Data summary of new car-making forces in March 2022: Xpeng Motors delivered 15,414 vehicles and once again became the monthly sales champion

The sales report for March is out. How are the sales of various new car brands? Overall, the best performer in March was Xpeng Motors, with a monthly delivery of 15,414 vehicles, once again becoming the monthly sales champion among "NIO, Xiaopeng and Li Auto". In addition, Ideal Auto, with its Ideal ONE model, delivered 11,034 vehicles in a single month, once again achieving "over 10,000"; while NIO's delivery volume lagged behind last month, with 9,985 vehicles delivered in March.

Leapmotor and Nezha Auto, which were previously classified as second-tier new car brands, delivered at full capacity in March, with Leapmotor delivering 10,059 vehicles and Nezha Auto delivering 12,026 vehicles. Zeekr Auto also delivered 1,795 vehicles this month, up from the previous month.

If the above-mentioned automakers are ranked according to their delivery volume in March, Xpeng ranks first, Nezha ranks second, Ideal ranks third, Leapmotor, NIO, and Zeekr rank fourth, fifth, and sixth respectively.

Overall, the most eye-catching ones in March were Leapmotor and Nezha, whose monthly delivery volumes both exceeded 10,000. Judging from the monthly delivery data, both have already entered the first echelon of new car brands, which also reflects that the products of Nezha Auto and Leapmotor are beginning to be recognized by consumers.

Chedongxi also immediately summarized the delivery volume of six companies, namely NIO, Xpeng, Li Auto, Nezha, Leapmotor, and Zeekr, in March and the previous years, to show you the monthly and quarterly delivery volume changes of these six new car brands.

Xiaopeng becomes the monthly sales champion, while Nezha Leapmotor ranks among the top four

On the first day of April, Li Auto was the first among the three companies, Wei, Xiaopeng and Li Auto, to announce its March delivery volume. Li Auto delivered 11,034 vehicles in March, a year-on-year increase of 125.2% and an increase of 2,620 vehicles from 8,414 vehicles in February this year.

February this year coincided with the Spring Festival holiday, and there was one less working day than in previous months, so strictly speaking, February was not a full month, so the increase in Ideal Auto's delivery volume compared to February is normal.

▲Delivery volume of Ideal Auto

At present, Ideal Auto still only has the 2021 Ideal ONE on sale. This car has been on the market for nearly a year since May last year, and it can still maintain a monthly delivery volume of about 10,000 units. Its product strength and popularity are self-evident.

The second car manufacturer to release its monthly delivery results was Xpeng Motors, which delivered 15,414 vehicles in March, up 148% month-on-month and 202% year-on-year. These included 9,183 Xpeng P7s, 4,398 Xpeng P5s, and 1,833 G3 series vehicles. Xpeng P7's monthly delivery exceeded 9,000 for the first time, setting a new record for the delivery of pure electric vehicles among new car brands.

▲Xpeng Motors delivery volume

The hot sales of its entire series of models also made Xpeng Motors once again become the monthly "sales champion" among the three companies of NIO, Xiaopeng and Li Auto after January this year.

NIO was the last to announce its sales, with 9,985 vehicles delivered in March, up 37.6% year-on-year. It is worth mentioning that NIO's first sedan, the ET7, has already started delivery in March, and as of March 31, it has delivered 163 units.

Overall, compared with Xpeng Motors and Li Auto, NIO's delivery volume in March lagged behind relatively.

▲NIO car delivery volume

Chedongxi analyzed that there may be two reasons. One is that the average selling price of NIO's models is more than 400,000 yuan, while the average selling prices of Xpeng and Li Auto are around 200,000 yuan and 300,000 yuan respectively. A higher selling price means a higher purchase threshold, so it is normal that the delivery volume is lower than the other two.

Secondly, with the delivery of ET7 and the approaching release of ES7, NIO's delivery volume is currently in a "gap" stage. Its models on sale are gradually transitioning from the NT1 platform to the NT2 platform, which means more potential consumers are watching or waiting for new cars on the NT2 platform.

In addition to NIO, Xiaobian and Li Auto, Nezha Auto and Leapmotor were two expected "dark horses" in the delivery volume ranking in March.

Nezha Auto delivered 12,026 vehicles in March, a year-on-year increase of 270%, once again achieving a delivery volume of over 10,000. Nezha Auto's delivery volume this month also exceeded that of Ideal Auto and NIO, ranking second only to Xpeng Motors in monthly delivery volume among new car brands.

In fact, in February of this year, Nezha Auto had quietly climbed to the second place in the new car delivery ranking, and the delivery volume has exceeded 10,000 vehicles for several months. Nezha has gradually moved from a dark horse to the first echelon of new car manufacturers.

