Al Root
Demand for electric vehicles in China is wavering. That could make Tesla investors nervous on Thursday.
Deliveries for Chinese EV maker Li Auto (ticker: LI) declined 52% in August from a year earlier. XPeng's $(XPEV)$ report was much better. Still, XPeng deliveries dropped 17% from July.
Li said deliveries last month were 4,571 vs. 9,433 a year earlier. XPeng delivered 9,578 cars in August, compared with 11,524 in July and 7,214 vehicles in August of 2021.
Shares were falling. American depositary shares of Li Auto fell 2% in premarket trading Thursday. XPeng declined 2.3%.
A deliveries report for August from fellow Chinese EV maker NIO ( NIO) also is expected Thursday. NIO stock fell more than 3% in premarket trading.
S&P 500 and Dow Jones Industrial Average futures fell 0.8% and 0.6%, respectively.
Tesla $(TSLA)$ stock might be impacted by Chinese delivery figures too. China is the largest market for new EVs in the world and Tesla generates roughly a quarter of its sales in the country. Tesla stock dropped 2.1% in premarket trading.
Li Auto and XPeng already reported second-quarter numbers and given third-quarter delivery guidance. It's easy to see what August deliveries imply for September. NIO reports second-quarter numbers on Sept. 7.
XPeng expects to deliver about 30,000 vehicles in the third quarter, down from 34,422 delivered in the second quarter. XPeng delivered 11,524 in July. Including the August figure, XPeng needs to deliver about 8,900 vehicles in September to meet guidance. That, of course, would be lower than the August number.
Li Auto expects to deliver about 28,000 vehicles in the third quarter, down from 28,687 delivered in the second quarter. Li delivered 10,422 vehicles in July. Including the August figure, Li needs to do about 13,000 vehicles in September. If Li pulls that off, it would, essentially, be a record for monthly deliveries.
The lower third-quarter deliveries compared with the second quarter were being blamed by management teams on seasonality -- July and August are slow months -- and lingering demand issues from Covid lockdowns.
That raises the importance of numbers from coming months. Citigroup analyst Jeff Chung wrote recently that he believes September sales need to show sequential improvement for the stocks to work into year-end.
Li guidance indicates demand will improve. XPeng guidance doesn't. The conflict will keep investors nervous in coming weeks.
Chung rates all three stocks Buy.
Coming into Thursday trading, NIO shares have fallen about 38% this year. Li and XPeng shares are have declined about 10% and 63%, respectively. The S&P 500 and Nasdaq Composite have dropped 17% and 24%, respectively.
Rising interest rates have taken some of the steam out of growth stocks such as these three. Rising tensions between U.S. and Chinese officials haven't helped either.
Write to Al Root at allen.root@dowjones.com
$(END)$ Dow Jones Newswires
September 01, 2022 05:33 ET (09:33 GMT)
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