2024 is another year of intensive NEV price war that has forced many vehicle brands to reassess their annual targets. Notably, Li Auto has already lowered their goal post twice, from 800k to 560-640k after the unsuccessful launch of the pure electric MPV Li MEGA and ultimately to 480k after a strategy shift.
HIMA is Most Probable to Hit Annual Target
HIMA, which includes AITO M5/7/9 (partnership with Seres) and Luxeed S7 (Chery), ranks first in YTD wholesale sales, with 155.5k vehicles sold. This figure accounts for 38.9% of HIMA's 400k annual sales target.
HIMA is also expected to launch a Model Y rival with the Luxeed R7, the first coupe SUV from the Huawei alliance with Chery. The R7 will bring HIMA one step closer to its annual goal.
Li Auto follows closely behind with 141.2k vehicles sold May-24 YTD and expects to reach 480k units by year-end with the Li L6, which began selling on April 24. Li Auto claims that the L6 order volume has reached 41k as of May 5th.
ZEEKR continues to depend heavily on its two sedans, the best-selling 001 and the new 007, often compared with Tesla Model 3. ZEEKR is expected to launch a new SUV crossover codenamed CX1E (or ZEEKR ARK) in 2024 and 7 new cars in total by 2026.
NIO tracks closely with ZEEKR thanks to a record of monthly sales in May that exceeded the 20,000 delivery mark. NIO has as of May achieved 28.8% of its annual target.
7 Months to Reach Annual Targets Leave Some Brands in Question
As of May 2024, most brands will have to average an exceptional level of monthly sales to reach their initial annual sales target. For example, Deepal, a Changan sub-brand, will have to average over 55.8k vehicles sold monthly by year-end to achieve 450k total sales for the year. To date, Deepal has only averaged 11.9k units sold per month.
Li Auto, despite ranking second on this list, will also need to average an astounding 48.4k vehicles per month, compared to its YTD 28.2k monthly sales.
Both ZEEKR and NIO share an annual target of 230k and will have to average what would be record highs of over 23k vehicles per month until year-end.
XPeng will have to more than triple the monthly sales average to 33.4k units by year-end. Much of that is expected to come from its much anticipated sedan called Mona M03, with a wind resistance of 0.194 Cd, the lowest of any mass-produced car.