Japan to lose top spot as EV sales accelerate

Themis Qi

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Chinese electric vehicle makers saw a significant jump in sales last year, as the country’s auto exports are set to exceed Japan’s.

BYD (1211), dominating the domestic market, sold 341,043 new energy vehicles last month, a 45 percent rise year on year, which led to full-year sales of 3.02 million units, up by 62.3 percent yearly.

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Li Auto (2015) met all 2023 goals by delivering 376,000 units last year and 50,353 last month, up by 182 percent and 137 percent respectively from one year ago, founder and chief executive Li Xiang said.

For this year, the company is setting itself the challenge of hitting 800,000 EV sales, 113 percent higher than the performance in 2023, according to Li on social media.

With Li Auto’s strong sales, the company saw its shares in Hong Kong soar 91.5 percent last year, the largest growth among blue-chip members, versus the overall market’s fall of nearly 14 percent.

Li Auto’s ambitious target comes as it leads three rising stars, among which are Nio (9866) and XPeng (9868), in China’s EV market.

Nio said its full-year deliveries hit 160,038, up by 30.7 percent, after last month’s figures rose 13.9 percent to 18,012.

XPeng’s annual deliveries grew 14 percent yearly to 141,601, after reaching a new monthly record of 20,115 last month.

Zeekr under Geely Automobile (0175) reported December sales of 13,476 units, climbing 18.9 percent yearly, and the full-year number jumped 65 percent to 118,685 vehicles.

Great Wall Motor (2333) said its EV sales jumped 98.4 percent last year to 261,500 units.

Huawei’s AITO delivered 24,468 units last month, up by nearly 30 percent month on month, bringing the whole-year results to 94,380 vehicles.

Zhejiang Leapmotor Technology (9863) delivered 144,155 units in 2023, up by 29 percent, after its December figures surged 119 percent year on year to 18,618.

Meanwhile, China is estimated to ship 4.41 million vehicles from January to November, a 58 percent jump from one year ago, data from the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers reveals, which is higher than Japan’s 3.99 million vehicles with a growth of 15 percent. It might indicate that China is on track to be the world’s leading automobile exporter.

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