Delivery numbers from China’s New Energy Vehicles (NEV) brands as they are reported.
China’s new energy vehicle (NEV) sales and delivery data is steadily rolling in and as ever, you’ll find all of it in one place here on Inside China Auto.
It was yet another good month for Leapmotor, XPeng, and Xiaomi, with monthly records set by all three, but elsewhere the leaderboard was generally red as most brands saw mostly minor declines in deliveries, with some outsized exceptions.
Let’s dive into the numbers.
No surprise seeing BYD at the top of this table once again, remaining head, shoulders, and torso above the competition with 313,295 sales for the main brand.
It’s not all smooth sailing, however, a monthly drop of seven percent their fourth consecutive decline in a row, and while year-on-year sales are up five percent, that’s still way behind the overall market.
Exports of 80,737 units were also a ten percent drop on last month after consistent gains, but do mean that BYD is comfortably China’ largest exporter of NEVs, but is still some way short of Chery’s total export figure of 119,090 for July.
Geely’s Galaxy range cemented its second place on the podium with 95,043 units delivered in July, one of the rare gains on the table with a five percent improvement over an uncharacteristic decline in June.
Year-on-year growth of 237 percent is nothing to be sniffed at, however, and with more models on the way and new export markets opening up, they should be back over the century mark in short time.
The Wuling and Baojun partnership claims the final podium place as usual, 73,901 units delivered a five percent improvement on last month and, according to SGMW, a near 51 percent improvement on last year.
That feels like a high number since Wuling and Baojun have been pretty comfortably in the podium spots for well over a year, so it goes to show how much they’ve normalised success.
Leapmotor’s rise continues unabated, a new monthly record of 50,129 units delivered, and a new milestone in the process, becoming only the second start-up to achieve over 50,000 units in a single month after Li Auto, a brand they now find in their rearview mirrors.
The monthly growth was modest at just four percent, but the year-on-year figure of 126 percent tells the true story, and with the B01 saloon coming on song and a new large SUV in the pipeline, it seems they’re far from finished yet.
XPeng, too, had their best ever month, 36,717 units delivered a tenth consecutive month over 40,000 units, comfortably lifting them above Li Auto with the G7 and new P7 set to come on stream in the next few weeks.
Again, it was another gentle month-on-month improvement of six percent, but a year-on-year gain of 229 percent shows how far they’ve come since the mire they found themselves in just ten months ago.
Li Auto seem to have found the elevator without an emergency button, and in it the walls are plastered with AITO, Lynk & Co, Denza, Onvo, and Deepal logos, with room for more.
In December the brand could do no wrong, nudging 60,000 units in a single month, but this July they find themselves stumbling over the 30k barrier, left behind by Leapmotor and XPeng and tailed closely by Xiaomi, their decline a direct result of competent rivals discovering that large EREV SUVs are indeed popular.
Their number is down 15 percent on last month, and more importantly, 40 percent on last year, July proving their third worst month of the year so far. They’ll be hoping the new i8 and incoming i6 can turn the ship around, or at least plug the hole in the hull.
Xiaomi were the third brand to hit a new delivery record this month, 30,000-plus units a new milestone as they steadily start to scale up production of the YU7 and take over the keys to the second phase of their factory.
A 20 percent gain on last month is the very least we’d have expected, as is 129 percent year-on-year, but those numbers don’t matter much, as we expect Xiaomi to fairly rapidly cruise towards the 40k and 50k monthly milestones in short time.
Changan brand Qiyuan couldn’t match their heroics of last month, a 26 percent decline in their delivery numbers seeing them drop behind Xiaomi and just above stablemate Deepal, with 28,568 units finding homes.
Nevertheless, that’s a 162 percent gain over last year, and with a new A06 about to launch, there’s plenty to be happy about in Chongqing.
Deepal’s deliveries also fell this month but not quite as dramatically as Qiyuan’s, a nine percent fall still enough to see them overtake GAC AION this month with 27,169 units.
Year-on-year they’re up 62 percent, so not all bad, and large export markets will be opening up soon for the brand which should also help.
GAC AION seem to be in the same elevator as Li Auto with deliveries cruising in the wrong direction for the Guangzhou-based brands, down this month to 26,557 units, their third worst month of the year.
That’s a five percent fall on last month, and 25 percent fall on last year, in a market that is still growing, steadily, so the brand needs to find its mojo, or step up the export market rollout quickly.
Lynk & Co jumped ahead of parent brand Zeekr for only the second time this year with 18,104 NEV units finding customers in July, a solid 17 percent gain on last month and 20 percent gain on last year.
More importantly for the brand, NEV vehicles now make up 67 percent of their total sales, with more new models like the 10 EM-P on the way this month.
