Earnings

The sharp decline in gross margin was due to a huge hit of $803 million from inventory provisioning and loss of purchase commitments related to the accelerated phase-out of Li ONE.

Li Auto's fourth-quarter delivery guidance of 45,000 to 48,000 vehicles means it expects to deliver 19,914 to 22,914 vehicles in December.

"We expect a somewhat messy quarter due to accelerated phase-out of the Li ONE materially hurting margins," Deutsche Bank analyst Edison Yu's team said.

Xpeng management expects November deliveries to be no less than 5,800 units, hinting that December deliveries are expected to rebound to around 10,000 units.

Xpeng delivered better-than-expected third-quarter operating results, accompanied by a slightly better-than-feared outlook.

Xpeng expects fourth-quarter deliveries of 20,000 to 21,000 units, possibly suggesting that its December deliveries are expected to rebound to around 10,000 units.

Previously released data has shown that Li Auto delivered 26,524 vehicles in the third quarter, below the guidance range of 27,000 to 29,000 vehicles.

The key to Xpeng regaining relevance is winning back demand, and that could take several quarters, creating significant uncertainty heading into 2023.

In the third quarter, Leapmotor reported revenue of RMB 4.29 billion, up 398.5 percent year-on-year.

Nio 5 new product offerings in 1H 2023 will be golden & life-threatening to numerous competitors with barely a competitive premium luxury product in sight.