New forces in the automotive industry show strong performance in September: "Li Zero Xiao" sets a new delivery record, NIO delivers over 20,000 vehicles for the 5th consecutive month

With the successive implementation of the national and local "old-for-new" policies, coupled with the booming capital market, this year's "Golden September" car market is in full swing.

On October 1st, new forces in the automotive industry successively announced the delivery situation of the previous month. Among them, Li Auto, Leapmotor, and XPeng all set new delivery records, while NIO Inc. achieved delivery volume exceeding 20,000 vehicles for the fifth consecutive month, with only Nezha Auto still struggling.

Li Auto delivered 53,709 new cars in September, a year-on-year increase of 48.94%, setting a new delivery record; in the third quarter, it delivered 152,831 vehicles, a year-on-year increase of 45.4%, with a total delivery of 341,812 vehicles this year.

As of September 30th, Li Auto's historical cumulative delivery volume reached 975,176 vehicles, and it will welcome the offline production and delivery of the 1 millionth new car in October, marking the first million-vehicle milestone for Chinese new energy vehicle companies. "One million vehicles not only represent sales figures, but also signify that with the accumulation of volume, the intelligence of new energy vehicles, especially the development of intelligent driving technology, will enter a new stage," said Li Xiang, Chairman of Li Auto. Li Auto's R&D investment is driving technological empowerment, "Our products are upgraded via OTA at an average speed of one version per month, and the new Li Auto autonomous driving technology architecture end-to-end +VLM system has started a large-scale testing by thousands of people."

Ranked second, Leapmotor delivered 33,767 new cars in September, a year-on-year increase of 113.72%. While setting a new monthly delivery record for the company, it also achieved delivery volume exceeding 30,000 vehicles for two consecutive months. From January to September, Leapmotor's cumulative deliveries reached 172,861 vehicles, a year-on-year increase of 94.6%.

Leapmotor is currently active in overseas markets. On September 24th, Leapmotor's C10 and T03 were officially launched in Europe, with a global media test drive starting in Milan, Italy, marking Leapmotor's international debut in Europe. On October 14th, the new Leapmotor B series' first model, Leapmotor B10, will be officially unveiled at the 2024 Paris Motor Show, and the B series will also launch multiple models in 2025. According to the plan, Leapmotor International will release at least one new model every year in the next three years, and with the help of Stellantis' distribution channels, it will increase its global sales network to 350 outlets in the fourth quarter.

With the sales contribution of the first model MONA M03 under its second brand MONA, XPeng broke through the 20,000-vehicle mark in monthly deliveries after 8 months, surpassing NIO Inc. XPeng delivered 21,352 new cars in September, a year-on-year increase of 39.46% and a month-on-month increase of 52.12%; from January to September, a total of 98,561 new cars were delivered, a year-on-year increase of 21.02% On August 27th, XPeng MONA M03 was officially listed, achieving a delivery volume of over 10,000 units in the first complete delivery month. According to industry insiders, the daily order volume of M03 may exceed 2,000 units.

"Since the listing of XPeng MONA M03, XPeng will enter a strong product cycle and a period of rapid development." He Xiaopeng, Chairman of XPeng Motors, stated that XPeng Motors plans to launch the first model of the new generation of autonomous driving hardware platform, P7+, in the fourth quarter. "The delivery ramp-up of MONA M03 and P7+ will significantly expand XPeng's market share. XPeng Motors is confident that delivery volumes will increase significantly quarter-on-quarter in the third and fourth quarters of this year, reaching a new high in the fourth quarter."

Similar to XPeng Motors, NIO is also looking forward to a surge in delivery volume brought by new models. In September, NIO delivered 21,181 new vehicles, with a cumulative delivery of 149,281 new vehicles from January to September, a year-on-year increase of 35.72%. Among them, NIO brand delivered 20,349 new vehicles in September, a year-on-year increase of 30.1%, exceeding 20,000 vehicles for 5 consecutive months. In the third quarter of this year, the NIO brand delivered a total of 61,023 new vehicles, setting a new record for single-quarter deliveries.

LeDao brand's first model, L60, started deliveries on September 28th, with a total of 832 units delivered. Although the order volume was not disclosed, according to NIO Chairman Li Bin, LeDao L60 was "sold out" on the day of its release. NIO stated that production and delivery of LeDao brand will accelerate in October. As of now, LeDao has established 125 stores nationwide, covering 57 cities, with plans to add 55 stores in October, reaching 180 stores.

Nezha Auto, which is still in a dormant period, delivered 10,118 new vehicles in September, a year-on-year decrease of 23.41% and a month-on-month decrease of 8.06%, marking two consecutive months of declines.

Also eyeing the overseas market, Nezha Auto entered Brazil on September 30th. Currently, Nezha Auto has opened over 30 distribution stores in the Brazilian market, covering major sales areas in first, second, and third-tier cities. It is expected that the number of stores in Brazil will double by 2025. In the next two years, Nezha Auto plans to expand its global sales network to cover 50 countries and regions, establishing 500 overseas sales and service outlets