Among the main Chinese new energy vehicle startups, there were three companies seeing their monthly vehicle deliveries exceed 10,000 units in Mar. 2023, namely, Li Auto, NIO, and HOZON Auto.

Compared to the year-ago period, both Li Auto and NIO recorded an upward movement in their Mar. deliveries, while HOZON Auto, XPeng, and Leapmotor all faced a two-digit drop. Nevertheless, NIO was the only one to encounter a decline over the previous month.

For the year-to-date performance, Li Auto and NIO saw their first-quarter (Q1) deliveries soar 40% from a year earlier, but HOZON Auto, XPeng, and Leapmotor failed to win a year-on-year rise.

In Mar. 2023, Li Auto outshone other Chinese NEV startups in terms of both monthly deliveries and year-on-year growth rate. It delivered 20,823 vehicles last month, surpassing the 20,000 monthly delivery mark again and representing an increase of 88.7% from a year earlier. This took the company’s Q1 deliveries to 52,584, up 65.8% year over year.

As of the end of Mar., Li Auto had cumulatively delivered 309,918 vehicles.

Li L9; photo credit: Li Auto

Li Auto has commenced deliveries of the Li L7, its five-seater flagship family SUV. It will begin to deliver the Li L7 Air and the Li L8 Air in April.

By the end of Mar., 2023, Li Auto had 299 retail stores in 123 cities, as well as 318 servicing centers and Li Auto-authorized body and paint shops operating in 223 cities.

NIO delivered 10,378 vehicles in March 2023, which consisted of 3,203 electric SUVs and 7,175 electric sedans. Its year-to-date deliveries amounted to 31,041 vehicles, jumping 20.5% year over year, resulting in a cumulative delivery volume of 320,597 vehicles as of March 31, 2023.

Starting from March 28, 2023, NIO has rolled out the deployment of the third-generation Power Swap station in China, with each station having a service capacity of up to 408 swaps per day.

As of Mar. 2023, NIO had deployed 1,339 Power Swap stations, 1,285 Power Charger stations with 6,467 chargers, and 1,154 destination charging stations with 7,993 chargers worldwide. The company plans to build 1,000 Power Swap stations in 2023.

HOZON Auto’s monthly deliveries came in at 10,087 units last month, sliding 16.1% over the prior-year period, but still edging up 0.1% from a month ago.

Of the vehicles delivered by HOZON Auto in Mar., 2,206 units were the NETA S sedans, indicating an 8% growth month-over-month.

HOZON Auto set sail for overseas market with a single-batch shipment of up to 3,600 NETA V battery electric vehicles (BEVs) leaving Guangzhou Nansha Port on March 21. The shipment marked a key step for the startup in its quest to deepen its presence in the global NEV market.

With 7,002 vehicles delivered in Mar., XPeng suffered a 54.6% plunge year-over-year, but still obtained a 16.5% growth over the prior month. Its total deliveries for the first quarter reached 18,230 units.

A total of 3,030 P7 series sedans were delivered last month, reflecting a 32% increase month-over-month.

The new sports sedan P7i, which was launched in Mar. for the Chinese market, has generated favorable market reception and its order backlog is gathering strong momentum, said XPeng. Delivery of the P7i began nationwide in March, boosted the foot traffic for XPeng's stores. 

Leapmotor witnessed its Mar. deliveries zoom up 93% from the previous month, but still faced a year-on-year decline.

On Mar. 29, Leapmotor began delivering its first REEV (range-extended electric vehicle) model, the C11 REEV.