Nio and Xpeng continue to grow

Nio and Xpeng are among the most promising new entrants for the European market in 2022, which, however, requires solid business in the Chinese home market. Currently, both brands are on track: XPeng was able to achieve its monthly delivery target in November 2021 with 15,613 deliveries – a 270% increase compared to the previous year. This included 7,839 P7, 5,546 G3, and 2,154 P5. Interestingly, it is the expensive P7 sedan that has become the top seller. As of November 30, 2021, Xpeng had delivered a total of 82,155 cars, a 285% increase compared to the previous year, with 53,110 of those being the P7 alone.

The large SUV G9, which was designed from the start for export, is expected to further boost sales in 2022. First deliveries are expected in the third quarter of 2022.

In addition, Xpeng is expanding its own charging network in line with Tesla: Another 550 brand-specific charging stations are said to have been put into operation. XPeng customers can now take advantage of a network of 1,734 charging stations across China offering (temporarily) free supercharging and fast-charging services.

Nio is not growing quite as vigorously – nevertheless, it was able to increase by 105.6% compared to the previous year: In November 2021, it delivered 10,878 vehicles. Thus, it was able to significantly increase again after October was somewhat weaker because Nio reduced volume to upgrade production lines and restructure internally. The company is increasingly moving away from the once-planned contract manufacturing with other manufacturers. For Nio, the ES6 remained the top seller with 4,713 units, followed by its coupe version EC6 with 3,482 units. The slightly refreshed ES8 reached 2,683 units. Overall, Nio claims to have delivered 80,940 vehicles in 2021 so far, a 120.4% increase compared to the previous year. In total, Nio has delivered 156,581 vehicles since the beginning of its operations up to November 30, 2021.

Nio also plans to supply European markets in 2022. The program is also expected to be supplemented by the ET7 sedan.

What does this mean?

In the meantime, many start-ups that were once launched so hopefully have fallen into major financial difficulties – even in China. Nevertheless, Nio and even more so Xpeng are currently making good progress and are expected to advance into six-figure output ranges annually from 2022 onwards. This is accompanied by a market launch in Europe: Norway is set for both, but soon after that, they also want to serve other EU markets. The exciting question remains when they will enter the German premium fleet business.