New new energy vehicle startups witnessed a significant surge in October: Leapmotor exceeded 70,000 units, while XPENG, NIO, and Xiaomi reached 40,000 units.

As October came to an end, the delivery rankings of Chinese new - energy vehicle startups were refreshed once again.

Charted by "Dingjiao One"

First Echelon: Leapmotor VS Hongmeng Zhixing

Leapmotor, the champion among single - brand manufacturers, left others far behind with a delivery volume of 70,289 vehicles in October, setting a new record.

Among the new - energy vehicle startups, Hongmeng Zhixing led the alliance. Its entire lineup of models achieved a delivery volume of 68,216 vehicles in October, reaching a new high. As of the time of publication, AITO had not separately announced its delivery volume.

Second Echelon: "NIO, XPeng, and Xiaomi" in a Fierce Battle

Behind Leapmotor and Hongmeng Zhixing, a real "close - range fight" took place among the "40,000 - vehicle club". XPeng (42,013 vehicles), NIO (40,397 vehicles), and Xiaomi (over 40,000 vehicles) all exceeded the monthly delivery mark of 40,000 vehicles. In the next two months, which brand will secure the leading position in the second echelon will be the focus of the market.

Third Echelon: Li Auto "Fell Behind", Traditional New - energy Brands "Filled the Gap"

Li Auto's delivery volume dropped to 31,767 vehicles, showing a decline both year - on - year and month - on - month. Meanwhile, the "new - energy vehicle startups" incubated by traditional automakers, including Deepal (36,792 vehicles), Dongfeng Yipai Technology (31,107 vehicles), and Fangchengbao (31,052 vehicles), all stabilized at around 30,000 vehicles per month, forming a stable third echelon.

Fourth Echelon: Intense Competition in the 20,000 - vehicle Range

In the 20,000 - vehicle range, ARCFOX (23,387 vehicles) witnessed a month - on - month surge of 45%, becoming the main growth driver under BAIC New Energy. This month marked the first time since the integration of ZEEKR Technology (including ZEEKR and Lynk & Co) that the monthly sales exceeded 60,000 vehicles. Among them, the ZEEKR brand (21,423 vehicles) maintained a stable sales growth.

Fifth Echelon: Increasing Differentiation in the "10,000 - vehicle Club"

In the range of 10,000 - 20,000 vehicles, the competition was also fierce. VOYAH (17,218 vehicles), Avatr (13,506 vehicles), and IM Motors (13,159 vehicles) all achieved significant year - on - year growth. Denza, the high - end brand under BYD (10,135 vehicles), showed a slight decline. JIEJIE (over 10,000 vehicles) under the Hongmeng Zhixing brand entered the 10,000 - vehicle threshold, and XIANGJIE (6,700 vehicles) also achieved a high month - on - month growth.

Currently, the new - energy vehicle market has clearly entered the "final stage": leading automakers continue to take the lead with their scale advantages, while the competition among mid - and lower - ranked players is extremely intense. However, the final rankings are not yet determined, and there are still uncertainties in the year - end sprint after the "Golden September and Silver October". As the countdown to the purchase tax exemption policy begins, the battle at the end of the year will be extremely fierce. It not only concerns the rankings this year but will also have a profound impact on the market pattern next year.

1

Leapmotor VS Hongmeng Zhixing: The Battle at the Top Reaches 70,000 Vehicles

Leapmotor, ranked first, was the first to present its October report: delivering 70,289 vehicles, which means selling more than 2,300 vehicles per day. This figure set a record for Leapmotor and the monthly delivery record for domestic new - energy vehicle startups.

From January to October, Leapmotor's cumulative delivery volume reached 465,800 vehicles, completing 80% of its annual minimum target (the annual target is between 580,000 and 650,000 vehicles). At this pace, it is certain to meet the annual target.

Leapmotor's ability to remain the "sales champion" for eight consecutive months lies in its core strategies: achieving high sales volume through cost - effectiveness and getting strong support from overseas markets.

Nearly half of Leapmotor's sales come from the B - series (B01, B10) priced between 80,000 and 150,000 yuan, and another one - third comes from the C - series (C10, C16) priced between 150,000 and 200,000 yuan.

