The year may be nearly over, but you would never know by looking at electric car maker Xpeng Inc.’s (NYSE: XPEV, HK: 9868) progress so far compared with its sales target at the start of the 2022. The company shocked markets earlier this month when it reported it delivered only 5,811 vehicles in November, a 63% plunge from a year earlier.
Xpeng once expected to deliver up to 21,000 vehicles in the fourth quarter. But after selling just 5,101 cars in October, also down a steep 40% from a year earlier, the fourth-quarter target looks nearly impossible. And having delivered just 109,465 vehicles so far this year, the company’s target of selling 250,000 vehicles for the year looks all but impossible as well.
Xpeng’s completion of just 44% of its annual target with just one month left in the year is the lowest fulfillment rate among Chinese electric vehicle (EV) makers. But the company is hardly alone, with most of its peers also well behind their targets set at the start of this year when China’s new energy vehicle market was humming ahead full throttle.