, considering it delivered 139,000 units in the first half of the year, according to the report.
Li Auto's three SUVs currently on sale -- the Li L7, Li L8 and Li L9 -- are all EREVs, which are essentially plug-in hybrids aimed at a larger market than pure electric vehicles.
In June, Li Auto delivered 32,575 vehicles, bringing first-half deliveries to 139,117 units, up 130.31 percent year-on-year, according to data released earlier this month.
Last week -- June 26 to July 2 -- Li Auto sold 6,500 units, down 13.33 percent from 7,500 units the week before, according to data shared by the company yesterday.
The drop in sales last week was due to its factory being closed for two days during the week of the Dragon Boat Festival, one more day than normal, resulting in 6,388 units produced that week, Li Auto founder, chairman and CEO Li Xiang said on Weibo yesterday.
This year's Dragon Boat Festival holiday was from June 22 to June 24.
Li Auto's current vehicles are produced at its factory in Changzhou, Jiangsu province, which Li previously mentioned has six days of production per week as well as one day of overhaul.
A total of 7,500 vehicles per week is the limit of Li Auto's current production, and the reduced production from the holiday was reflected in last week's deliveries, he said.
Starting in the second week of July, Li Auto will increase its weekly production capacity from 7,500 to 8,000 units, and the change in deliveries from this will come in the third and fourth weeks of July, he said.
Late last month, a 36kr report said Li Auto had raised its full-year sales target to 400,000 units from the original 300,000, but this was later denied by Li.
Li Auto finished the first half of the year with more than 130,000 units sold and does not have any ability to make it to 400,000 units for the full year, he said at the time.
Li Auto's battery-electric vehicle (BEVs)-focused local peers Nio (NYSE: NIO) and Xpeng (NYSE: XPEV) have both largely completed product switches recently and are expected to see higher sales in the second half of the year.
Nio has given its supply chain a full-year sales forecast of 240,000 units, the 36kr report said today.
Nio management has previously said the company was aiming to double its sales this year compared to last year. It sold 122,486 vehicles last year and sold 54,561 vehicles in the first half of this year.
Nio will need to sell an average of at least 31,000 vehicles per month in the second half of the year if it is to achieve full-year sales of 240,000 vehicles.
Xpeng has previously mentioned that the goal is to see cumulative deliveries of more than 450,000 vehicles by the end of this year, implying a sales target of about 200,000 vehicles this year.
The company has seen weak sales over the past year, though deliveries have been improving month by month so far this year, with 8,620 vehicles delivered in June.
Xpeng delivered 41,435 vehicles in the first half of the year, and to see full deliveries reach 200,000 would mean it would need to deliver an average of more than 26,000 vehicles per month in the second half.
Xpeng officially launched its new SUV, the G6, on June 29, and its chairman and CEO, He Xiaopeng, said the monthly sales target for the model is at least 10,000 units.
Li Auto delivers record 32,575 vehicles in Jun, aims for 40,000 monthly deliveries in Q4
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Xpeng's Hong Kong-traded shares rose more than 14 percent to HK$51.80 at press time, giving it a 30 percent gain for the week.
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Xpeng (NYSE: XPEV) officially launched the G6 yesterday, and the company's management clearly has high hopes for the new SUV.
The G6's monthly sales target is at least 10,000 units, Xpeng chairman and CEO He Xiaopeng said in an interview with local media after yesterday's G6 launch, according to a report by Auto Home.
Mr. He disagreed with the idea that Xpeng needs to turn its fortunes around with the G6, saying that a company that bets its future on one car is doing it wrong.
In the auto industry, automakers need long-term thinking and systemic competitiveness, he said.
Xpeng officially launched the G6 yesterday, offering five versions with starting prices of RMB 209,900 ($28,940), RMB 229,900, RMB 234,900, RMB 254,900 and RMB 276,900 respectively.
Of the five options, the three versions in the middle price range will be the best sellers, meaning the G6 will be in the RMB 250,000 range in terms of average sales price, according to Mr. He.
At yesterday's launch, he said the G6 is expected to be the top-selling smart electric SUV in China within two months priced at the RMB 250,000 level.
The Xpeng G6 received more than 25,000 pre-orders within 72 hours of the start of pre-sales on June 9, and more than 35,000 pre-orders as of June 28, said Yi Han, the company's vice president of marketing, repeating Mr. He's remarks at yesterday's launch event.
Forty percent of Xpeng G6 orders came from offline stores and 60 percent from online channels, Yi said.