While selling well in the domestic market, Leapmotor's overseas business is also accelerating. In particular, the European market (mainly Germany, France, and Spain) contributed more than 80% of its export volume. Data shows that Leapmotor ranked fourth among Chinese brands in European sales from January to September 2025.

The best - selling models of Leapmotor in Europe are the C10, B10, and T03 (miniature pure - electric vehicles). According to Li Zhen, an investor who focuses on the overseas expansion of new - energy vehicle startups, Leapmotor mainly relies on two strategies in the European market: after partnering with the Stellantis Group (which owns brands such as Peugeot, Citroën, and Maserati), it quickly accessed the group's 640 sales outlets, enabling it to "go global by hitching a ride"; and in response to the uneven distribution of charging facilities in Europe, it focuses on promoting extended - range vehicles.

Leapmotor's recent strategic focus is on high - end development. It recently launched its flagship model D19, which has the highest positioning and the highest price, officially entering the market above 250,000 yuan. According to Liu Chi, a channel insider, how to enhance brand influence and user trust in this price range and further expand the sales and after - sales service network are the challenges that Leapmotor needs to overcome next.

While Leapmotor took a significant lead among single - brand manufacturers, the "alliance" Hongmeng Zhixing also reached a new high: in October, its entire lineup of models delivered 68,216 vehicles. Hongmeng Zhixing specifically emphasized that the average transaction price in that month was 390,000 yuan. However, the AITO brand, which is the main sales contributor, has not separately announced its data for the time being.

AITO usually accounts for about 80% of Hongmeng Zhixing's delivery volume. Combining two pieces of information, one is that Hongmeng Zhixing's cumulative delivery volume reached 1 million units as of October 28, and the other is that AITO's cumulative delivery volume exceeded 800,000 vehicles (announced by He Liyang, the president of SERES, on September 23), "a rough estimate shows that AITO's new delivery volume in October exceeded 50,000 vehicles," said Zheng Feng, an investor who focuses on new - energy vehicle startups.

According to his analysis, the fourth quarter is the traditional peak season for car purchases, and with the capital support from the listing of its parent company SERES on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, AITO will maintain a growth trend in October and throughout the fourth quarter. The market has long been optimistic about AITO, mainly because of its advantages in high - priced models.

However, Zheng Feng also pointed out two variables that need to be observed: one is the progress of its overseas market expansion; the other is the possible internal competition and resource allocation issues after the launch of multiple brands and models within Hongmeng Zhixing.

In the Hongmeng ecosystem, JIEJIE and XIANGJIE were the first to present their results: JIEJIE delivered over 10,000 vehicles, and XIANGJIE delivered 6,700 vehicles.

For JIEJIE, delivering over 10,000 vehicles means that this brand jointly created by Huawei and Chery has initially established a foothold in the market.

This achievement is mainly due to the increasing sales volume of the new S7 and R7 models launched in August. These two models are positioned in the mid - to high - end market (the S7 is priced between 229,800 and 289,800 yuan; the R7 is priced between 249,800 and 309,800 yuan) and quickly accumulated orders after their launch.

Liu Chi said that JIEJIE accelerated the optimization of the production process to ensure centralized delivery from October to November. At the same time, in response to the bottleneck in battery supply, it temporarily switched the battery supplier to CATL, successfully solving the previous delivery problems. The purchase tax subsidy program launched during the policy window period also gave a boost to orders.

In the future, the market will focus on the launch schedule and production capacity stability of JIEJIE's new models (such as MPVs) in 2026.

On the other hand, the delivery volume of the XIANGJIE brand in October increased by 145% compared with the average monthly level in the first three quarters, becoming the fastest - growing high - end brand under BAIC New Energy.

This achievement of XIANGJIE is mainly contributed by the S9T. This is a station wagon priced over 300,000 yuan, and its main selling points are the "station wagon" form and "Huawei intelligent driving". It received over 20,000 firm orders within 25 days of its launch, which not only promoted the sales volume in October but also "the on - hand orders can support the delivery for the next three months," said Liu Chi.

