(Yicai Global) May 4 -- New energy vehicle startup Li Auto had a more than six-fold leap in sales last month, outpacing peers Nio and Xpeng, while BYD was once again the top Chinese NEV seller.

Li Auto sold 25,681 NEVs in April, up 516 percent from a year earlier, setting a new monthly record and ranking first among China’s NEV startups. Xpeng and Nio, which were once the top startups, sold 7,079 and 6,658 units, respectively. The first reported a 21 percent drop in sales, and the latter a 36 percent increase.

NEV sales at Shenzhen-based car giant BYD soared 94 percent to 210,300 units last month from a year ago. GAC Aion, the electric car marque of major Chinese automaker GAC Group, ranked second with over 41,000 sold, a 302 percent gain. Geely Holding Group’s electric vehicle brand Zeekr sold 8,101 NEVs, a 279 percent jump.

Neta Auto, the EV brand under Hozon Auto, logged a 26 percent rise in sales to 11,080 in April from a year earlier. Meanwhile, Leapmotor Technology saw its sales slide 4 percent to 8,726.

China’s NEV sales are expected to have risen 77 percent to around 500,000 units last month from the same period a year earlier, according to estimates released by the China Passenger Car Association on April 25. However, the figure will likely fall 8.4 percent on a monthly basis, it added.

Competition in China’s NEV market is intensifying. “The three years from 2023 to 2025 will be cruel and knock out many players because the market doesn’t need so many carmakers,” said Li Xiang, founder, chairman, and chief executive of Beijing-based Li Auto.

The ranks of Chinese automakers will thin to only a dozen from more than 100, Chen Shihua, deputy secretary-general of the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers, said at an industry conference in March.

Editor: Futura Costaglione