A new month brings fresh EV delivery data for investors to digest. After the month that Tesla shares have just had, investors are expecting solid numbers from fellow electric vehicles.
Chinese EV makers NIO (ticker: NIO ), XPeng (XPEV) and Li Auto (LI) typically report EV sales on the first day of a new month. Wall Street expects the trio to report April deliveries of about 43,000 units combined, based on FactSet data, compared with just over 38,000 units in March.
Monthly deliveries have been increasing after peaking in December 2022 at 48,000 units. Some incentives for the purchase of electric vehicles in China ended in December, contributing to the decline earlier this year.
In total, nearly one million battery electric vehicles were sold in China in the first three months of 2022, according to data from Citigroup. That’s down from the nearly 1.5 million delivered in the fourth quarter of 2022, but up about 12% compared to last year’s quarter.
Citi analyst Jeff Chung expects electric battery sales to improve in the coming quarters, with full-year sales up 20% to 30%. China is the world’s largest market for new cars and new electric vehicles.
Analysts expect NIO to have delivered 12,000 to 14,000 units in April, compared with 10,378 units delivered in May. NIO delivered 5,074 units in April 2022. Deliveries a year ago were affected by the Covid-19 lockdown and parts shortages.
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NIO is a high-end electric vehicle vendor in China and its numbers are in-demand reading in this market segment.
Li Auto is expected to report deliveries of around 22,000 units, compared to nearly 21,000 units delivered in March and 4,167 delivered in April 2022.
XPeng deliveries in April should be around 7,000 units, flat with March deliveries and below the 9,002 units delivered in April 2022.
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XPeng’s monthly shipments peaked at 16,000 units in December 2021. The company has been working to introduce new models to help boost sales.
An in-line number for all three would be a small positive for Tesla ( TSLA ) stock. Investors are getting Chinese delivery numbers for Tesla at the end of the month from industry data providers. Tesla does not report monthly or regional delivery figures.
Tesla delivered about 77,000 vehicles in China in March, compared to about 66,000 delivered in March 2022. Tesla delivered only 1,500 units in China in April 2022 due to the Covid-19 lockdown. Tesla serves both the European and Chinese markets from its manufacturing plant in Shanghai.
Tesla shares fell more than 20% in April after more vehicle price cuts raised questions about demand for electric vehicles and after Tesla reported weaker-than-expected first-quarter profit margins was expected on April 19.
So far this year, Tesla shares have performed well, up 33%, while the
S&P 500
i
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Nasdaq Composite
have increased by 8% and 17%, respectively.
NIO shares and XPeng shares are down about 19% and 4% year to date, respectively. Li’s shares are up about 15% year to date in 2023.
Write to Al Root at allen.root@dowjones.com
