Nio's weak performance may be because it is on the eve of multiple product switches, as it will begin deliveries of the new ET7, new ES6, EC7 in May and will begin deliveries of the new ES8 in June.
Tesla (NASDAQ: TSLA) and Li Auto (NASDAQ: LI) kept sales strong last week, while Nio (NYSE: NIO) was weak, the latest data show.
Li Auto sold 6,300 units in the week of April 10 to April 16, far outpacing China's other new car-making brands, the automaker said in an April 19 post to its WeChat account.
Li Auto didn't say what the sales figure was based on, but it was apparently insurance registrations. Previously, we had access to the data every Tuesday, and Li Auto's practice was to share some of it on Wednesdays.
The main source that provides data on auto insurance registrations in China stopped sharing that data this month, but Li Auto continues to share some of it.
Tesla sold 12,500 units last week, according to the data table shared by Li Auto. Tesla's sales in the previous week were 6,973, according to data previously shared by Li Auto.
Nio sold about 700 units last week, according to the data. The electric vehicle maker sold 1,316 units in the previous week.
Nio's weak performance may be because it is on the eve of multiple product switches. It launched the new ET7 and unveiled the new ES6 on the first day of the Shanghai auto show on April 18, with deliveries both set to begin in May.
In addition to the new ET7 and the new ES6, Nio will also start delivering the EC7 coupe SUV in May and will start delivering the new ES8 in June, according to plans it previously annouced.
Xpeng sold 1,300 units last week, up from 904 units the week before, according to data shared by Li Auto. Xpeng unveiled the new SUV G6 on the first day of the Shanghai auto show on April 18, but pricing information is unknown.
Zeekr sold 1,600 units last week, up from 1,476 the week before. Leapmotor sold 1,700 units last week, up from 1,157 the week before. Neta sold 1,800 units last week, up from 1,526 the week before.
Among premium brands, BMW sold 14,500 cars last week including internal combustion engine vehicles as well as NEVs, Mercedes-Benz 13,400 and Audi 12,600, according to data shared by Li Auto.
Separately, retail sales of NEVs in China from April 1-16 were 223,000 units, up 89 percent year-on-year and up 13 percent from the same period last month, according to data released yesterday by the China Passenger Car Association (CPCA).
Considering that NEV retail sales were 91,000 from April 1 to April 9, this means that during the week of April 10 to April 16, NEV retail sales in China were 132,000 units, up 45 percent from the previous week.
From April 10-16, retail sales of all passenger vehicles in China were 335,328 units, up 80 percent year-on-year and up 23 percent from the same period last month, according to the CPCA.
Insurance registrations for week ending Apr 9: Tesla 6,973, Li Auto 4,177, NIO 1,316
