A Li Xiang One hybrid SUV will be on display during the 18th Guangzhou International Automobile Exhibition at the China Import and Export Trade Fair on November 23, 2020 in China.
Li Zhihao | Visual China Group | Getty Images
BEIJING – As 2021 begins, a slide in January deliveries places Chinese carmaker Li Auto in third place behind its initial competitors Nio and Xpeng.
Li Auto, listed on the Nasdaq, said Monday afternoon, Eastern Time, that it delivered 5,379 Li One SUVs in January. It has dropped from 6,126 in December and below Nio’s 7,225 and Xpeng’s 6,015 deliveries for January.
Li Auto also announced that it will install a new research and development center in Shanghai for autonomous driving and other electric vehicle-related technologies.
Shares of Li Auto fell more among its peers in U.S. trade on Tuesday, 5.7% less than losses of 4.6% for Xpeng and 2.1% for Nio. Shares of Tesla rose 3.9%.
Competition for high-end electric SUVs increased in January with Tesla announcing that it would soon begin delivering the China-made Model Y at a price close to that of Nio and Li Auto cars. Tesla delivered 180,570 electric cars worldwide in the last three months of 2020 alone.
The Li One SUV is the first and only model of Li Auto to date. It was the best-selling high-end electric SUV in 2020 and even topped the top 10 list of high-end SUVs overall, along with Nio, according to the China Passenger Car Association.
Morgan Stanley analysts said the Li One SUV stands out for its fuel tank that can charge the battery and extend the driving range by 620 kilometers (385 miles) to a total of 800 kilometers.
One of the biggest concerns of Chinese consumers about buying an electric car is whether it will run out of battery too quickly, without a charging station nearby, or with long charging times.
January shipments of 5,379 Li One all-terrain vehicles still quadrupled over the same period a year ago, and cumulative deliveries have surpassed 38,900 since the vehicle’s launch in December 2019, according to Li Auto.
That is, less than half of the more than 82,800 vehicles Nio said he had delivered cumulatively by the end of January. Nio has three SUV models on the market and plans to start delivering a sedan next year.