Affected by multiple factors, the Chinese leading EV startup only sold 231 G3 electric vehicles in August.
Xpeng G3 EV. Image credit: Xpeng website
Chinese leading electric vehicle startup Xpeng Motors saw a sharp slump in its G3 EV sales selling 231 vehicles in August, according to CPCA, a Chinese automotive information platform.
Among Chinese EV startups, WM Motor sold 2,175 EX5 EVs in August, ranking the first with 42.7% market share. NIO ES6 and Hozon N01 ranked the second and the third respectively with sales of 1,808 and 440. Notably, Xpeng G3, the sales champion in the past several months, directly fell to fourth place in August.
Despite consecutive sales declines in June and July, Xpeng still sold the most EVs in the market. Sales slumps that could be observed in the whole industry were mainly subject to the reduced government subsidies to customers.
Xpeng’s brand public relations director Li Pengcheng (李鹏程) said the August sales decline was a result of launching new G3 EV, which was frequently seen in the industry. Sales were expected to be reversed in September after the transition was completed.
New generation of G3 EV indeed imposed impacts on sales of old one, however, it was not the only and even primary reason of sales decline. Xpeng’s crisis of confidence that burst in July could better explain this issue.
On July 10, the company launched its new version of G3 EV with a higher range and even lower selling price as compared to old G3 that was launched just half a year ago. Moreover, some Xpeng users said that they purchased Xpeng G3 EV on July 9 without being informed of the new generation beforehand and the company launched new cars one day later.
Additionally, at the beginning of September, Xpeng EVs were reported of a charging problem. Due to Xpeng OTA upgrade, Xpeng EVs could no longer use charging piles provided by State Grid Corporation of China.
Affected by multiple reasons, G3 sales declined by 32.3% in July and 84.8% in August.