Electric vehicle investors start 2023 with some good news. Chinese EV makers NIO, Li Auto and XPeng capped a wild year with strong delivery results in December.
The three EV makers combined to deliver 48,340 vehicles, up about 19% year over year and the highest monthly total ever. The previous monthly peak was 41,280 combined units in June 2022.
Li led the way with 21,233 deliveries, up about 51% year over year. Li delivered 46,319 cars in the fourth quarter, up from 26,524 vehicles delivered in the third quarter. For the full year, Li delivered 133,246 units, up from 90,491 in 2021.
NIO $(NIO)$ delivered 15,815 vehicles, also up about 51% year over year. Fourth- quarter deliveries came in at 40,052, up from the third-quarter's 31,607 . For the full year, NIO delivered 122,486 units, up from 91,429 in 2021.
XPeng $(XPEV)$ bounced back from a weak November, but unit sales fell year over year. The company delivered 11,292 units in December, up from November's 5,811, but down from the 16,000 in the final month of 2021.
For the fourth quarter, XPeng delivered 22,204 vehicles, down from 29,570 in the third quarter. For the full year, XPeng delivered 120,757 cars, up from 98,155 delivered in all of 2021.
Overall, the three EV makers delivered more than 376,000 units in 2022, up about 34% from 2021.
2022 was difficult for the auto makers -- and their investors. Persistent supply-chain shortages caused by Covid restrictions slowed production and sales. Li stock finished down about 36% for the year. NIO and XPeng shares dropped roughly 70% and 80%, respectively. The drops wiped out roughly $100 billion in market capitalization.
The December bounce is a big of good news for Tesla $(TSLA)$ investors as well. Year=end sales were expected to rise in China because the government incentive for an EV purchase was set to go away at the start of 2023.
When final numbers for December are available for the industry, EV sales -- both battery and plug in hybrid sales -- probably rose about 100% in 2022. Looking ahead, Citi analyst Jeff Chung projects EV sales will grow another 33%.
China is the world's largest market for new cars and new EVs, making it important for all auto makers, including Tesla.
For 2022, Tesla stock closed down about 65%. The S&P 500 and Nasdaq Composite dropped about 33% and 19%, respectively.