China carmakers miss 2023 sales goal as competition intensifies
- Only four of the 13 brands that have disclosed annual sales figures for 2023 have accomplished their targets, led by electric vehicle maker Li Auto
- Nio, Xpeng, and Zhejiang Leapmotor Technology all fell short of their targets for a second straight year
Just a third of Chinese carmakers met their annual sales goal in 2023 as competition in the world’s largest car market heats up.
Only four of the 13 brands that have disclosed annual sales figures accomplished their targets, led by electric vehicle maker Li Auto, which delivered 376,030 vehicles in 2023 – exceeding its original goal of 300,000 by 25 per cent.
BYD met its ambitious 3 million target, selling 3.01 million cars in 2023 – in the process overtaking Tesla as the world’s top-selling EV maker. The Shenzhen-based company’s rise to dominance with a broad line-up across most price points is squeezing some smaller players as it gobbles up a bigger share of the market.
Geely Automobile Holdings Group is so far the only traditional established carmaker to meet its annual target, though its EV brand Zeekr delivered only 85 per cent of its sales goal.
Among the underperformers, Nio, Xpeng, and Zhejiang Leapmotor Technology all fell short of their targets for a second straight year, prompting them to reshuffle executive teams, and, in Nio’s case, trim its workforce. The misses came even as total sales of battery electric vehicles and plug-in hybrids rose 38 per cent last year to 8.88 million units, according to preliminary data released by China’s Passenger Car Association on Wednesday.
