Delivery numbers from China’s New Energy Vehicles (NEV) brands as they are reported.
June’s sales and delivery results for new energy vehicles in China are in, and it’s been something of a mixed bag, some brands with big gains, others falling off a cliff.
Let’s dive right into the numbers.
BYD’s lead at the top of the NEV sales charts remained broadly stable in June, 336,255 units a small two percent drop on last month, and a steady 3.5 percent up on the same month last year.
The stability is an interesting point to mention though, because if we’re looking specifically at China, the numbers are dropping slightly, since this number includes exports, which have gone up from 27,000 units last June to 90,000 this June, a 63,000 unit increase, meaning locally numbers have taken a hit, most likely from the growth of brands like Geely Galaxy and Qiyuan.
Geely’s Galaxy range took a bit of a hit in June, 90,222 units marking an 11 percent drop on last month’s 100k+ month, but they’re still comfortably second in our table.
Longer term, they’re 232 percent up on the same month last year, so still massive growth from this brand and plenty more on the way, including the new A7 and M9 models which should add significant sales.
The Wuling/Baojun partnership racked up 70,357 deliveries in June, a small dip on last month entirely in keeping with their general monthly fluctuations, but more importantly a 73.8 percent increase year-on-year.
Wuling deliveries made up 46,935 of these, suggesting 23,422 units of these came from the Baojun brand, with Wuling also claiming notable gains in their export deliveries too.
With a new Bingo S model heading to market soon, they might start swinging at the Geely Xingyuan and BYD Seagull.
Weekly registration data for China suggests June deliveries were around the 59,000 unit mark, which would appear to be an improvement on May though we’ll have to wait for definitive figure likely next week.
Conversely, given the Model Y’s biggest rival, the YU7, was launched in the last week of June, Tesla had their best week in the last week of the month, possibly from customers waiting for the YU7 and finding they might only get it in a year.
It’s Xiaomi’s inability to deliver as many YU7s as Tesla can deliver Ys that might actually be the Y’s biggest benefit, so don’t expect numbers to capitulate just yet.
Leapmotor had yet another record month, the Hangzhou-based mainstream brand nudging their new monthly high up to 48,006 units, seven percent higher than last month’s record number.
Their long-term growth is aptly demonstrated in the year-on-year figures, which show them up 139%, more than doubling their sales over what was a decent year.
New models, such as the B10, have almost certainly helped, and with the B01 saloon coming on stream just a day ago, expect this number to climb over 50,000 units in July.
Qiyuan had another storming month in June, hitting a new record monthly high of 38,771 deliveries, a modest six percent gain on last month’s stellar numbers.
Year-on-year figures are even more favourable, a 155 percent gain on last June, demonstrating strong long-term growth.
The impressively affordable Q07 has now hit 20,000 cumulative deliveries in just a couple of months, suggesting it is making a strong contribution to these numbers.
Li Auto had a disappointing start to summer, 36,279 deliveries being an 11 percent drop on May and, more concerningly, a 24 percent drop on June last year.
It looks a lot like new rivals from Lynk & Co, Denza, AITO, and maybe even Xiaomi, are starting to take the shine off one of the Chinese NEV success stories.
New fully electric models, the i6 and the i8, will be heading to market soon, and Li will be hoping they can turn things around.
XPeng extended their consecutive monthly streak over 30,000 units to eight months in June, storming towards their annual target at full steam.
34,611 units delivered in June is a modest three percent gain on May, and a massive 224 percent up on the same month last year, demonstrating the miraculous turnaround of the brand’s fortunes after a poor start to 2024.
With the new G7 set to hit the market in just a few days, expect a new record delivery figure in July and a leap towards the 40,000 figure.
Deepal had yet another great month in June, their best of the year, with 29,893 deliveries marking a 17 percent improvement on last month.
Long term they’re up 79 percent on last June, so they’re outperforming the growth of the overall market comfortably and heading in the right direction with new models striking a chord with buyers.
GAC AION took a small step forward but a larger step back in June, 27,848 deliveries good for a four percent month-on-month gain but still 20 percent down on last year.
With the UT and RT models now on stream for a couple of months and no major new models lined up, it might be a tough couple of months before something new comes to pick things up.
Xiaomi don’t give exact details on deliveries but more than 25,000 units is a bit of a drop from last month, down 11 percent MoM, but up 150 percent on June last year when the brand was still ramping up deliveries.
With the spectacular launch of the new YU7, and the apparently massive numbers of locked-in pre-orders, this number could well double by next month.
That said, with huge waiting lists for both the SU7 and YU7, in some cases more than a year, and the second phase of their factory only due to come on stream in July or August, the brand might struggle to get the numbers up quite so fast.
Fangchengbao have stormed up the table in June, the arrival of the Tai 3 having a major impact on their figures, which hit a new record high of 18,903 units, a 50 percent improvement on last month, and an enormous 605 percent improvement on last year.
The Tai 3 itself, with over 12,000 deliveries in June, makes up almost two-thirds of the total sales figures, proving its importance to the range even before the Tai 7 arrives.
Zeekr’s somewhat meandering year continued in June, with a 12 percent month-on-month dip in deliveries to 16,702 units.
Long-term the picture isn’t any prettier, this June down 17 percent on last year, way below the market performance despite the introduction of a bunch of cars in key areas, such as the 7X and 007GT.
Zeekr’s financing offer continues to be 2 years 0%, then three years at 1.99%, so perhaps a 5-year 0% offer is necessary.
Denza, even with roughly the same numbers as last month, climbed above Lynk & Co, 15,783 units a tiny 0.1 percent drop on last month, and a 29 percent improvement on last year.
Several new models have hit the market for Denza in that time while all have been refreshed, so this pretty much looks like their ballpark until other models like the Z Coupe join the fleet.
