In February, there were 246,375 locally-made new energy passenger vehicles (NEPVs) registered across the Chinese mainland, sliding 21.2% month-on-month, while still surging 163% from the year-ago period, according to the data compiled by ZXZC Auto Research Institute.

To be specific, the Feb. homegrown NEPV registrations consisted of 188,219 battery electric vehicles (BEVs) and 58,156 plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEVs), which included 10,056 range-extended electric vehicles (REEVs).

Tesla got 24,197 China-made vehicles registered last month, still outselling all Chinese NEV startups. With only 16 workdays, the U.S. carmaker still gained a 23.4% jump month-over-month.

Aside from Tesla, there were only three automakers in China logging a registration volume exceeding 10,000 units, namely, BYD, SAIC-GM-Wuling, and Chery Auto.

What is especially impressive with Tesla's results was the fact that the automaker only sells premium vehicles. Both the Model 3 and the Model Y are much more expensive than many  hotter-selling BEV models like the Wuling Hongguang MINIEV. Despite this, Tesla China's sales volume still seems comparable to the lower-priced cars.

In terms of Feb. registrations, the landscape of Chinese NEV startups was quite different from previous months. Li ONE moved up to the highest place, once again taking the champion honor since August last year. HOZON Auto was not only credited the second runner-up for the first time, but also the fastest-growing one compared to the year-ago performance. After four consecutive months of championship, XPeng dropped to the third place last month. NIO fell to the fourth spot for the third time after October and December last year.

With only one production model for sale, Li Auto has been maintaining a stable and sound delivery performance. Aside from February 2022, the automaker was outdoing other Chinese startups for three consecutive months from June to August 2021.

However, Li Auto faced a 32.7% month-on-month drop in Feb. registrations as its component supply and production were affected by the holiday season and an outbreak of the pandemic in Suzhou.

Li ONE; photo credit: Li Auto

In late February, Li Auto announced a net income of 295.5 million yuan (US$46.4 million) for the fourth quarter of 2021, for the second time recording a quarterly net profit since it was publicly listed. In all likelihood, the company will be the first Chinese NEV startup to move past the money-losing status.

Li Auto regards its focus on the family market as one of key recipes to its upward development impetus, and will continue to work on this sector. Li Xiang, the startup's CEO, said at the latest quarterly earnings call that the company has only taken a very small share of about 2% in the market for family-use passenger vehicles priced above 200,000 yuan ($31,400).

“There is still much work to reach at least 20% of market share and our goal is to eventually reach at least 20%, which is the moment by which we will have finished our 1 to 10 stages as a company,” he added.

Last month, HOZON Auto surpassed XPeng and NIO to the runner-up place with a splendid year-on-year growth of 832.5%. In addition, the company cracked the top 3 rankings of Chinese NEV startups in October and December last year, thanks to the popularity of the A00-segment SUV, the NETA V.

While catching up with NIO, XPeng, and Li Auto in sales performance, HOZON Auto also wishes to secure greater supports in the capital market. Local media outlets said last month the EV maker had picked banks for an IPO in Hong Kong and secure over 2 billion yuan ($314 million) in a new funding round. The information has not been officially confirmed yet.

XPeng saw its Feb. registrations plunge 52.6% month on month. The startup attributed the decrease to the technology upgrade at the Zhaoqing plant during the Chinese New Year holiday from late January to early February.

NIO saw its monthly registrations edge down 1.3% over a year earlier to 5,664 units in February. Regarding the year-over-year change, NIO was greatly outperformed by the other five Chinese startups, which all scored a three-digit growth.

NIO for the first time lost the honor of No.1 Chinese NEV startup in last June and only re-gained the championship once in the following months. Aside from the industry-wide factors like chip shortage and pandemic, NIO's mediocre sales performance is to some extent linked to its product and brand positioning. Compared to XPeng and Li Auto, NIO targets the high end of the electric vehicle market with relatively higher product price. The segments NIO focuses on feature a smaller market share than that of the mass-market brands.

Nevertheless, it seems that NIO lays greater store on the competition with mainstream traditional fuel upscale models such as “BBA” (the abbreviation of BMW, Mercedes-Benz, and Audi among Chinese auto industry insiders). Several senior executives of NIO have expressed in the public the company's wish to change the landscape of “BBA” into “NBA” (“N” standing for “NIO”). 

Focusing on the A00-segment vehicle segment as well, Leapmotor saw its Feb. registrations tumble 53.5% from the previous month due to the holiday factor and the constraints of chip and battery supplies. The T03 still served as the biggest sales contributor, while the share of the C11 has been lifted to 33% last month from 3.5% in September 2021, when it was included in the registration data for the first time.

Among the top 6 Chinese NEV startups, WM Motor still ranked 6th, but it was the only one boasting rise compared to both the prior-year period and the previous month. The biggest contribution to the startup's Feb. registrations was still made by the E.5, which had 50% and 34% vehicles registered by car rental service operators and business users respectively.