NIO ES6. Source: Flickr Image.
This article keeps track of battery electric vehicle deliveries for Nio, Xpeng, Li Auto and Tesla on a quarterly and TTM basis.
Nio is one of the biggest Chinese EV startups by market cap. The company is founded in November 2014 in China and is traded on the NYSE with a ticker NIO.
However, NIO’s stock is an ADS or American Depository Shares and 1 ADS is equivalent to 1 common stock but shareholders of ADS cannot vote.
Nio designs, and develops, and jointly manufactures what it calls smart electric vehicles.
It’s having the same business model as Tesla in which the company sells its vehicles directly to customers.
The major difference between Nio and Tesla is that Nio’s vehicles are designed to have swappable batteries whereas Tesla isn’t.
Some of Nio’s flagship vehicles include the ES8, a 7-seater flagship premium smart electric SUV launched in Dec 2017, and is a direct competition to Tesla’s Model Y.
Aside from the ES8, Nio also has launched several other newer SUV models such as the ES6, a 5-seater high-performance premium smart electric SUV and the EC6, a 5-seater premium smart electric coupe SUV.
Nio also has the ET7, a flagship premium smart electric sedan.
Launched in Jan 2021, the ET7 is a direct competition to Tesla’s Model 3.
Similarly, Xpeng is another battery electric vehicle startup from China and is traded on the NYSE with the ticker XPEV.
XPEV is also a form of ADS but each ADS represents 2 Class-A ordinary shares.
All told, let’s start with the following topics which depict and compare the delivery figures of Tesla, Nio, Xpeng and Li Auto.
Tesla, Nio, Xpeng And Li Auto Vehicle Delivery Topics
1. Vehicle Deliveries (Quarterly And With Tesla)
2. Vehicle Deliveries (Quarterly And Without Tesla)
3. Vehicle Deliveries (TTM And With Tesla)
4. Vehicle Deliveries (TTM And Without Tesla)
5. Average Sales Price Per Vehicle
6. Latest Market Valuation Per Vehicle
7. Historical Market Valuation Per Vehicle
8. Conclusion
Electric Vehicle Deliveries (Quarterly And With Tesla)
Vehicle delivery with Tesla (quarterly)
On a quarterly basis, Tesla’s EV delivery has always been at the top as shown in the chart above.
Moreover, Tesla also has been leading the EV delivery race by a very large margin compared to Nio, Xpeng and Li Auto.
That said, Tesla delivered 405,000 vehicles in fiscal 4Q 2022 and total delivery for fiscal 2022 clocked 1.3 million vehicles, up 40% from 2021.
On the other hand, Nio delivered 40,000 vehicles in fiscal 4Q 2022, only about 1/10th of what Tesla sold in the same quarter.
Xpeng’s vehicle deliveries in Q4 2022 were significantly below expectations.
That said, Xpeng delivered only 22,000 vehicles, down 47% year-over-year.
Li Auto’s vehicle deliveries exceeded expectations, up 31% to 46,000 units, the highest compared to Nio and Xpeng.
Nio’s quarterly vehicle delivery in 2022 has been driven by strong sales of the ES8, ES6 and EC6 models.
In Nio’s case, SUVs have so far dominated its vehicle sales as the ET7, a newly launched smart electric sedan has only been delivered in March 2022.
On the flipped side, XPeng’s vehicle sales consisted primarily of the delivery of P7, its super-long-range smart sedan.
Similarly, Li Auto has several models under its lineup and there are L8, L7 and Li One.
Despite the emergence of powerful Chinese EV companies, Tesla was still leading the electric vehicle race as of 2022.
Electric Vehicle Deliveries (Quarterly And Without Tesla)
Vehicle delivery without Tesla (quarterly)
Without Tesla in the chart, we can see a much clearer picture of Nio, Xpeng and Li Auto’s vehicle deliveries.
Accordingly, both Nio and Li Auto’s vehicle deliveries surged dramatically in fiscal 2022, especially in the 4th quarter.
On the other hand, Xpeng’s vehicle deliveries were down significantly in Q4 2022 to only 22,000 units, a decline of 47% year-over-year.
