BEIJING, May 10 (TMTPOST)— Tesla’s Chinese rival Li Auto managed to maintain its triple-digit yearly growth despite the Covid-19 pandemic-related headwinds, including persistent supply chain woes.

Source: Visual China

During the first quarter of the year ended March 31, Li Auto posted the revenue of RMB9.56 billion (US$1.51 billion) with a 167.5% year-over-year (YoY) increase, beating the Wall Street expectation of RMB9.467 billion. The Beijing-based electric vehicle (EV) maker had more than 100% YoY growth in revenue for second consecutive month, and its vehicle sales also more than doubled to RMB9.31 billion (US$1.47 billion), representing an increase of 168.7%, though both total revenue and the sales from vehicle declined about 10% from the previous quarter. The net loss for the first quarter was RMB10.9 million (US$1.7 million), compared with RMB360.0 million net loss in the same period last year and RMB295.5 million net income in the fourth quarter of the year.

Li Auto’s delivery in the first quarter increased 152.1% YoY to 31,716 Li ONEs, its only production model, while it just delivered 4,167 vehicles last month with a 24.7% YoY fall, 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,” the company, which founded its manufacturing base right in the region and over 80% of its parts suppliers also land there, noted in a statement in the beginning of this month.

When releasing the quarterly financial results on Tuesday, Li Auto admitted the recent pandemic development and associated supply chain interruptions have been challenging for EV industry, and uncertainty remains for the near future, but it said it is confident in its resilience of the organization. “Despite recent pandemic-related bumps on the road, we are forging ahead with our plan to commence the deliveries of our second model, the L9, in the third quarter,” Li Xiang, the founder and CEO said.

Li Auto expected deliveries for the second quarter to be between 21,000 and 24,000 units, representing a YoY increase of 19.5% to 36.6%, and quarterly revenues to be between RMB6.16 billion (US$972.3 million) and RMB7.04 billion (US$1.11 billion), representing an increase of 22.3% to 39.8%. The forecasts, which show a significant slowdown from the first quarter,are made on the pandemic in the Yangtze Delta region was somehow ease at the moment, however, the company still faces very serious difficulties as many suppliers are unable to resume production immediately, the president Shen Yanan said at the earnings call. Shen commented that Li Auto now has enough orders in hands, and the biggest risk for the company is its suppliers’ production.