Zeekr had a steady month in July, 16,977 units a two percent improvement on last month and eight percent improvement on last year.
While it’s good news for now, it still feels like they should be doing more with the range at their disposal, but with the brand now having to do more to distinguish itself from Lynk & Co, i.e. becoming a more expensive, luxury-focused company, we might have to accept that they’ll be in a transition period for a while.
Fangchengbao sales took a beating this month after a standout June, falling 25 percent to just 14,180 units in July.
Though we don’t have the exact data, they’re still comfortably above last year’s performance and with the Tai 7 heading to market fairly soon too, they’re likely to extend their lead over stablemate Denza.
NIO sales appear to be regressing back towards the 10k unit mark at an uncomfortable rate, July sales of 12,675 units a 13 percent drop on last month and, similar to Li Auto, a 38 percent drop on last year.
After the highs of April, with over 19,000 units delivered, they’re near enough back where they started, which would be fine perhaps if Onvo deliveries were taking the lead.
They’re not, and far from it, but hype around the L90 has been strong so perhaps a better month is coming for the group in August, though not necessarily for the main brand, who are now coming under pressure from within the house.
Voyah’s run of suspiciously ‘just over 10k’ delivery months is finally over, the brand coming within a single unit of equalling their best-ever month with 12,135 units in July.
That’s a 21 percent jump on last month and a 102 percent jump on last year, perhaps in part thanks to the launch of the FREE+ with Huawei tech inside. Let’s see if the high lasts in August.
Denza had a poor month in July, down 28 percent with just 11,375 units finding homes.
It’s an unusually harsh drop for a brand that’s generally been on the rise, their figure ten percent up on last year, so it could just be a blip as several brands have had this year, but we’ll keep an eye on this one.
AVATR once again cleared the 10k barrier in July with 10,062 units delivered, near enough matching last month’s performance, but it does very much feel like 10k is their level at the moment.
With deliveries up 178 percent year-on-year it was still a good performance overall, but with a new factory capable of producing a car a minute jut about up and running, they’re going to need to go some to fill its capacity anytime soon.
Wey were another to scrape over the 10k mark with 10,045 units, a fractional drop on last month but still their second best month ever.
The year-on-year story of 310 percent growth is what they’ll point to and want to build upon as they too seek to leave the 10k mark behind for good.
July was a middling month for Arcfox who dipped back underneath the magic 10k with 9,436 deliveries, a nine percent drop on last month.
They’re 18 percent up year-on-year, so still within the boundaries of an acceptable year, but they’ll be hoping the T1 arrives with a bang to clear 10k for the remainder of the year.
IM took another step forward in July and, without getting ahead of ourselves, perhaps we’re starting to see signs of recovery from the SAIC and Alibaba collaboration.
7,027 units delivered in July was a 17 percent improvement for both the month-on-month and year-on-year figures, a rare double-green performance from IM, so fingers crossed things continue in this vein as exports start to begin in markets like Australia and the UK.
iCar came back down to earth in July, a massive 40 percent drop in sales seeing them once again fall deep into the sub-10k category with just 6,566 units delivered.
It’s not all bad news because they’re still up 56 percent year-on-year, but with the V27 just launched in Dubai and the V23 S set to significantly boost the performance of the standard V23, they might just be finding out what their customers want.
Onvo, like parent company NIO, fell in July after pretty steady growth throughout the year, 5,976 deliveries a seven percent fall on last month.
With the launch of the L90, and seemingly some pretty big queues at delivery centres, this might prove to be just a fly in the ointment on the way to pursuing the parent company’s figures, but we’ll see how long the initial wave of optimism lasts after what should be a good August.
Ora had their best month of the year in July, closing in on their December performance with 4,300 units being delivered, a 31 percent gain on last month and seven percent improvement on last year.
It’s still not really in the ballpark of what they need to be doing, but after hitting some pretty low lows this year, any step in the right direction should be welcomed.
firefly had the worst full month of their existence in July, taking a gut punch on deliveries which were down 40 percent to just 2,366 units in July.
Despite anecdotal evidence from the author that fireflies have been seen all over China now, even in small cities, that just doesn’t seem to be portrayed in the numbers.
European sales aren’t too far away, so maybe things will pick up in the markets NIO is more specifically targeting.
ROX had another steady growth month in July 1,316 deliveries being a four percent improvement on last month and their best month of the year, but, as we’ve said many times now, it’s not even close to an amount that can sustain a company, so they need to step things up.
Finally, Yangwang bring up the rear, but they also bring up their sales, with 339 units sold in July making it their best month of the year.
Likely in large part thanks to the launch of the U7, their performance is a 40 percent improvement on last month, and perhaps finally a return to growth for Yangwang after months of decline.