Lynk & Co, much like Geely Galaxy and Zeekr, were down more than 10 percent in June, an interesting symmetry within one family.
Total deliveries of 15,443 units are at least an improvement on last year, though we don’t have an accurate number for just how much, but they’ll want to turn this figure around next month and perhaps offer better incentives.
NIO sales were up a healthy ten percent in June, no doubt spurred on by updates to the best-selling ET5 and ES6 families, but a long term decline remains an issue.
14,593 deliveries marks a 31 percent decline on last June, an ongoing trend, and with the new Xiaomi YU7 looming on the horizon and no letting up from other premium rivals, things aren’t going to get any easier.
iCar had a stellar return to form in June, racking up their best month of deliveries ever with 10,868 units, an 84 percent improvement last month.
The brand had only once, in the peak of December, hit the 10k mark, so achieving it in midsummer is a positive sign for the brand, and a 159 percent improvement year-on-year will be equally well received in Wuhu.
Arcfox were another brand with a heavy drop in June, 10,352 units being a full 23 percent drop on last month.
Year-on-year, things are somewhat rosier, with growth of 65 percent, but they’ll be hoping their new models, the S3 and T1, join the range soon and make an impression.
Wey had a month to remember, their summer starting off with 10,197 deliveries, a sizeable 66 percent improvement on May and an even greater 247 percent improvement on last year.
It’s not entirely clear what was behind the sudden growth but Wey won’t mind that, the brand having its best month of the year so far and for a long time, breaking through the 10,000 unit barrier. Let’s see if they can maintain this pace in July.
AVATR had a disappointing start to summer, losing 20 percent of their sales compared to May, with 10,153 units delivered.
With no obvious reason for the drop, there might be concern that market rivals are discounting more effectively, so expect potential discounts in July, from AVATR and many others.
Year-on-year, sales are still more than doubled, 117 percent higher than June last year, so things are moving in the right direction but they need to keep their numbers above 10,000.
Voyah’s fourth consecutive month achieving just over 10,000 deliveries, a somewhat suspicious pattern, but 10,053 deliveries is at least consistent growth, it’s just tiny growth of 0.3% on last month.
Long term, numbers are up 83% so they’ll be hanging onto that number for now, but they very much seem stuck at the 10k ceiling at the moment and need to find some extra energy somewhere.
Onvo sales, like sister brand NIO, we’re up in June but not by much, 6,400 units a very modest two percent improvement on June.
The new L90 large SUV hits the market later in July and they’ll be hoping it makes an outsize impact on sales, but the competition is only getting more intense in that sector so it won’t be easy.
IM didn’t report total deliveries last month, electing only to state the sales of the updated L6, but they returned to our chart this month with 6,027 units on the board.
With no May figures, we can only say that this is an improvement of 38 percent over their April numbers, but year-on-year they’re stagnant in a market that continues to grow.
That has to be a concern for the brand who will be hoping sales in international markets speed things up, and perhaps that their updates to models like the LS7 can bear fruit.
firefly had a gentle start to sales in China in May and things continued in that vein in July, 3,932 deliveries marking a seven percent improvement over last month.
These numbers might be the reason firefly has pulled forward its offer of the BaaS battery rental on the firefly by five weeks, before compatible swap stations are on stream.
International sales might be what gives the brand a bigger shot in the arm but they’re a couple of months off yet, so we’ll be watching closely for any gains in July spurred on by the BaaS package.
Ora, like GWM stablemate Wey, had a bumper June (for them), with 3,283 deliveries a 67 percent increase on the month prior, an eerily similar growth percentage to Wey.
Year-on-year, however, things still aren’t great, with a 33 percent decline on last year’s performance. 3,283 sales certainly isn’t really enough to sustain a brand, but a 67 percent improvement is at least a start, inspired by the update of the Ora Funky Cat.
Things go from bad to worse at Luxeed, a total capitulation in sales hitting a new low at 2,459 units in June, a 51 percent drop on last month, and less than a quarter of January’s deliveries.
Heads have to be rolling at Luxeed and certainly the brand has tried to stop the rot by discounting its cars by another RMB 20,000 until the end of July, but this kind of decline feels like there’s something fundamentally wrong.
ROX continue to make very steady progress, delivery numbers up just 23 units in June to 1,259, a moderate two percent gain.
They have doubled their figures over January, but they’re still nowhere near being profitable at these numbers, so they need to work on promotion and new models quickly in order to get towards safer ground.
Yangwang were looking for a boost from the new U7 saloon and they got it, albeit maybe not in the numbers they were expecting.
132 of the 205 units delivered in June were of the new model, helping Yangwang to a 47 percent increase in sales over May, however that number remains 51 percent down on June last year, so there appears to be some buyer apathy to BYD’s luxury brand.
We’ll have to wait and see whether the U7 starts to ramp things up a bit more in July.
Summary
On the face of it, June’s chart shows a lot of red, suggesting the wider Chinese market suffered in June for one reason or another.
The vast majority of these drops weren’t particularly large, but on the whole, comparing the brands in our list, the total number of deliveries did drop by around 4,000 units, a drop of less than one percent.
That means that the bulk of the fluctuations are between brands, enabling us to summarise that Leapmotor, Qiyuan, Deepal, XPeng, Fangchengbao, and to some extent NIO, are the brands with real momentum right now.
On the flip side, brands that are stagnant include Li Auto, Zeekr, GAC AION, Onvo, and IM, each of them either in a general sales decline or unable to challenge an apparent ceiling on their sales.
There’s certainly a bunch of executives right now who will be concerned about the current progress, or lack of, of their brands, and frantically working out ways to improve things without drastically attacking their bottom line further or upsetting the government who have stated the need for the industry to manage the aggressiveness of the price cuts.
