Tesla investors, beware: April deliveries of NIO, Li and XPeng hit by Covid

font size

Chinese electric vehicle makers

NIO
And

XPeng

And

Lee Otto

Reported April delivery on Sunday morning. The numbers are not very good. that gives

Tesla

Investors another thing to worry about.

NIO delivered (index: NIO) 5,074 vehicles In April, down from about 10,000 delivered in March It is down from about 7,100 delivered in April of 2021.

Looking ahead, Wall Street expects NIO to deliver about 31,000 vehicles in the second quarter, up from about 26,000 vehicles delivered in the first quarter of 2022. That’s not a good start to the quarter.

Covid seems to be the cause. “In late March and April 2022, the company’s vehicle production and delivery was affected by supply chain volatility and other restrictions caused by a new wave of COVID-19 outbreaks in certain regions of China,” the NIO news release said.

This is no surprise. Investors have known of production problems related to Covid in China for weeks. covid closures in ShanghaiFor example, a Tesla plant in the region closed for weeks, costing Tesla (TSLA) perhaps 15,000 vehicle deliveries in the first quarter of 2022. Tesla ended up delivering about 310,000 vehicles, up from the 309,000 delivered in the fourth quarter of 2021.

Li Auto (LI) delivery 4167 vehicles In April, down from about 11,000 delivered in March and down from about 5,500 delivered in April 2021.

Looking ahead, Wall Street expects Li’s sales to grow to about $1.9 billion in the second quarter, up from about $1.5 billion forecast in the first quarter. He handed me nearly 32,000 cars in the first quarter of 2022.

Lee spoke about Covid in his news release as well: “The emergence of COVID-19 in the Yangtze Delta region continues to cause severe industry-wide disruptions to supply chain, logistics and production since late March.” Li makes cars in Changzhou, the center of the region, and gets most of her auto parts locally.

The XPeng (XPEV) results look a little better than the Li or NIO numbers. XPeng تسليم Delivery 9002 vehicles In April, down from about 15,000 vehicles delivered in March, but up from about 5,000 vehicles delivered in April 2021.

Looking ahead, Wall Street expects XPeng sales to grow to about $1.3 billion in the second quarter, up from about $1.1 billion projected for the first quarter of 2022. XPeng delivered nearly 35,000 vehicles in the first quarter of 2021.

XPeng referred to Covid in its press release as well.

Combined, the three delivered about 18,000 cars in April. This is the worst monthly result since May 2021 and less than the combined delivery of nearly 21,000 vehicles in February 2022 – when the Chinese Lunar New Year holiday affected the results. But the silver lining is year-to-date, deliveries are up 73% year over year, driven by gains from Li and XPeng.

The shares of the three may be weak in Monday’s trading, but the shares have already taken a heavy hit.

Heading into Monday’s trading, shares of NIO, XPeng and Li are down more than 40% year-to-date on average, much worse than similar declines of 13% and 21%.

Standard & Poor’s 500

And

Nasdaq Composite Index.

Delivery results could also extend to Tesla’s trading. Tesla’s Shanghai factory is the most productive. Wall Street’s second quarter presents a forecast for Tesla, however, that doesn’t look as strong as those of the other three. Analysts expect Tesla to deliver about 305,000 vehicles in the second quarter, down from the 310,000 figure from the first quarter.

Tesla stock has taken a hit, too, down 19% in April, partly due to the market — the Nasdaq is down 13% — and partly because investors weighed the CEO’s influence. Elon Musk surprise plan to buy from

Twitter

(TWTR) on his auto company.

Write to Al Root at [email protected]