In the same quarter, Li Auto delivered 46,000 vehicles, far ahead of Nio’s and Xpeng’s figures.
Over the last 3 years, all Chinese EV companies, including Nio, Xpeng and Li Auto have experienced tremendous growth in EV sales.
In particular, Li Auto has seen its EV sales skyrocket since fiscal 2020 and vehicle deliveries were at record highs in fiscal 2022.
To meet the surging demand for electric vehicles, Nio, Xpeng and Li Auto have been racing to ramp up their production and build new factories.
For example, Xpeng is currently building a new manufacturing base in Wuhan, China which will have an annual capacity of 100,000 vehicles.
Similarly, Nio also has kicked off the planning and building of a new plant in Xinqiao Industrial Park in Hefei, China.
In short, electric vehicles are slowly becoming mainstream not only in China but also globally with the emergence of Chinese EV automakers.
Electric Vehicle Deliveries (TTM And With Tesla)
Vehicle delivery with Tesla (TTM)
The quarterly plot may not clearly show the trends of Nio, Xpeng, Li Auto, and Tesla’s vehicle deliveries.
Therefore, a TTM or trailing 12-month plot is created above to smooth out the quarterly plot and provide readers with a much clearer picture of Nio, Xpeng and Tesla’s car sales.
As shown in the chart, Tesla is a force to be reckoned with when it comes to the sales of battery electric vehicles.
As of 4Q 2022, Tesla’s TTM car sales totaled a massive 1.3 million units and were 40% higher than the number from a year ago.
Additionally, Tesla’s vehicle sales figures have been way ahead of that of Nio, Xpeng and Li Auto as seen in the chart above.
While still lagging, Nio, Xpeng and Li Auto’s TTM car deliveries have all exceeded the 100,000 units milestone as of fiscal 2022 4Q and are closing in on the 200,000 threshold.
From a comparison perspective, Nio, Xpeng and Li Auto’s EV deliveries were only about 1/10th of what Tesla has sold as of fiscal Q4 2022.
In short, Tesla is leading the EV race and is significantly far ahead of all Chinese EV companies in terms of vehicle sales volume.
Electric Vehicle Deliveries (TTM And Without Tesla)
Vehicle delivery without Tesla (TTM)
Without Tesla in the chart, we can see a much clearer picture of Nio, Xpeng and Li Auto’s TTM electric car sales figures.
As of 4Q 2022, Nio’s EV sales reached around 122,000 units on a TTM basis whereas Xpeng’s figure topped 121,000 units, slightly behind that of Nio.
In the same fiscal period, Li Auto delivered 133,000 EVs on a TTM basis, slightly ahead of Xpeng and Nio.
According to the chart, you can see that Nio and Xpeng used to be the leaders in terms of EV sales.
However, Li Auto has managed to catch up since the 2nd half of fiscal 2022 and has outsold both Nio and Xpeng by the end of 2022.
Nevertheless, Nio, Xpeng and Li Auto have seen their EV deliveries reaching record highs despite the COVID-19 headwind and the microchip crisis which have been negatively impacting all sorts of things.
In short, Chinese EV automakers are formidable companies and their competitive advantages should not be underestimated.
Average Sales Price Per Vehicle
Average sales price per vehicle
The sales price per vehicle chart above is a quick way to figure out which electric vehicle maker has the lowest sales price per vehicle.
Keep in mind that whichever EV company can afford to sell at the cheapest price points may lead the EV race by capturing a larger share of the electric vehicle market.
The comparison of the sales price per vehicle among Tesla and Chinese companies is valid to some extent given the same business model and the same accounting standard that these companies are using.
According to the chart, Nio’s average sales price per vehicle was at the highest at $57,000 USD per vehicle reported as of fiscal 3Q 2022.
Tesla came in 2nd at $53,000 USD per vehicle as of fiscal 3Q 2022.
Xpeng has the lowest average sales price per vehicle at only $31,000 USD per vehicle.
Li Auto’s average sales price per vehicle hovers around $46,000 USD as of 3Q 2022, which is considerably lower than that of Nio and Tesla.
While Nio’s sales price per vehicle has been on a decline since 2019, it went up again in 2020 and the surge continued into 2022.