Mr. He made it clear in yesterday's interview that Xpeng will not launch extended-range electric vehicle (EREV) models similar to Li Auto (NASDAQ: LI).
As an entrepreneur, choices need to be made and trade-offs need to be made, he said.
In a June 15 speech, Mr. He said he could foresee a large number of hybrid models in China in the next two years, especially inside family cars.
"Because everyone sees the success, they will follow. Because they are following, a large number of models will focus on the same place. It's a very interesting thing," he said in the speech.
Xpeng shares traded in Hong Kong continued to rise today, up more than 14 percent to HK$51.80 at press time, giving it a 30 percent gain for the week.
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Xpeng officially launches G6 with starting price of $29,010 to regain past glory
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GAC Aion sold 271,156 vehicles for the full year 2022, and the latest target implies an 84.4 percent increase.
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GAC Aion, the electric vehicle (EV) subsidiary of Guangzhou-based GAC Group, is targeting sales of about 500,000 vehicles this year, implying an almost doubling of growth from last year.
GAC Aion plans to produce and sell 500,000 pure-play EVs this year and launch its overseas business efforts, GAC Group spokeswoman Yin Jie said at a June 27 press conference held by the Guangzhou municipal government.
GAC Aion will aim to exceed 1 million vehicles in annual production and sales by 2025, Yin said, adding that the company is now moving full steam ahead with its initial public offering (IPO) efforts.
For the full year 2022, GAC Aion sold 271,156 vehicles, according to data monitored by CnEVPost.
This year's sales target of 500,000 vehicles would represent an 84.4 percent increase.
GAC Aion sold a record 45,003 vehicles in May, its third consecutive month of more than 40,000, figures it released earlier this month show.
This represents a 113.73 percent increase over the 21,056 vehicles sold in the same month last year and a 9.73 percent increase over the 41,012 vehicles sold in April.
In a ranking released earlier this month by the China Passenger Car Association (CPCA), GAC Aion ranked second among the top 10 new energy vehicle (NEV) retail sales, behind BYD's 220,735 units.
From January to May, GAC Aion sold 166,323 vehicles, which was an increase of 118.44 percent from 76,142 units in the same period last year.
This makes GAC Aion the No. 3 player in retail sales in China from January to May, behind BYD with 923,343 units and Tesla with 219,893 units.
GAC Group aims to see NEVs contributing 25 percent of sales by 2025, with its own brands contributing 50 percent of those NEV sales, Yi said in the press conference.
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Li Auto finished the first half of the year with more than 130,000 units sold and does not have any ability to sell 400,000 vehicles for the full year, its CEO said.
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Li Auto (NASDAQ: LI) CEO denied that the company raised its sales target to 400,000 units this year, after the reports sparked widespread discussion.
"A media report today that our target for this year has been adjusted to 400,000 units is false and unfounded," Li Auto founder, chairman and CEO Li Xiang said on Weibo today.
Li Auto finished the first half of the year with more than 130,000 units sold and does not have any ability to make the full year sales of 400,000 units, he said.
The company's capabilities, including product, sales, capacity and organization, cannot support 400,000 units sold this year, and the gap is huge, Li said.
"The automotive industry's capability chain is built one step at a time, with no particular shortcuts," he added.
In a report yesterday, local media outlet 36kr cited sources familiar with the matter as saying that Li Auto recently raised its full-year sales target to 400,000 units from the original 300,000.
In addition to the overall sales target, Li also set targets for sales of specific models, according to the report.
Li set a goal for the Li L7 to achieve 20,000 deliveries of a single model in October, and to keep deliveries of the more expensive Li L9 and Li L8 above 10,000 units, bringing overall deliveries to 40,000 units/month, the report said.
Earlier today, Li Auto said on Weibo that it had sold 27,300 units this month as of June 25 and was on track to reach its 30,000-unit monthly sales goal.
Assuming Li Auto sells 30,000 vehicles in June, the 400,000-unit full-year sales target means it will need to sell an average of about 44,000 units per month in the second half of the year.
On June 18, Li said on Weibo that most members of Li Auto's management team thought the company should set an annual sales target of 360,000 units at the beginning of the year, but he ultimately decided to set a budget target based on annual sales of 306,000 units.
"This was partly because I didn't think we could be too optimistic about the economic environment this year, and partly because we didn't meet our budget targets for all three years from 2020-2022," he said at the time.
Li said the too-low targets he set led the company to place orders at suppliers at the beginning of the year that were clearly not keeping up with current sales, so several key components would take more than a quarter to reach the right capacity if production ramp-up began now.
