Despite the persisting coronavirus pandemic that led to shutdowns in China, the Chinese electric car market is still bubbling.
Nezha, an upstart Chinese electric car company, claimed that it delivered more cars than automobile manufacturer Nio did in 2022. Nezha is named after a Chinese mythology character and is another budget-friendly electric car brand focused on compact SUVs. Specifically, the company said its car delivered in 2022 was over X2 to surpass 152,000 vehicles. Out of the delivered cars, the most deliveries were Nezha V, a compact SUV with post-subsidy prices beginning from 83,900 yuan ($12,000).
Indeed, Nezha offers budget-priced electric vehicles compared to Nio. Nio’s largest SUV has more features, including a longer driving range starting from about 400,000 yuan. During the last year, Nio delivered over 122,000 electric vehicles, representing a 34% increase YoY. The deliveries include its premium-priced sedan. Already, the company has stressed that it is focusing on the higher-end segments. It mentioned the plans to roll out a mass-market brand as well. CEO William Li discussed a meeting with its mass-market team in early November. The team expected each model in the segment to sell over 50,000 units monthly. In total, that is about 600,000 cars per model every year.
According to Nezha, the company also exported more than 3,500 cars in 2022. It started a partnership in Thailand that helped it push into Southeast Asia. The company is still looking to partner, as it shows on the English-language website that it seeks partners in Cambodia and the Philippines. This indicates that Nezha is continuously looking to expand across different regions.
Nio also fell behind the US-listed Chinese electric car company in 2022. Li Auto reported that its deliveries for the year pumped 47% to over 133,000 cars. As for Xpeng, the company saw a slower growth of 23% YoY to over 120,000 cars in 2022.
Despite the persisting coronavirus pandemic that led to shutdowns in China, the Chinese electric car market is still bubbling. The Chinese government also supports the development of the domestic EV industry, and each city has preferential policies encouraging their use. The China Passenger Car revealed that more than a quarter of passenger cars sold between January and November 2022 were new energy vehicles. Notably, there is fierce competition among EV manufacturers in the country.
Hongguang Mini boasts of the bestseller spot among new energy passenger cars in China in 2021. At the time, the budget electric car recorded X3 sales of 395,451 YoY.
Ibukun is a crypto/finance writer interested in passing relevant information, using non-complex words to reach all kinds of audience.
Apart from writing, she likes to see movies, cook, and explore restaurants in the city of Lagos, where she resides.
