Who can stop Xiaomi YU7 in the second half of the year?
01. A Major Shake-up Among New Energy Vehicle Start-ups
Entering 2025, the new energy vehicle battlefield has witnessed a series of dramatic stories. On July 1st, multiple automakers successively announced their first-half performance reports. Li Auto, which firmly held the throne of the "top-selling new energy vehicle start-up" in 2024 with an absolute advantage, was probably quite annoyed.
The performance report shows that Li Auto delivered over 36,000 vehicles in June 2025. This is not a bad figure. Moreover, in the first half of the year, through a balance between sales volume and profit and with the help of the popular low-priced model L6, Li Auto's cumulative delivery volume exceeded 200,000 vehicles.
However, a closer look at the monthly delivery volume reveals that in January and February this year, XPeng Motors, which was originally lagging behind, exceeded 30,000 vehicles in monthly delivery volume for the first time, surpassing Li Auto. The news attracted wide attention in the industry. While the market was sighing that XPeng Motors had finally been pulled out of the quagmire by Wang Fengying, they were also worried about Li Auto.
From March to June, Li Auto was outshined by Leapmotor. Especially in June, Li Auto's delivery volume decreased by 24.06% year-on-year and 11.2% month-on-month, which was quite eye-catching.
It should be noted that since the launch of the C10 model, Leapmotor has been promoting the concept of being a "substitute for Li Auto", which means Li Auto has been overtaken by its imitator. By June, Leapmotor's monthly delivery volume was close to 50,000 vehicles, and the gap with Li Auto widened to over 12,000 vehicles.
On July 1st, Li Auto celebrated its 10th anniversary. Surrounded by strong competitors, the company is also adjusting its pace.
On June 27th, Li Auto announced a new organizational structure adjustment and personnel appointments again: the original "R & D and Supply Group" and "Sales and Service Group" were integrated into the newly established "Intelligent Vehicle Group", which is responsible for the strategic to operational closed-loop of Li Auto's intelligent vehicle business. This is also the second internal integration after the adjustment of the Sales and Service Group in March this year.
In addition, Li Xiang, the chairman of Li Auto, also adjusted the sales guidance for the second quarter, which was lower than the previous delivery volume guidance of 123,000 to 128,000 vehicles.
Facing various challenges, Li Auto will also launch new products in the second half of the year. The family six-seater pure-electric SUV Li Auto i8 will be launched in July, and the family five-seater pure-electric SUV Li Auto i6 will be launched in September. Whether they can help Li Auto regain its leading position remains to be tested by the market.
XPeng Motors, which overtook Li Auto, didn't have much time to celebrate. The position of the top new energy vehicle start-up was soon taken by Leapmotor. However, currently, among these four leading new energy vehicle start-ups, only XPeng Motors has completed half of its annual sales target and has exceeded its total delivery volume in 2024. Relying on popular models such as the XPeng G6 and MONA M03, its delivery volume in June exceeded 34,000 vehicles, a year-on-year increase of 224%. The growth momentum is good, and the monthly delivery volume has exceeded 30,000 vehicles for 8 consecutive months.
Next, XPeng is pinning its hopes on the G7. However, facing the sharp edge of the Xiaomi YU7, He Xiaopeng is under great pressure.
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Actually, after the first-half performance reports were released, it was NIO that really worried investors. Currently, the company doesn't have an obvious advantage among new energy vehicle start-ups.
Since implementing cost-cutting measures in 2024, NIO's three brands (NIO, LeDao, and Firefly) have been working together. In June 2025, its delivery volume increased by 17.52% year-on-year. Among them, the LeDao brand delivered 6,400 vehicles, and the Firefly brand delivered 3,932 vehicles, both setting new monthly delivery records in 2025.
Li Bin, the founder and chairman of NIO, said that with the refresh of NIO's 5566 series, the successive launches of the LeDao L90 and L80, and the efforts of the Firefly brand, it's not a fantasy for the three brands to jointly strive for a monthly sales volume of 50,000 vehicles in the fourth quarter.
While increasing sales, NIO is also continuously promoting cost reduction and efficiency improvement. Since the first quarter of this year, NIO has carried out reforms in multiple fields such as sales, R & D, and the supply chain. Under the concept of full-staff operation, unprofitable departments will be significantly reduced. In addition, the NIO World Model (NWM) has been gradually pushed to the ET9 and new 5566 models. The self-developed automotive-grade 5-nanometer intelligent driving chip Shenji NX9031, which is installed in these models, is also considered by Li Bin to be able to effectively optimize the gross profit per vehicle and help improve NIO's profitability.
02. Traditional Automakers Clash Again
After looking at the performance of new energy vehicle start-ups, let's turn our attention to traditional automakers.
As expected, BYD is still "far ahead". In the first half of this year, BYD's cumulative sales reached 2.146 million vehicles, a year-on-year increase of 33.0%. Specifically, the cumulative sales of the Dynasty and Ocean networks exceeded 1.95 million vehicles. The cumulative sales of Fang Cheng Bao, Denza, and Yangwang were 79,830 vehicles, 60,746 vehicles, and 1,003 vehicles respectively.
Although BYD's basic market has maintained stable growth, the growth rate has significantly slowed down, and the performance report is "qualified but not outstanding". For example, in its high-end strategy, BYD still faces significant challenges. At a recent shareholders' meeting, Wang Chuanfu, the chairman of BYD, also pointed out that "the company has realized and is working hard to solve the problems in the high-end process".
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An obvious phenomenon is that consumers have mixed reviews of BYD's high-end products. Some people recognize its black technology, but when it comes to specific models, some details are not satisfactory.
