Chinese carmaker Zeekr saw its weekly sales in China fall 20.6% to 2,700 vehicles last week, industry data showed on Tuesday. In the final week of March, the Hangzhou-based company had registered 3,400 units.
It was the first time the figure fell below 3,000 units since early February, when the Chinese New Year holiday disrupted industry activity. A three-day public holiday for the Ching Ming Festival from April 4 to 6 also affected production and deliveries.
Nio, another Chinese EV premium brand such as Zeekr, registered a 40% fall week over week, going from 3,000 units to 1,800.
nio x zeekrZeekr stated last week to have delivered 15,442 vehicles in March, up 18.5% year over year. Nio Group delivered 15,039 vehicles in March, up nearly 27% from the same period last year. However, sales of the Nio brand fell 13% from a year ago to 10,219 units.
Beijing-based Li Auto recorded 6,100 registrations, down 29.5% from 8,800 units in the previous week, while Stellantis-backed Leapmotor saw a 37% drop to 5,100 units from 8,100. Xiaomi also slipped, with weekly sales falling 34.6% to 5,100 vehicles — the first time the brand registered under 6,000 units since early February.
XPeng reversed the trend with a 21% increase from the previous week, its registrations going from 6,200 to 7,500 units.
Tesla had the sharpest drop in weekly numbers, with registrations declining 82.5% —from 20,600 at the end of March to just 3,600. The figures align with Tesla’s strategy of prioritizing exports from its Shanghai factory at the start of each quarter, resulting in reduced domestic deliveries.
BYD reported 45,100 vehicles registered between March 31 and April 6, a 25.3% drop from the prior week’s 60,400. Still, the company leads the market with 668,500 units sold in China so far this year. Tesla follows with 137,600 units.
Li Auto and XPeng registered nearly 100,000 units, with 97,200 and 95,900 vehicles sold year to date, respectively. Xiaomi has listed 79,700 units, while Leapmotor has recorded 77,000. Meanwhile, premium EV brand Zeekr had 41,600 registrations in China since the beginning of the year.
Upcoming Models
Zeekr announced in early March that its upcoming full-size SUV will be called the Zeekr 9X, with its official debut set for the Shanghai Auto Show at the end of April.
The company is preparing to enter the hybrid market and will unveil its new plug-in hybrid technology at the event, where it will also be showcasing its 1,200 kW (1.2MW) ultra-fast charging technology. Zeekr is launching two hybrid SUVS in the third quarter and in the fourth quarters, each offering hybrid variants.
The new Zeekr 007 GT (Grand Touring), a shooting brake version of the 007 model, is set to officially launch on April 15. The model will be available in overseas markets and will be rebranded as the Zeekr 7 GT.
In March, Zeekr announced that its advanced driver-assistance system, Zeekr G-Pilot, will be offered free of charge to customers in China, after Tesla began rolling out its supervised Full Self-Driving software in the Chinese market.