BEIJING, February 1  (TMTPOST)— A number of prominent Chinese electric vehicle (EV) makers posted deliveries at a pace much less than a year earlier, highlighting challenging environment following the national new energy vehicle (NEV) purchase subsidy policy expired at the end of 2022.

Source: Visual China

Aion, a brand owned by the state-owned manufacturer Guangzhou Automobile Group Co., Ltd. (GAC), sold 10,206 vehicles in January, suggesting a year-over-year (YoY) decline of more than 36%. The sales fell around 66% from the previous month, when the brand reported a robust YoY growth of 107%. With annual sales of 271,000 units, Aion became the champion among China’s homegrown emerging EV makers in 2022 and set its annual growth record of 126%.

NIO Inc delivered 8,506 vehicles with YoY decrease of 23% and the delivery volume was 46% less than that in December, when the EV maker shattered monthly record with 15,815 units and 50.8% of yearly growth.  Xpeng Inc’s performance was worse with a monthly delivery of 5,218 units, representing a YoY decline of 60%. The company’s shipment more than halved from the previous month that it just returned to more than 10,000 units with a sequential increase of 94%.

Li Auto is one of the few EV manufacturers which posted a significant growth compared with a year ago. The company shipped 15,141 vehicles with a 23% YoY increase while the volume still fell by 29% from December, when it broke monthly record with delivery of 21,233 units and a 50.7% YoY growth.

As the largest EV manufacturer in China as well as the world by sales in 2022, BYD Co. sold 151,341 vehicles in January, while the 62.44% YoY growth significantly slowed down as it had maintained triple-digit monthly growth in sales in the whole year of 2022. With a 150% yearly increase in December, BYD set new monthly sales record for the tenth straight month and managed to sell more than 200,000 units for four months in a row. Sales in January represented a 36% fall month-over-month.