Separately, Li said in another Weibo today that the Li L7 is on track to deliver more than 13,000 units this month, although it faces an onslaught of new models in June including IM Motors' LS7, Nio's new ES6.
Sales of the Li L8 have risen from more than 7,000 last month to more than 9,000 this month, and the Li L9 has improved from slightly more than 6,000 last month to more than 8,000, he said.
In addition to deliveries that can exceed 30,000, Li Auto has seen record order in-takes, Li said, adding that capacity has become the biggest bottleneck in deliveries, not demand.
All three of Li Auto's SUVs currently on sale are extended-range electric vehicles (EREVs), which are essentially plug-in hybrids.
In retweeting Li Auto's Weibo today about last week's sales figures, Li hinted that the company could launch sedan models next.
The focus is generally on the sedan lineup as dealers of luxury brand fuel cars struggle to meet their first-half sales targets this week, so sedan sales for t first-tier luxury brands are very solid, he said.
"So, the question is, shall we launch sedan offerings?" He asked.
China NEV insurance registrations for week ending Jun 25: Tesla 16,700, Li Auto 7,500, Nio 3,200
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The latest target means that in the second half of the year, Li Auto will need to deliver an average of about 45,000 units per month.
Li Auto (NASDAQ: LI) reportedly raised its sales target for the year, after seeing strong delivery growth over the past few months.
Li Auto recently raised its full-year sales target to 400,000 units from the original 300,000, local media outlet 36kr said in a report today, citing people familiar with the matter.
In addition to the overall sales target, Li Auto founder, chairman and CEO Li Xiang also set targets for sales of specific models, according to the report.
He set a goal for the Li L7 to achieve 20,000 deliveries in a single month in October, and to keep deliveries of the more expensive Li L9 and Li L8 above 10,000 units, bringing overall deliveries to 40,000 units/month, the report said.
Assuming Li Auto delivers 30,000 vehicles in June, the latest target means that for the remaining six months, Li Auto would need to average about 45,000 deliveries per month to meet its goal, the report noted.
Li Auto has seen strong growth in the past few months, at a time when growth in China's new energy vehicle industry has slowed significantly.
It delivered a record 28,277 vehicles in May, the third consecutive month to surpass the 20,000-unit mark. From January to May, Li Auto's cumulative deliveries reached 106,542 units, according to data monitored by CnEVPost.
On June 17, the day of Li Auto's first Family Tech Day event, the Li L7 sold more than 1,000 units in a single day for the first time, Li said earlier this month.
Li Auto launched the Li L7, its first five-seat SUV, on February 8 and currently offers three versions with starting prices of RMB 319,800 ($44,200), RMB 339,800 and RMB 379,800, respectively.
All of the company's current models are extended-range electric vehicles (EREVs), with the other two being the higher-priced, six-seat Li L8 and Li L9.
The Li L7 was a model that was almost canceled during development, Li said on Weibo on June 18. He said he was quite determined to axe the model last September, but several other executives stopped him.
Most members of Li Auto's management team thought the company should set an annual sales target of 360,000 units at the beginning of the year, but he ultimately decided to set a budget target based on annual sales of 306,000 units, according to a June 18 Weibo post from Li.
"This was partly because I didn't think we could be too optimistic about the economic environment this year, and partly because we didn't meet our budget targets for all three years from 2020-2022," he said.
Li said the too-low targets he set led the company to place orders at suppliers at the beginning of the year that were clearly not keeping up with current sales, so several key components would take more than a quarter to reach the right capacity if production ramp-up began now.
Li Auto currently has two production lines in its Changzhou, Jiangsu plant, one for double-shift production and one for single-shift production. Li Auto will not be able to achieve 10,000 units/week capacity until the fourth quarter, when both of its lines will be on double-shift production, according to Li.
On May 10, Li Auto management said in a call with analysts after announcing its first-quarter earnings that the company was aiming to reach its goal of 30,000 units delivered in a single month in June.
Notably, the 36kr report mentioned that sales of Li Auto's cheaper Air version have been less than expected.
Li Auto had hoped that the Air version models would bring in 30 percent incremental sales, but Li said in its earnings call that the lineup only brought in 20 percent additional sales, the 36kr report noted.
To meet its sales targets, Li Auto will need new growth, and Li's approach was to launch the Li L9 Pro, the 36kr report said.
In a recent regulatory list from China's Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, Li Auto filed for the Li L9 model without LiDAR, the report noted.
