Low January EV sales, Tesla China revenue, BMW and Jeep drop prices, software industry revenue

NIO, XPeng, and Li Auto reported low electric car sales in January: NIO delivered 8,506 units, a decrease of 11.9% year-on-year; XPeng delivered 5,218 units, a steep drop of 59.6%; and Li Auto delivered 15,141 units, a drop of 23.4%. The first months of the year is traditionally a time of low sales in China’s auto industry before the spring high tide, but such low EV sales are surprising. Huawei-backed Seres 赛力斯, however, reported January sales of 4,885 units, an increase of 38.78%.

Tesla generated $18.15 billion in revenue in China last year, or 22.27% of its total revenue, an increase of 31.07% compared to $13.84 billion in 2021. The company filed a 10-K annual report with the Securities and Exchange Commission yesterday, which noted total revenue of $81.46 billion, an increase of 51% year-on-year. The U.S. was the largest market with revenue of $40.55 billion, accounting for 49.78% of the total. Tesla is reportedly planning to boost production at its Shanghai plant in the next two months to meet increased demand resulting from the company’s price cuts, per an internal company memo.

BMW and Jeep today raised their prices in China, joining a growing list of other brands that have done so in 2023, including BYD, XPeng, and AITO, after government subsidies for EV buyers expired on January 1. Jeep models increased by 10,000 yuan ($1,480), and BMW models increased by 2,000 yuan ($296) to 20,000 yuan ($2,961).

China’s software industry topped ten trillion yuan in revenue in 2022, according to the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT). There are 35,000 software and IT enterprises above designated size (with annual revenue of at least 20 million yuan, almost $3 million) in China. Total industry revenue last year was 10.81 trillion yuan ($1.60 trillion), an increase of 11.2% year-on-year, and total profit was 1.26 trillion yuan ($187.25 billion), an increase of 5.7%.