February deliveries among China’s leading new-energy carmakers reveal a market in transition rather than collapse. Leapmotor (零跑) held the top spot among new entrants with 28,067 deliveries, while Li Auto (理想) followed closely at 26,421, a month-on-month drop of only 4.5% — the smallest among the six largest new players. Nio’s three-brand portfolio delivered 20,797 units, propped up by its high-end ES8, and Xiaomi, AITO (鸿蒙智行/问界) and XPeng rounded out the cohort with materially larger month-on-month declines.
The pullback in February is partly seasonal — the Lunar New Year lull and policy adjustments — but it also reflects product-cycle friction as many firms move stock through a window between outgoing and incoming models. In response, finance promotions have been elevated from differentiation tools to near-industry standards. Seven-year low-interest schemes and purchase-tax guarantees have proliferated since March 1, with Leapmotor, Tesla, BYD, AITO and others rolling out comparable offers to steady demand.
The more consequential determinant of mid- to long-term position, however, is product. Leapmotor is pursuing a two-track approach: defend the 100–200k RMB (roughly $14k–$28k) mainstream with highly cost-competitive models and push upward with D-series premium cars. Its month shows the payoff of vertical integration — in-house R&D is estimated to deliver roughly a 10% vehicle-cost advantage — and an ability to place lidar and Qualcomm 8295 chips into lower price tiers.
Li Auto’s February performance tells a different story: modest month-to-month decline, a deliberate clearance of outgoing L-series stock via steep incentives, and a parallel repositioning of the brand toward an “AI tech” narrative anchored by the flagship L9 Livis. The L9 is a halo product unlikely to add much volume immediately but designed to lift perceived technology credentials ahead of refreshed L-series models and to defend price points against rivals’ large-battery plug-in offerings.
Nio’s recovery remains concentrated on a single, expensive model. The ES8 accounted for the lion’s share of its February volumes, underscoring both product strength and vulnerability: heavy reliance on one high-end SUV exposes the company to demand swings even as it secures margin. Nio’s strategic tie-up with Bosch is telling — deep supplier partnerships are now a tool to stabilise costs and underpin nascent sub-brands such as Leda (乐道) and Firefly (萤火虫).
Xiaomi and XPeng both faced pronounced slowdowns amid product gaps. Xiaomi’s first-generation SU7 has been discontinued and the firm is marshaling factory capacity for a refreshed SU7 due in April; its near-term fortunes rest on whether consumers will pay a modest premium for upgraded kit. XPeng, meanwhile, is attempting to plug a lineup hole with range-extender variants for core models and is consolidating its R&D centres to accelerate a shared AI stack for driving, cabin and robotics.
AITO’s strategy under Huawei’s HarmonyOS umbrella is illustrative of the bifurcating market: the brand has doubled down on high-margin models and marketing reach into lower-tier cities, while pruning lower-priced sub-brands to beautify the balance sheet. The imminent M6 mid-sized SUV will be a crucial test of whether it can convert customer recognition into sustained volume in the fiercely contested 150–300k RMB band.
Three structural dynamics should shape the next 10 months. First, advanced driver-assistance and perceived software competency are moving from premium differentiators to purchase prerequisites in the mid-market. Second, powertrain approaches are diverging — range extenders and plug-in hybrids are proving resilient with family buyers, while full BEV growth is becoming more contested. Third, raw-material pressure and chip cost inflation are compressing margins, so firms that can sell both volume and profitability will survive and consolidate market share. March and the second quarter, when new models hit the market en masse, will determine which approaches scale and which firms face a year of margin erosion and inventory digestion.