Electric-vehicle deliveries in January from NIO, XPeng $(XPEV)$ and Li Auto $(LI)$ all took big dips from December, but shares of all three companies were rising Wednesday anyway.
NIO delivered 8,506 vehicles in January, down 46% from the 15,815 delivered in December and down 12% from the 9,652 delivered in January 2022. American depositary receipts of NIO were up 1.8% in premarket trading.
S&P 500 and Dow Jones Industrial Average futures were both down about 0.3%.
XPeng delivered 5,218 vehicles this past month, down 54% from the 11,292 delivered in December and down 60% from the 12,922 delivered last year. 2022. XPeng shares gained 3.8% in premarket trading.
Li posted the best month, relatively speaking. It delivered 15,141 vehicles in January, down 29% from the 21,233 delivered in December and up 23% from the 12,268 delivered in January 2022. The stock rose 6.1%.
Altogether, the trio delivered 28,865 vehicles in Janaury, down 40% from the 48,340 delivered in December and down 17% from the 34,842 delivered in January 2022. It's the lowest combined month of deliveries since the 28,645 delivered in May 2022 when significant pandemic restrictions constrained production.
The stocks were doing fine for a couple of reasons. For starters, investors were ready for a dip. Some incentives for EV purchases ended in December creating a rush to buy at year-end. The combined December delivery number was a record.
What's more, the stocks have been badly beaten up. NIO shares are down about 51% over the past year. XPeng shares are off about 70%. Li shares have held up the best, dropping about 9%.
Tesla $(TSLA)$ is the EV leader around the globe and sold about 42,000 vehicles in China in December. Investors can probably expect that number to come down for January. Tesla stock was unchanged in premarket trading Wednesday.
Investors like to see growth, but the incentive declines and strong December were too much to overcome. Investors, however, will be watching to see how sales rebound in coming months.