From a financial perspective, the XIANGJIE brand is still in a stage of "high investment and low output". A research report pointed out that to achieve profitability, XIANGJIE needs to increase its monthly delivery volume to over 10,000 vehicles to spread the fixed costs.

However, like JIEJIE, XIANGJIE also faced the pressure of supply - chain integration. Generally speaking, Hongmeng Zhixing has demonstrated the initial effectiveness of its multi - brand layout through the sales of JIEJIE and XIANGJIE. However, to achieve continuous growth, they still need to solve the problems of supply - chain stability and large - scale profitability.

2

The "Profitability" Battle between XPeng and NIO

While Leapmotor and Hongmeng Zhixing were having a "fierce battle" at the 70,000 - vehicle level, the competition in the second echelon was extremely intense. Let's first look at XPeng and NIO, which are striving for "profitability".

XPeng delivered 42,013 vehicles in October, and its cumulative delivery volume from January to October reached 355,000 vehicles, a year - on - year increase of 190%. This means that XPeng achieved its annual sales target of 350,000 vehicles two months ahead of schedule, becoming the first brand among new - energy vehicle startups to complete its target.

XPeng's sales growth is not only driven by promotional policies but also contributed by the increasing production of new models.

From the month - on - month data, XPeng's sales volume in October only increased by 1% compared with September, indicating that the peak of orders brought by the large - scale limited - time financial policy in September had subsided, but the delivery continued. According to Liu Chi, XPeng's policy of "0% interest, 0% down payment, and 0% handling fee for five years, combined with a maximum trade - in subsidy of 25,000 yuan" drove its new orders to exceed 50,000 in September, of which about 30% were delivered in October.

XPeng's supplementary promotion mechanism during the National Day holiday also gave a boost to sales.

However, XPeng's overall dependence on promotions is decreasing, and the proportion of new models is increasing. Liu Chi said that in the sales structure in October, half of the sales were still contributed by the entry - level model MONA M03 (priced between 120,000 and 150,000 yuan) and the mid - range sedan P7+ (priced between 150,000 and 200,000 yuan); the incremental sales mainly came from the increasing production of the new P7 and G7 launched in August.

Whether the new models can achieve large - scale sales is directly related to whether XPeng can achieve its goal of "making a profit in a single quarter in Q4". Zheng Feng analyzed that the G7 needs to reach a monthly sales volume of 20,000 vehicles, and the new P7 also needs to stabilize at over 15,000 vehicles per month to boost the gross profit margin and support profitability in Q4.

However, the market in the 250,000 - yuan range where the G7 is located is extremely competitive. Facing strong competitors such as the Tesla Model Y, Xiaomi YU7, and ZEEKR 7X, XPeng finally lowered the price of the G7 by 40,000 yuan compared with the pre - sale price. Although the strategy of "trading price for volume" boosted orders, it also directly compressed the gross profit margin.

Therefore, XPeng's biggest test in the fourth quarter is "increasing the sales volume of new models" and "achieving profitability".

NIO, which is only more than a thousand vehicles behind XPeng, also faces the dual pressures of sales and profitability. NIO's total delivery volume in October reached 40,397 vehicles, with a year - on - year growth rate of 92.6%.

Looking at different brands, NIO and LEDAO each contributed 40% of the sales volume. NIO delivered 17,143 vehicles in that month, thanks to the increasing sales of the new ES8, and raised the average brand price to over 400,000 yuan, which is crucial for improving the overall gross profit margin; the LEDAO brand became the core growth driver for NIO in that month, delivering 17,342 vehicles, driven by the hot sales and increasing production of the L90;

FIREFLY gradually penetrated the market below 150,000 yuan with a single product line, delivering 5,912 vehicles in that month, with a month - on - month growth of only 2.4%.

Looking back at this year, NIO's sales trend can be summarized as "hitting the bottom and then rebounding, accelerating quarter by quarter": in the first quarter, sales were under pressure due to model upgrades; from the second quarter, with the delivery of new models and the release of production capacity, sales doubled quarter by quarter; in the third and fourth quarters, sales continued to increase driven by popular models.

Although sales have been on the rise, NIO still faces two major challenges: achieving the annual sales target