Tuesday wasn’t an ideal day to be a shareholder in many of the electric vehicle (EV) and associated companies headquartered within U.S. borders. Big news from across the Pacific Ocean drained confidence about U.S. manufacturers, which led to a broad sell-off throughout the sector.
Truck and SUV maker Rivian Automotive (NASDAQ: RIVN), for one, saw a dispiriting decline; it closed the day 7% lower in price. Luxury EV specialist Lucid Group (NASDAQ: LCID) did slightly worse with a nearly 8% drop, while next-generation auto battery developer QuantumScape (NYSE: QS) lost just under 7% of its value.
That news was actually great for a certain class of EV makers; that class is Chinese manufacturers. On the same day, several of the latter unveiled their latest delivery figures, and boy, were these impressive.
In pole position was Li Auto, which managed to boost both its September and third-quarter counts well in excess of 40% year over year. The largest EV maker, BYD posted a similar improvement, setting a new all-time company record for the month of September with almost 418,000 deliveries (representing roughly 46% growth over the same month of 2023). Significantly, this growth was due largely to a hot 86% rise in sales of hybrid vehicles, to around 253,000 in total.
That news comes in front of the latest delivery figures expected of American EV makers, most notably Tesla; the EV standard-bearer is expected to publish its numbers tomorrow. Analysts tracking the company are anticipating growth all right, but it likely won’t be comparable to those massive double-digit improvements from Asian rivals. The consensus is that Tesla will report 462,000 deliveries in the third quarter, representing year-over-year growth of “only” 6%.
Those excellent numbers, growth rates, and new all-time highs coming from Chinese manufacturers negatively affect sentiment on their U.S. peers in several ways.
First, these across-the-board boffo growth rates — from already robust levels — illustrate the fact that consumers in that market are notably more eager to buy EVs and hybrids than are folks on our shores. Second, China is a hotbed of EV demand, but U.S. makers might never be able to exploit it fully. Tesla is among the companies with a foothold there; however, it does not enjoy anywhere near the level of material support the Chinese government bestows on its domestic manufacturers.
Finally, there’s always the threat of successful companies from that country making inroads in this market. Their presence is rather limited here so far, and any push will surely result in backlash from government officials and the domestic industry. Yet, if the Chinese can offer significant value and decent quality, they might just steal a march on our EV makers.
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Eric Volkman has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends BYD Company and Tesla. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.
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