The Li L9 Pro is likely to be priced at around RMB 419,800, which will help boost sales of the Li L9 and Li L8 to more than 20,000 units/month while improving the company's competitiveness in the price range above RMB 400,000, the report said.
In addition, with the launch of Nio's (NYSE: Nio) new ES6 and ET5 Touring, and an RMB 30,000 price cut across the company's model lineup, Li Auto will face stronger competition in the RMB 300,000 to 400,000 price range, according to the report.
Nio is aiming to double its sales this year compared to last year, implying full-year sales of about 240,000 units, according to previous comments from the company's management.
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NIO keeps goal of doubling sales this year despite price war causing greater challenges
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Li Auto aims to reach annual sales of 1.6 million vehicles and annual revenue of RMB 500 billion by 2025, its CEO said.
The CEO of Li Auto (NASDAQ: LI) welcomed the clarification of China's new energy vehicle (NEV) purchase tax exemption policy for the next few years and reiterated the company's ambitious goals.
Li Auto aims to reach annual sales of 1.6 million vehicles and annual revenue of RMB 500 billion ($70 billion) by 2025, Li Xiang, the company's founder, chairman and CEO, wrote on Weibo today.
China has provided stable policies for the next four years, which is great and gives Li Auto's team no excuse not to accomplish its strategic goals for 2025, Li said.
By early 2026, Li Auto's ability to meet that goal will be verified, he said.
Li Auto originally set that aggressive goal in February 2021, saying the company aims to be the No. 1 smart electric vehicle company in China with a 20 percent market share, or 1.6 million units sold annually, by 2025.
For reference, BYD sold 1,804,624 retail units in China for the full year last year, ranking first with an 8.8 percent share, according to the China Passenger Car Association (CPCA).
Li Auto delivered 133,246 vehicles last year, up 47.25 percent year-on-year, but did not make the CPCA's top-selling automaker ranking.
All three models currently sold by Li Auto are extended-range electric vehicles (EREVs), which are essentially plug-in hybrid vehicles (PHEVs) that are still equipped with internal combustion engines.
Recently, there has been some concern that China may be scaling back support for PHEVs in order to accelerate the auto industry's transition to battery electric vehicles (BEVs).
Earlier today, China's Ministry of Finance released details of the policy to extend the purchase tax exemption for NEVs, with equal treatment for BEVs, PHEVs, EREVs, and fuel cell vehicles.
The country exempts NEVs with a purchase date between January 1, 2024 and December 31, 2025 from vehicle purchase tax, the tax exemption will not exceed RMB 30,000 per new energy passenger vehicle.
For NEVs with a purchase date between January 1, 2026 and December 31, 2027, the vehicle purchase tax will be levied at half the normal rate, with the tax reduction not exceeding RMB 15,000 per new energy passenger vehicle.
To achieve its 2025 target, Li Auto announced two months ago its plan to launch new models in the next two years.
On the first day of the Shanghai auto show on April 18, Li Auto unveiled its all-electric solution, based on the 800 V high-voltage platform, capable of giving a BEV a 400 km range on a 10-minute charge.
With the launch of the solution, Li Auto officially enters a phase of parallel development of its EREV and BEV product lines, it said at the time.
By 2025, Li Auto's product array will include one super flagship model, five EREVs, and five BEVs, the company said.
By then, Li Auto's models for the market priced above RMB 200,000 will fully meet the needs of family users, it said.
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Li Auto Family Tech Day: 1st BEV named Li MEGA, aims to be top seller above $70,000 in China
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Li Auto CEO looks down on local peers, arguing that their sales are so low that they don't deserve to be taken seriously.
Li Auto (NASDAQ: LI), the buzzy Chinese car-making startup, has set an ambitious goal -- to outsell German luxury brands in 2024.
"With the delivery of the all-electric model and next year's Li L6, we are confident that we will surpass BBA in our total sales in 2024," the company said on Weibo yesterday while sharing insurance registration figures for last week.
"BBA" in China refers to German luxury brands Mercedes-Benz, BMW and Audi, and Li Auto appears to be aiming to outsell one of those three brands in China next year, though it didn't specify.
For reference, BMW Brilliance, BMW's joint venture in China, had retail sales of 653,976 units in 2022, essentially unchanged from 651,236 units in 2021 and ranked 14th in the China Passenger Car Association's (CPCA) top 15 sales ranking.
BYD and FAW-Volkswagen are the top two in the ranking, with 1,804,624 and 1,779,077 units sold in 2022, respectively. Mercedes-Benz and Audi did not make the list.
