As the new year commences, China's top electric vehicle manufacturers have been announcing their delivery volume for the final month and entire year of 2022, a challenging period marked by repeated pandemic-induced lockdowns and supply chain shortages.
In order to achieve faster and long-term development, various personnel changes and organizational adjustments have recently taken place at Li Auto and XPeng, two Chinese electric vehicle manufacturers.
Chinese new energy vehicle brand Li Auto has always positioned its car models as suitable for families. In some second-tier cities in China, however, small business owners are also becoming important consumers of Li Auto, and its cars are increasingly being used as company vehicles in this sector.
Chinese electric vehicle maker XPeng sold less than 10,000 units in both October and November, falling behind its rivals. Behind these challenges are reportedly organizational deformities.
The new energy vehicle subsidies issued by the Chinese government for the past 13 years are scheduled to end this year. However, the vast majority of domestic NEV enterprises have not yet achieved profitability, and are still investing in large-scale research and development.
On December 1, a number of Chinese new energy automobile enterprises announced their new vehicle deliveries data for the month of November. Performance varies, but most of achieved year-on-year sales growth.
Li Auto announced on November 27 that due to a supply shortage of core auto parts, vehicles that should have been delivered at the end of November as shown in the firm's mobile app will be postponed until December.
Internal adjustments to the organizational structure of Chinese electric vehicle maker XPeng are nearing an end, and some departments have implemented small-scale layoffs.
On November 1, NETA Auto, Li Auto, NIO, XPeng and other Chinese electric vehicle firms successively announced their delivery data for October. NIO, XPeng and Li Auto have been gradually surpassed by latecomers.
In response to recent reports that an infrared sensor in the rear row ceiling of Li Auto's L8 Pro SUV model has been discontinued, the Chinese new energy auto firm confirmed on the evening of October 27 that this is false information.
Li Xiang, Founder of Chinese EV maker Li Auto, recently commented on the crowded seat arrangement of Geely-backed Zeekr's 009 model, which prompted a response by Victor Yang, senior vice president of Geely and CMO of Zeekr.
Simon Wang, the head of AI algorithms for intelligent driving and the chief scientist for AI at Li Auto, will leave his job in the near future. Wang is mainly responsible for the research and development of AI algorithms for applications such as intelligent driving perception and maps.
A Chinese vehicle owner attested on domestic social media on October 10 that when he was charging his XPeng EV at the company's own facility, he found that a QR code for Li Auto had been posted in the lower left-hand corner of the operation guide.
A group of China's top new energy vehicle makers including NIO, XPeng Motors and Li Auto have all been researching the development of their own automated driving chips.
Niutron, an EV maker established by Li Yinan, the founder of Chinese electric scooter firm Niu Technologies, unveiled its first model called the Niutron NV. One blogger's comparison between the new model and Li Auto's L7 was questioned by Li Auto's founder.
Chinese automaker BYD outsold Tesla by nearly 200,000 vehicles globally in the third quarter of 2022, according to the latest data released by the two companies.
NIO's second sedan ET5 officially started delivery in cities including Shanghai and Suzhou. Aiming at the pure electric, mid-sized luxury vehicle market, the ET5 will compete against products such as the Tesla Model 3 and BMW 3 Series.
Although Tesla has denied the rumor of price reductions, the news has already had a certain impact on the pricing strategy and rhythm of new products released by XPeng Motors and Li Auto.
On September 29, Hesai Technology announced that the monthly delivery of its AT128 has exceeded 10,000 units, making it the world's first lidar manufacturer to accomplish the feat.