By
Godfrey Benjamin
January 2nd, 2024
Li Auto claims to have grabbed 20% of the total market for SUVs in the price range of 300,000 yuan ($43,674) to 500,000 yuan.
Chinese electric carmaker Li Auto registered a massive surge in sales for the last month of March and thus for the entire Q1 2023. During the month of March, Li Auto delivered a total of 20,823 vehicles. This was more than what rival company Xpeng did during the entire first quarter.
Li Auto in Q1 2023
During the first three months of the year, Li Auto delivered a total of 52,584 deliveries. This is a massive 66% jump from the total deliveries in the first quarter of 2022. On the other hand, Xpeng delivered only 18,230 cars during the first quarter of 2023. This is down by a staggering 47% from the same period a year ago.
Li Auto’s vehicles are majorly all SUVs and each comes with a fuel tank in order to charge the battery and extend its driving range. As a result, Li Auto claims to have grabbed 20% of the total market for SUVs in the price range of 300,000 yuan ($43,674) to 500,000 yuan.
Demand for electric cars in China is pretty strong and China is also one of the biggest markets in the world for electric cars. although Tesla has a strong presence in the Chinese market, it receives tough competition from several homegrown companies.
China’s EV Market
In China, Li Auto competes with other EV players like Xpeng and even big brands like Tesla and BYD. Tesla sells its mid-sized SUV, the Model Y, in a price range of 261,900 yuan to 361,900 yuan. It means that Tesla has very competitive pricing in comparison to the SUVs offered by Li Auto.
On Sunday, Tesla said that it made over 422,000 deliveries during the first quarter worldwide. However, Tesla didn’t reveal the breakdown for China, but to get an idea, the country accounts for 20% of overall Tesla’s sales.
Coming to Xpeng, its G9 SUV starts at 309,900 yuan. Similarly, Xpeng’s new P7i sedan starts at 249,900 yuan and could cost an additional 20,000 Yuan if the drivers want to use the company’s assisted driving tech for the cities. However, Xpeng’s assisted driving tech is currently available only to a limited number of cities in China such as Shenzhen, Guangzhou and Shanghai.
But one of the most dominant players in China’s electric car market is BYD, which offers cars at multiple price points. During the first quarter of 2023, BYD sold a total of 264,647 purely battery-powered passenger cars, 80% more than a year ago. During the first quarter, BYD’s hybrid passenger sales doubled from the last year to 283,270.