As a result, Nio’s average sales price per vehicle sold was the highest as of 3Q 2022 at $57,000 USD.
Similarly, Tesla’s sales price per vehicle also has been on a decline but went up again in 2022, possibly driven by the rising cost of raw materials and labor.
Therefore, Tesla’s average revenue per vehicle delivered was only trailing that of Nio and was considerably higher than that of Li Auto and Xpeng.
Due to the low price point per vehicle sold, Xpeng’s vehicle delivery volume surged between 2021 and 2022 and managed to exceed that of Nio and Li Auto in the 1st half of 2022.
Despite the surging volume, Xpeng’s gross margin suffered and was considerably lower than that of other EV companies according to these statistics: Xpeng’s gross margin compared to Nio, Li Auto And Tesla.
Market Valuation Per Vehicle Delivered
| As Of Jan 2023 | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Market Cap($ Millions) | TTM Vehicles Delivered | Market Cap Per Vehicle Delivered ($ Thousands) | |
| EV Makers | |||
| Nio | $16,000 | 122,486 | $131 |
| Xpeng | $8,720 | 120,757 | $72 |
| Li Auto | $20,470 | 133,246 | $154 |
| Tesla | $341,000 | 1,313,851 | $260 |
The chart above shows the comparison of the market capitalization of Tesla and Chinese EV companies per vehicle sold.
According to the chart, Tesla’s market valuation per vehicle sold was the highest among the EV companies at roughly $260,000.
On the other hand, each vehicle sold contributed only $72,000 of market cap to Xpeng, the lowest among all the EV makers in the chart.
Both Li Auto and Nio were valued at nearly the same market valuations per vehicle delivered, totaling $154,000 and $131,000, respectively.
Therefore, Xpeng was having the lowest valuation per vehicle delivered among the EV makers as of January 2023.
Despite the plunge of market valuation, Tesla was still the highest-valued EV company among the EV makers as of January 2023, notably at $260,000 of market cap per car sold and was way ahead of its Chinese competitors.
Historical Market Valuation Per Vehicle Delivered
Historical market valuation per TTM vehicle delivered
On a historical basis, all EV makers’ market valuation per vehicle sold has been on a downtrend since 2021 and reached record lows as of January 2023.
Of all the EV companies, Tesla’s valuation probably plunged the most, coming down from a massive $1.2 million per vehicle sold to slightly above $260,000 in market cap per vehicle sold.
While most EV companies’ market valuations have come down, are the stocks a buy?
Probably as most of the EV companies have been seeing their vehicle sales at record highs while their respective market capitalization has been on a decline.
Therefore, there seems to be a disconnection between the fundamentals and market valuation among all EV companies.
Conclusion
To recap, Tesla has been leading the EV space in terms of vehicle deliveries while its Chinese counterparts are still way behind.
As of fiscal Q4 2022, Nio, Xpeng and Li Auto’s EV deliveries were only about 1/10th of what Tesla has sold on a TTM basis.
Despite the relatively low car sales figure compared to Tesla, Nio, Xpeng and Li Auto’s vehicle delivery growth rates have been on a tear, with year-on-year growth rates clocking in at more than 100% in the last several quarters since fiscal 2020.
In terms of the average sales price per vehicle, both Xpeng and Li Auto have the lowest number at only $31,000 USD and $46,000 USD per vehicle, respectively, compared to $53,000 and $57,000 per vehicle for Tesla and Nio.
Tesla’s market capitalization per vehicle delivered was the highest at roughly $260,000 USD per car sold while its Chinese peers have been seeing their market valuation decline since Aug 2020 and reached record lows as of January 2023.
At the same time, Xpeng was the lowest-valued EV company as of January 2022, topping only $72,000 of market cap per car sold.
References and Credits
1. Financial figures for all companies discussed above were obtained and referenced from their respective financial statements which can be obtained from the following links:
a) TeslaInvestor Relations
b) NIO Investor Relations
c) Xpeng Investor Relations
d) Li Auto Investors Overview
2. Featured images are used under Creative Common Licenses and obtained from NIO ES6 and NIO ES8 interior.
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Disclosure
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