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Shares of Chinese electric-vehicle makers jumped in Hong Kong as trading resumed after the Lunar New Year holiday, following upbeat January deliveries data.
In Friday morning trade, Li Auto Inc.
HK:2015
rose as much as 14%, XPeng Inc.
HK:9868
added 10% and BYD Co.
HK:1211
gained 6.6%. This represents a slight recovery for the stocks year to date, though Li Auto and BYD were each still down more than 10%, while XPeng has lost more than 25%.
EV stocks have been pressured amid Beijing’s moves to wean the industry off incentives. Some subsidies for EVs were cut by 30% at the beginning of this year, and the overall incentive program will end in 2023, according to a joint ministry notice released at the end of December.
For January, XPeng delivered 12,922 vehicles and Li Auto delivered 12,268 vehicles, both more than doubling from a year earlier, according to data released this week. BYD sold a total of 95,422 vehicles, of which new-energy vehicles more than quadrupled from the year-earlier figure to 93,168.
However, the companies’ deliveries were softer when compared with December. During the month, XPeng and Li Auto delivered 16,000 and 14,087 vehicles, respectively, while BYD sold 93,945 new-energy vehicles.
Citigroup said in a note on Thursday that the market may wait until mid-February for more visibility on car sales after the Lunar New Year holidays, as strong performance in the fourth quarter and January may not necessarily signify a strong year ahead in terms of overall demand.