As another strategic goal of BYD, its performance in the overseas market in the first half of this year was quite remarkable. BYD's sales target for 2025 is 5.5 million vehicles, of which the overseas market needs to contribute 800,000 vehicles. In the first half of this year, BYD's cumulative sales of passenger cars and pickups reached 470,086 vehicles, exceeding the target. Moreover, in many overseas markets such as Brazil, Australia, and Europe, BYD's monthly sales have exceeded those of Tesla.
Geely Holding, which has learned from BYD, has adopted a simple and effective approach. In the first half of this year, Geely's cumulative sales exceeded 1.4 million vehicles, a year-on-year increase of 47%. Among them, the cumulative sales of Geely's new energy vehicles reached 725,151 vehicles, a year-on-year increase of 126%; the cumulative sales of the Geely Galaxy brand were 548,408 vehicles, a year-on-year increase of 232%. In view of the excellent performance of new energy vehicles, Geely has raised its annual sales target from 2.71 million vehicles to 3 million vehicles.
As the competition in the new energy vehicle market enters the second half, the room for error left for automakers is getting smaller and smaller. How to efficiently utilize resources is a topic that every automaker has to face. Geely's approach is to concentrate the company's resources, change the previous state of small, scattered, and disordered brands, and avoid redundant construction.
With the return of Zeekr to Geely and the integration of Geometry into Geely Galaxy, in January this year, LEVC and Radar Auto were officially incorporated into Geely Auto Group. After the integration, Geely Auto will cover all categories such as sedans, SUVs, MPVs, off-road vehicles, and pickups. So far, Zeekr, Lynk & Co, Geely Galaxy, and the Geely brand have respectively established four major segments of Geely's passenger cars in the luxury new energy, high-end new energy, mainstream high-quality new energy, and fuel vehicle markets.
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As another major competitor of BYD, Great Wall Motor has also clashed with BYD in the public opinion field for several rounds this year.
Although public opinion is on Great Wall Motor's side, its sales performance is mediocre. In the first half of this year, Great Wall Motor's cumulative sales were about 570,000 vehicles, only a 2% year-on-year increase. The sales of new energy vehicles were 160,414 vehicles, a 21% year-on-year increase, which is not outstanding among major domestic automakers.
Compared with BYD's successful transformation and Geely's half-completed transformation, Great Wall Motor's new energy transformation is still in dynamic adjustment. In terms of brand layout, Great Wall Motor has taken a different path from Geely. This year, Great Wall has decided to revive the ORA brand, and its sales channels will also be independent, taking on the heavy responsibility of Great Wall's new energy transformation again.
Wu Huixiao, the CTO of Great Wall Motor, said that this year, the company will focus on increasing the sales of mainstream models such as the Haval and ORA brands. In 2025, ORA will launch two new models, and the brand will target the entire pure-electric vehicle market to make up for Great Wall's absence in the pure-electric small car market.
03. Xiaomi YU7 Shocks Competitors
Looking at the performance reports of major automakers in the first half of 2025, some are happy while others are sad. With the launch of Xiaomi's first SUV model, the YU7, on June 26th, the market competition in the second half of this year has already begun.
Three minutes after the launch of the YU7, the number of firm orders exceeded 200,000. One hour later, it exceeded 289,000. After 18 hours, 240,000 orders were locked in, which is a performance that can be written into the history of China's automotive industry.
The scale of 240,000 vehicles has exceeded the total sales of NIO and XPeng in 2024. In contrast, the approximately 100,000 orders that Tesla, the "old troublemaker", received on the day of the launch of the refreshed Model Y in January seem a bit inferior. Lei Jun's response of "Okay" to Tesla's slogan of "Refreshed Model Y, Feel Free to Compare" now seems to be well-founded.
Undoubtedly, the most concerning issue inside and outside the industry at present is the delivery time. The latest data from the Xiaomi Auto App shows that the shortest estimated delivery time for the YU7 Max version is 38 - 41 weeks, the Pro version is 51 - 54 weeks, and the standard version is as long as 58 - 61 weeks.
According to media reports such as China Securities Journal, brands such as IM Motors, NIO, Zeekr, and Jiecai have launched a "guaranteed reimbursement" policy, promising to compensate consumers with 5,000 yuan for the deposit of the Xiaomi YU7 if they purchase their brand's models.
The business war among automakers in the second half of the year has unexpectedly begun.
Official data shows that Xiaomi Auto's delivery volume in June exceeded 25,000 vehicles. According to the Yiche App, from January to May 2025, Xiaomi's monthly sales were 22,897 vehicles, 23,728 vehicles, 29,244 vehicles, 28,585 vehicles, and 28,013 vehicles respectively. This was achieved when Xiaomi Auto only had the SU7 and SU7 Ultra.
It can be said that in the next year or so, production capacity will be the decisive factor for Xiaomi Auto's sales ceiling and also the factor restricting Xiaomi Auto from becoming a "new troublemaker".
As the direct competitor of the YU7, from June 2024 to May 2025, Tesla's Model Y had a total sales volume of 440,245 vehicles, with an average monthly sales volume of over 36,000 vehicles. Undoubtedly, it's the target that Lei Jun wants to catch up with.
Currently, Tesla has not announced its sales volume for June 2025. Third-party data shows that Tesla's cumulative sales from January to May 2025 were 201,926 vehicles, including 126,643 Model Ys and 75,283 Model 3s. The cumulative sales in the same period in 2024 were 219,056 vehicles, showing a slight decline.
Being chased by Xiaomi, Tesla recently carried out an "anti-price war" operation, which also attracted a lot of attention. The company raised the price of the Model 3 Long Range version, which has improved performance and mileage, by 10,000 yuan. It should be noted that the Model Y Long Range version, which also has improved mileage, didn't see a price increase, which has led to various speculations. People generally believe that this is because Tesla feels the pressure from the Xiaomi YU7.