▲Nezha Automobile delivery volume

After Nezha Auto, Leapmotor also had a strong momentum in March delivery, delivering 10,059 vehicles in March, a month-on-month increase of 193%, second only to Ideal Auto. This is also the first time that Leapmotor's monthly delivery volume has exceeded 10,000 units. In terms of monthly delivery volume, Leapmotor can be regarded as having one foot in the first echelon of new car manufacturers.

▲Leapmotor's cumulative delivery volume

Compared with Wei, Xiaopeng and Li Auto, the average selling price of Nezha and Leapmotor is around RMB 150,000, and there are few models priced above RMB 200,000. Thanks to the more affordable prices, the increase in monthly deliveries of Nezha and Leapmotor is expected, but it also proves to a certain extent that the product strength of Nezha and Leapmotor has been recognized by consumers, and the brand awareness is gradually expanding.

The quarterly sales champion belongs to Xiaopeng Nezha, and the quarterly delivery volume exceeds 30,000 for the first time

When each company announces its monthly delivery volume, the delivery volume for the first quarter of 2022 is also announced.

In the first quarter of 2022, Xpeng Motors is still the sales champion of new cars. It delivered a total of 34,561 vehicles in the first quarter, 2.6 times that of the same period last year, and has exceeded 1/3 of last year's full-year deliveries.

In February this year, Xpeng Motors completed the technical transformation of its Zhaoqing plant during the Spring Festival, which affected its delivery volume in February. With the completion of the reconstruction of the Zhaoqing plant, Chedongxi predicts that Xpeng Motors' delivery volume in the second quarter of this year may hit a new high. If we estimate the delivery volume in the first quarter of this year, plus the Xpeng G9 delivered within the year, it should not be a problem for Xpeng Motors to deliver more than 100,000 vehicles in 2022.

▲Xiaopeng P7 Black Special Edition

In addition, the 100,000th Xpeng P7 officially rolled off the production line recently, making it the first pure electric new energy vehicle to break through the 100,000-unit mass production mark.

The runner-up in terms of deliveries in the first quarter of this year was Ideal Auto, which delivered a total of 31,716 vehicles in the first quarter of 2022, a year-on-year increase of 152.1%.

In January and March of this year, Ideal Auto's monthly deliveries both exceeded 10,000, and its deliveries in February also reached 8,414 vehicles. Compared with Xpeng Motors, the fluctuation range of delivery volume has not changed much, and the average monthly delivery volume in the first quarter also exceeded 10,000 vehicles.

On April 16 this year, Ideal Auto will release its second model - Ideal L9. The new car still uses an extended-range power system, but its body size is larger than Ideal ONE. It is positioned as a large SUV model and will be delivered within this year.

▲ Ideal L9

However, Chedongxi predicts that in the second quarter, Ideal ONE may still be the main force of Ideal Auto's sales. Due to issues such as capacity expansion, Ideal L9 may start mass delivery in the third and fourth quarters of this year, which will help Ideal Auto's monthly delivery volume continue to rise.

In addition to Xpeng Motors and Li Auto, whose quarterly deliveries exceeded 30,000 vehicles, Nezha Auto's first-quarter deliveries also exceeded 30,000 vehicles, reaching 30,152 vehicles, a year-on-year increase of 305% compared to 7,443 vehicles in the same period last year.

Currently, Nezha Auto has two models on sale, namely Nezha V (including Nezha V Pro) and Nezha U pro. The average selling price of the two cars is less than 150,000 yuan.

Interestingly, the main-selling models of Xiaopeng, Ideal, and Nezha, the top three in the quarterly delivery ranking of new car manufacturers in the first quarter of 2022, are priced at 200,000 to 300,000 yuan, above 300,000 yuan, and less than 150,000 yuan, respectively. This to a certain extent reflects the distribution of price ranges chosen by domestic consumers when purchasing new car brand models.

▲Nezha V Pro

For NIO, whose models have an average selling price of more than 400,000 yuan, its delivery volume in the first quarter of 2022 was 25,768 vehicles, a year-on-year increase of 28.5%. Compared with the above three companies, NIO's quarterly delivery performance also appears to be relatively ordinary.

However, with the successive launch and delivery of NIO's three new cars, ET7, ET5 and ES7, built on the NT2 platform, as well as the launch of the 2022 ES8, ES6 and EC6, it is believed that NIO's delivery volume in the second, third and fourth quarters of this year should have a relatively large increase.

▲NIO ET7

In addition, Leapmotor, which just submitted its IPO documents last month, also reported relatively good quarterly delivery results.

