As COVID-19 continues to surge in China, the government strictly imposed lockdowns. The strict lockdown has resulted in supply chain issues and parts shortages leading to reduced production.
Even though the market has declined from the previous lockdowns, many Chinese automakers bounced back in May. Now that the lockdown has finally lifted, they can return to their usual operations.
Deutsche Bank AG remarked that the better-than-expected growth is promising.
“China EV sales came in better than expected in May as the industry began recovering from the Covid lockdowns,” analyst Edison Yu said via Micromine. “With the resumption of work and production in Shanghai, we expect material improvement in June.”
Yu decreased his full-year China new-energy vehicle sales projection by 300,000 units to 5.2 million. The China Passenger Car Association predicted 5.5 million NEV sales in 2022.
It is also reported that most of the EVs made in China are being exported to Europe. However, this doesn’t mean that Chinese brands are getting more popular there. It indicates that most European and US automakers produce more EVs in China.
Among the EV makers in China, the most dominating right now is currently BYD. They seemed unfazed by the lockdowns as they could deliver more than 114,000 vehicles in May. The figure was 8% higher from April and 360% up from a year earlier. They were also consistent with delivering more than 100,000 units in three months. Their results are excellent, but it is not surprising as BYD produces its batteries.
EV startups are also racing in the Chinese market. Li Auto made 11,496 deliveries, better than NIO‘s 7,024 output. Meanwhile, XPeng made a total of 10,125 deliveries.
Startups such as Leapmotor (Zhejiang Leapmotor Technologies Ltd.) seem to be doing reasonably well, making 10,069 deliveries. Hozon New Energy Automobile Co. made a total of 11,009 deliveries.
EV brand developed by Zhejiang Geely Holding Group Co., Zeekr reported 4,330 deliveries. So far, the figure was the automaker’s best monthly performance as they just started making deliveries last October.
