EV shares fell on Thursday. Li Auto fell over 13%; Nikola fell nearly 7%; Lucid fell nearly 5%; VinFast fell over 4%; Tesla fell over 1%.
Chinese electric-vehicle maker Li Auto posted a slight fall in profit for the third quarter despite higher revenue as lower selling prices weighed on earnings.
The hybrid-vehicle specialist on Thursday said net profit fell 0.3% to 2.81 billion yuan, equivalent to about $395 million. That topped the 2.62 billion yuan consensus estimate of analysts in a Visible Alpha poll.
Revenue for the quarter rose 24% from a year earlier to 42.87 billion yuan, just missing analysts' estimate of 42.99 billion yuan.
Gross margin was 21.5%, down from 22.0% a year ago but up from 19.5% in the second quarter, the company said. Its vehicle margin declined to 20.9% from 21.2% a year earlier but was higher than 18.7% in the second quarter. The company attributed the sequential increase to cost reduction, partially offset by lower average selling prices.
Li Auto's margins were pressured by price cuts to flagship models and a low price tag for the L6, a premium five-seat SUV. The EV maker sold 152,831 vehicles during the period, meeting its delivery guidance.
For the fourth quarter, the company said it expects to deliver between 160,000 and 170,000 vehicles and post revenue of 43.2 billion yuan to 45.9 billion yuan.
The Beijing-based company's American depositary receipts, down more than 22% this year, fell about 6% in premarket trading.
By comparison, EV leader Tesla reported an automotive gross margin of 20.1% for the third quarter.
Li Auto remains among a handful of profitable Chinese EV makers, but it faces intense price competition from rivals including Huawei-backed Seres and XPeng.
It has also joined the race to develop autonomous-driving technology as competition with Chinese automakers heats up.
Tesla's "full self-driving" software, which can drive its EVs in most situations but requires constant human supervision, uses AI and learning tools modeled on the human brain's neural networks. Chinese carmakers are working to train their own AI models and develop similar autonomous-driving technology.
On Thursday, Li Auto Chairman and Chief Executive Li Xiang said its latest autonomous-driving solution has received "overwhelmingly positive" feedback. The EV maker rolled out the new tech on a full scale to more than 320,000 users in October, he said.