In the first quarter of this year, Leapmotor's quarterly deliveries were 21,579 vehicles, a year-on-year increase of 410%. Leapmotor has basically established itself in the first tier of new car quarterly deliveries. With the continuous increase in the delivery volume of Leapmotor C11, known as the "half-price Model Y", and the upcoming launch of Leapmotor's new model C01, Leapmotor will continue to consolidate its sales performance.

▲Leapmotor C11

In the first quarter of this year, Zeekr Auto delivered 8,241 vehicles. Since the delivery of Zeekr 001 began at the end of last year, the cumulative delivery volume has reached 14,248 vehicles. As a niche shooting brake with an average price of around 300,000 yuan, the quarterly delivery volume of Zeekr 001 is not eye-catching, but it is relatively acceptable.

In addition, Zeekr Auto expects its delivery volume to increase significantly in April.

Wei, Xiaopeng and Li Auto are catching up with each other in terms of delivery volume, while Nezha and Leapmotor are rising steadily

At the same time, Chedongxi also summarized the delivery data of six automakers, namely, Weilai, Xiaopeng, Ideal, Nezha, Leapmotor, and Zeekr, for the whole of last year and the first three months of this year. (You can rotate your phone to the left to watch it horizontally.)

If we look at the changes in delivery volume in 2021 and the first three months of this year, NIO, Xiaopeng and Li Auto were in the top three of the monthly delivery volume list of new car manufacturers for most of last year, and the delivery volumes of the three companies were also relatively close, with basically no big gap between them.

Before June 2021, NIO's delivery volume was ahead of Xpeng Motors and Li Auto. After June last year, NIO's delivery volume began to fluctuate significantly. In October last year, NIO operated at full capacity for only 10 days due to factory reconstruction and upgrading, and its delivery volume that month fell to the lowest level of the whole year last year.

▲Monthly delivery volume changes of new car brands

However, with the completion of the renovation and upgrading of the NIO factory, NIO's monthly deliveries recovered in November and December last year, basically reaching the average monthly delivery level in the first half of last year.

October last year, when NIO's deliveries declined, also marked the beginning of an increase in deliveries for Xpeng Motors and Li Auto.

From October last year to January this year, the monthly delivery volume of Xpeng Motors and Li Auto basically remained at around 10,000 vehicles, and Xpeng Motors' delivery volume also reached its annual peak in December last year, with a monthly delivery volume of 16,000 vehicles.

▲Li Auto Beijing R&D Center

Similarly, due to the Spring Festival holiday in February this year and the relatively sluggish auto market, the monthly delivery volumes of the three companies "NIO, Xpeng and Li Auto" were also affected, and all declined to a certain extent.

Compared with the ups and downs and the shifts of NIO, Xiaopeng and Li Auto, the monthly delivery volumes of Nezha Auto and Leapmotor did not change much and basically maintained a growth trend, but also declined in February this year.

However, if we carefully compare the monthly delivery volume changes of Nezha Auto and Leapmotor, we can find that the changes in the monthly delivery volume of Leapmotor are relatively larger.

▲ Nezha Auto Direct Store

Before October last year, Leapmotor only had two models on sale, the T03 and the S01. The S01 is a relatively niche small two-door coupe, and the T03 is also approaching a mid-term facelift. Therefore, before October, Leapmotor's monthly deliveries were not impressive, with an average monthly delivery of around 4,000 vehicles.

However, with the launch of the Leapmotor C11, Leapmotor's delivery volume began to increase significantly in November last year. In addition, the launch of the new Leapmotor T03 also contributed to Leapmotor's monthly delivery performance.

Previously, Chedongxi had also conducted an in-depth test drive of the Leapmotor C11. Whether in terms of body size or intelligent configuration, whether in terms of battery life or pricing range, it has the potential to become a blockbuster car. The increasing sales of Leapmotor Automobile month by month has basically proved this point.

In addition to "NIO, Nezha, and Leapmotor", Geely's pure electric luxury brand, Zeekr, has delivered 3,796 vehicles of its first model, Zeekr 001, in December last year since its delivery in October last year. However, due to production capacity issues and the impact of the epidemic, Zeekr Auto's monthly delivery volume has basically remained at around 3,000 vehicles in recent months.

Conclusion: Car price increase may affect delivery volume

At the beginning of this year, the new energy vehicle industry encountered the problems of subsidy reduction and supply chain difficulties. It seemed that the entire industry suffered a major blow, but a closer look at the report card reveals that the resilience of the new energy industry is already very strong.

Although new car companies all experienced a decline in sales in February, the delivery volume of most new car brands increased relatively in March, which was a significant breakthrough compared with the same period last year.

However, as the recent rise in raw material prices has led to an increase in car prices for various brands, it may affect the overall delivery trend of various car companies in the future. How to maintain the competitiveness of models after the price increase will become a new challenge for new car brands.

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