Nio expects a slowdown in China EV sales in first half of 2023 - PingWest

Nio expects a slowdown in China EV sales in first half of 2023

Nio expects a slowdown in China EV sales in first half of 2023

December 26, 2022 9:15 pm

Chinese electric vehicle maker NIO expects a slowdown in Chinese electric vehicle sales during the first half of 2023 as demand weakens after Beijing gradually remove EV purchase incentives.

In an interview with Securities Times, Nio chief executive William Li said that the domestic EV companies could face pressure from slowing sales in the upcoming months, and the pressure won’t recover until at least second quarter of 2023.

“China’s phase out of EV purchase subsidies will prompt consumers to place their orders before the end of the year,” Li said.

Brian Gu, President of Xpeng Motors was cautiously optimistic on future impact of subsidies cut, saying that despite low end manufacturers could get hit and subsidies cut does have some impacts on consumer sentiment because the price of the cars would respond to subsidies cut, new rule will benefit the industry in long run.  

“In general, I would say that, apart from a short-term blip, I think it’s actually good for the whole industry because traditionally most of the companies that really take advantage of the subsidies are low-end manufacturers not focused on making the product- they are focused on collecting subsidy from the government. Without that incentive and take that out of equation, the products have to compete on itself.”

Despite sharing his bearish outlook for the short term, Li is confident that Nio’s sales will surpass those of traditional gas car makers like Lexus in 2023, though he admitted that Nio will still be far away from first tiers like BMW, Mercedez, or Audi.  

Annual sales of Lexus, Toyota’s luxury brand, fell 16.5% year-on-year to around 168,600 vehicles as of November, according to figures from the China Passenger Car Association.

In comparison, Nio reported deliveries of 106,671 vehicles from January to November, up 31.8% from a year ago but missing its annual target of 150,000 vehicles.

At its annual event “NIO Day" held on Christmas Eve, Nio unveiled two new models-an ES8 SUV refresh and an EC7 electric coupe

NIO had also demonstrated a 500 kW charging system that can bring its cars' batteries from 10%-80% in just 12 minutes.

Besides ultrafast charging, NIO is working on improvements of its battery swap stations. The new generation can now carry 21 packs and allow for up to 408 battery swaps per day.