NIO, Li Auto deliveries fall in April due to COVID-19 resurgence, but stocks swing higher – MarketWatch
Shares of NIO Inc. and Li Auto Inc. swung to gains Monday, erasing earlier losses suffered after the China-based electric vehicle makers reported sharp drops in April deliveries, with both citing supply chain challenges resulting from a new wave of COVID-19 outbreaks.
It may be no coincidence that the NIO NIO, +4.67% and Li Auto LI, +4.01% releases on Sunday didn’t provide year-ago comparisons of April deliveries — even though their releases usually do — while XPeng Inc. XPEV, +3.25% did provide a comparison as deliveries increased.
Shares of NIO rallied 2.1% in morning trading, erasing an intraday loss of as much as 1.8%, and a premarket loss of as much as 3.0%. Li Auto’s stock was down as much as 1.6% intraday, and as much as 2.8% intraday, before bouncing back to be up 2.5% in morning trading.
XPeng’s stock rose 1.2%, to reverse an earlier intraday loss of 2.2%.
Meanwhile, shares of Tesla Inc. TSLA, +3.70%, which derived 24.8% of its first-quarter revenue and 25.7% of 2021 revenue from China, ticked less than 0.1% lower in morning trading, erasing an earlier loss of 2.6% at their intraday low of $848.03. The decline adds to the 19.2% tumble in April, which was the worst monthly performance since it plunged 21.6% in March 2020.
NIO said on Sunday that it delivered 5,074 vehicles in April, which was 28.6% below what was announced a year ago. The company said its April deliveries included 1,251 ES8s, 1,878 ES6s, 1,252 EC6s and 693 ET7s.
“In late March and April 2022, the Company’s vehicle production and delivery have been impacted by the supply chain volatilities and other constraints caused by a new wave of the COVID-19 outbreaks in certain regions in China,” the company said in a statement. “The vehicle production has been recovering gradually.”
The release comes three weeks after NIO warned of delivery delays, citing production suspensions.
Li Auto said it delivered 4,167 Li ONEs in April, down 24.8% from the 5,539 deliveries announced last year.
The company blamed the COVID-19 resurgence in the Yangtze Delta region for “severe industry-wide disruptions” in supply chain, logistics and production since late March.
Bucking the trend, XPeng said April deliveries rose 75% to 9,002 EVs, with deliveries consisting of 3,714 P7 sports sedans, 3,564 P5 family sedans and 1,724 G3i and G3 compact sport-utility vehicles (SUVs).
“The company has been and is continuing to actively navigate through the COVID situation, which in turn is affecting the overall supply chain, manufacturing and transportation of automobiles in China,” the company said.
On a cumulative basis, NIO said it has delivered 197,912 vehicles as of April 30, which is up 92.5% at the same time last year, while Li Auto’s cumulative deliveries of 159,971 have more than tripled, up 209%.
XPeng said it has delivered 43,563 EVs year to date, up 136% from the same period a year ago.
Year to date, shares of NIO tumbled 46.2, Li Auto dropped28.4% and XPeng plunged 50.5%, while Tesla’s stock has lost 17.6% and the S&P 500 index SPX, +0.57% has shed 13.6%.
