BEIJING, May 2 (TMTPOST)— The booming electric vehicle (EV) market in China faces risks of deceleration as the rapid sales growth of Tesla’s Chinese rivals seriously cooled down in the past month, when the supply chain suffered a lot from restrictions imposed in the country’s major automobile manufacturing hubs.

Source: Visual China

NIO Inc announced to deliver 5,704 vehicles in April, suggesting a 28.6% year-over-year (YoY) decrease. And the delivery fell 42.9% month-over-month (MoM), even worse compared with the previous month when the EV maker saw 62.9% MoM increase and 37.6% YoY increase. Our production and delivery have been impacted by the supply chain volatilities and other constraints caused by a new wave of the COVID-19 outbreaks in certain regions, the Shanghai-based company explained in the latest statement. It said its production has been recovering gradually and would closely monitor the pandemic development and its impact to its business and financial conditions.  

Li Auto Inc posted significant decline too. Its delivery fell 24.7% YoY to 4,167 Li ONEs last month, less than 38% of the sales volume in March that saw a 125% YoY growth. “The COVID-19 resurgence in the Yangtze Delta region continues to cause severe industry-wide disruptions in supply chain, logistics and production since late March,” noted Li Auto, which founded its manufacturing base right in the region and over 80% of its parts suppliers also land there. We are working with supply chain partners to restore production capacity and seeking to meet all pandemic prevention requirements, according to Yanan Shen, the co-founder and president.

Xpeng Inc., the annual delivery champion among China’s homegrown emerging EV makers last year, managed to maintain positive growth but slowed down materially. It had a monthly delivery of 9,002 EVs with a 75% YoY growth and a 41.6% MoM decrease in April, while delivery in the previous month up 202% YoY and 148% MoM. The company admitted the comprehensive affect to the overall supply chain, manufacturing, and transportation due to the ongoing pandemic.  Its chairman He Xiaopeng  last month warned that all the automakers in China could have to shut down in May, if suppliers in Shanghai or areas around the city still can’t find the dynamic way to reopen or resume their production.

HOZON Auto’s brand Nezha became a rare bright spot as it recorded more than 200% YoY increase in shipment for thirteen consecutive months. It shipped 9,087 units, narrowly ahead of Xpeng’s delivery in April. However, the brand failed to keep robust MoM growth as its delivery dropped more than 24% from a month earlier.