From January to May this year, BMW Brilliance's retail sales were 274,763 units, up 9.1 percent from 251,880 units in the same period last year, placing it at No. 9 in the CPCA's latest top 10 sales ranking. Mercedes-Benz and Audi are still not on the list.
Li Auto yesterday shared vehicle insurance registration figures showing it sold 8,400 vehicles in the week of June 5 to June 11, bringing the cumulative sales so far this month to 11,900.
As of June 11, Li Auto had sold more SUVs than any of the "BBA" brands in China this month with just three SUVs, it said.
All of Li Auto's models currently on sale are extended-range electric vehicles (EREVs), essentially plug-in hybrid vehicles (PHEVs), including the five-seat Li L7 and the six-seat Li L9 and Li L8.
The company is expected to launch its first all-electric model by the end of the year, which will be an MPV (multi-purpose vehicle, or van) powered by the latest Qilin Battery from Chinese power cell giant CATL.
On September 22, 2022, in a warm-up for the Li L8's launch in a few days, Li Auto said it will also launch the Li L6, a midsize five-seat SUV priced within RMB 300,000 yuan ($41,850).
As it eats into the German luxury carmaker's market, Li Auto is continuing to learn from the strengths of these established luxury brands.
"In the offensive ground game, the role models are of course the BBA, which are the best sellers in the market priced at RMB 300,000 and up. we learned from them how to open 4S stores, how to choose locations, and reduce customer acquisition costs to 1/5 of stores located in malls," Li Auto founder, chairman and CEO Li Xiang said on Weibo yesterday.
Li Auto also learned from these German luxury car companies how to operate in Shanghai, which does not offer free NEV license plates for EREVs, and boosted the company's sales in Shanghai to a peak in 2022 in one month's time, he said.
Before this year, Shanghai offered free license plates to consumers who bought NEVs, including battery electric vehicles (BEVs) as well as PHEVs.
Starting this year, only consumers who purchase BEVs will receive free license plates in Shanghai, while PHEVs, including EREVs, will not be eligible for the benefit.
In Li Auto's view, its only competitors are German luxury car companies, and local brands are not worth mentioning.
After the company shared its insurance figures for last week yesterday, it was accused by a Weibo user of the move as a continued attack on its local peers.
In response to the Weibo user, Li said that the sales of these local peers are so low that they are not worth mentioning, and that its core focus has always been on the market where BBA is located.
Li used the Chinese saying "three watermelons and two dates (仨瓜俩枣)" to describe the sales of its local counterparts, implying that they were too far behind Li Auto.
Li Auto's two main peers, NIO (NYSE: NIO) and XPeng (NYSE: XPEV), both registered around 1,500 units of insurance last week, with 2,800 and 2,200 units from June 1 to June 11, respectively.
It is worth noting that both NIO and XPeng currently offer only BEVs, a fast-growing but currently small market in China.
In January-May, China's passenger vehicle retail sales were 7.63 million units, with NEVs contributing 2.42 million units, or 31.7 percent, according to the CPCA's figures.
BEVs sold 1.64 million units from January to May, contributing 21.5 percent of all passenger car sales.
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Shenlan's goals for 2023 include selling 200,000 vehicles and making both the SL03 and S7 hot sellers, the brand's CEO said.
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Shenlan, Changan Automobile's new energy vehicle (NEV) brand, aims to sell 200,000 vehicles this year, becoming the latest to reveal aggressive plans.
Shenlan's goals for 2023 include selling 200,000 vehicles and making both the SL03 and S7 hot-sellers, the brand's CEO Deng Chenghao said in an interview with Auto Home, according to the text of the interview released yesterday.
The Shenlan brand, which was officially launched by Changan on April 13 last year, unveiled the Shenlan SL03 electric sedan on July 25, another strong competitor to the Tesla Model 3.
The brand unveiled its first SUV, the Shenlan S7, a similar model to the Tesla Model Y crossover, on March 5, with pricing information yet to be announced.
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Shenlan began deliveries of the SL03 in late August 2022 and has accumulated nearly 50,000 deliveries through the end of March this year, including 8,568 units in March.
Deng did not disclose how Shenlan will meet its goal of selling 200,000 vehicles this year, and the brand offered up to 42,000 yuan ($6,090) in purchase discounts during last month's price war in the Chinese auto industry. The offer was valid from March 10 to March 31 and was limited to 10,000 units.
