New technologies power China’s Tesla challengers to monthly sales records

Chinese Tesla challengers Leapmotor and Zeekr, banking on their latest battery and self-driving technologies, bucked a downward trend in domestic electric vehicle sales with record deliveries last month, ratcheting up pressure on the US carmaker amid weak consumer sentiment towards big-ticket items.

Stellantis-backed Leapmotor delivered 93,376 electric vehicles (EVs) last month, up 94.5 per cent year on year, as it rewrote its sales record for a second consecutive month.

Zeekr, a premium EV unit of Geely Auto, China’s second-largest carmaker, also smashed its delivery record for a second straight month in June, reporting sales of 35,169 units, up 110.6 per cent year on year.

“The two carmakers, along with Xpeng, Nio and Xiaomi, are emerging as the winners of China’s EV market this year, but they represent just a small portion of the country’s EV industry,” said Eric Han, a senior ­manager at Shanghai consultancy Suolei. “Their technological advancement and fancy new models effectively spurred a sales jump.”

Tesla has yet to announce last month’s delivery volume in China, but its Shanghai Gigafactory now assembles only Model 3 and Model Y vehicles priced above 200,000 yuan (US$29,441).

Hangzhou-based Leapmotor builds and sells midsize smart EVs at roughly half the price of comparable Tesla models.

In May, Tesla’s Shanghai factory delivered 47,281 vehicles to customers in mainland China, up 22.5 per cent year on year, according to data from the China Passenger Car Association.