The price war was a short-term behavior, automakers ultimately need to compete with product competitiveness, technology, brand, channels, and service capabilities, Deng said in the interview.
"I think the whole industry will be sustainable only if there is a value war," he said.
Deng believes that the current trend of electrification in China's auto industry is very clear, and that the penetration rate of electric vehicles (EVs) will exceed 50 percent in the next three years, with EVs becoming absolutely mainstream.
As the primary adopters of EVs shift from tastemakers to the average consumer, the product definition, research and development of vehicles will need to be able to address consumer anxiety and meet demand, he said.
Consumer anxiety is not about the amount of infrastructure or the range of EVs, but about the time it takes to replenish energy, according to Deng.
There is still a long way to go in terms of technology to get charging times from 0.5-1 hour to 5-10 minutes, he said, adding that this anxiety will be there for another 5-10 years.
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NIO keeps goal of doubling sales this year despite price war causing greater challenges
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NIO maintains its previously mentioned goal of doubling sales, despite greater challenges to meet the goal, said William Li.
(William Li (left), founder, chairman and CEO of NIO, and Qin Lihong, co-founder and president of the company, participate in a media group interview. Photo taken by CnEVPost.)
NIO (NYSE: NIO) is confident it will see sales double this year, despite a rare price war that disrupted the Chinese auto industry in the first quarter.
NIO maintains its previously mentioned goal of doubling sales, though the challenge to meet that goal is greater, William Li, the electric vehicle (EV) maker's founder, chairman and CEO, said in an interview in response to questions from CnEVPost.
The price war has had a big impact on the auto industry, and NIO will not follow suit. Instead, it adjusted the benefits offered to consumers, which can be seen as a price increase, Li mentioned in the group interview on April 17 on the eve of the Shanghai auto show.
What NIO really cares about is creating value for users, not simply lowering prices, Li said, adding that companies that start price wars usually don't get the results they want because it leads to damage to the interests of existing vehicle owners and won't win the future.
In the short term, NIO will face some pressure as a result, he said.
NIO delivered a total of 122,486 vehicles in 2022, up 34 percent from 91,429 in 2021. The doubling of sales means that NIO is expected to deliver about 240,000 vehicles this year.
Li said in a March 1 analyst call following NIO's fourth-quarter earnings announcement that the company is aiming to see sales double this year compared to last year.
"Our team is very confident in that," Li said at the time.
In a March 22 interview with Bloomberg TV, NIO CFO Steven Feng said the company is very confident it will meet its sales target in 2023.
NIO delivered 31,041 vehicles in the first quarter, which means it needs to deliver more than 23,000 vehicles each month on average for the rest of the year to meet its full-year goal.
At the time Li mentioned the target on March 1, only a handful of NEV makers had cut prices in China.
However, some internal combustion engine automakers then began offering steep discounts, and a wave of price cuts quickly swept through the industry.
Rather than boosting vehicle sales significantly, the rare price war has led to increased consumer's wait-and-see sentiment.
On March 22, the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers (CAAM) called for the hype about this round of price cuts in China's auto industry to cool down as soon as possible, so that the industry can return to normal operation and ensure healthy and stable development throughout the year.
In March, retail sales of new energy passenger vehicles in China were 543,000 units, up a modest 21.9 percent year-on-year and 23.6 percent from February, according to data released by the China Passenger Car Association (CPCA) on April 10.
This is lower than the CPCA's preliminary figure of 549,000 units released on April 6, and lower than the 560,000 units it had forecast in its March 25 report.
The price cuts by some NEV companies may have triggered a wait-and-see mood among consumers, the CPCA said at the time.
For the overall passenger car market, retail sales in March were 1.587 million units, up 0.3 percent from a year earlier and up 14.3 percent from February. In the January-March period, retail sales in China's auto industry were 4.261 million units, down 13.4 percent from a year earlier.
Li also said in the interview that the decline in Chinese auto sales in the first quarter reflected a strong consumer wait-and-see sentiment.
He also mentioned that the company maintained its target of achieving profitability for its core NIO brand in the fourth quarter of this year, excluding investment in innovative businesses.
Lithium prices are falling faster than expected, and NIO's costs will fall as future deliveries rise, Li said.
As of April 17, the average price of battery-grade lithium carbonate had fallen to RMB 187,500 per ton in China, and the average price of industrial-grade lithium carbonate fell to RMB 140,000 per ton, according to data from Mysteel.
NIO ET5 ranks 7th in top-selling premium sedan list in China with 6,437 Mar sales
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