China’s top three electric vehicle (EV) start-ups maintained their strong sales momentum in December to cap a banner year, as they snap at market leader Tesla’s heels and continue to attract a growing number of young motorists to choose new battery-powered cars over traditional petrol rides. Xpeng Motors and Li Auto each posted a record for monthly sales, while NIO once again reported deliveries of more than 10,000 units in December, helping reinforce China’s position as the world’s largest EV market. “The vehicles developed by the three carmakers were well received by young drivers in China,” said Eric Han, a senior manager with Shanghai-based business advisory Suolei. “More importantly, their vehicles are up to a standard on par with Tesla’s Model 3 and Model Y vehicles.” The three Chinese carmakers reported their solid December performance ahead of Beijing’s implementation of a 30 per cent reduction of EV subsidies on January 1. Guangzhou-based Xpeng, which is backed by e-commerce giant Alibaba Group Holding , delivered 16,000 vehicles last month, 387 more than the previous record it set in November. Alibaba is the parent company of the South China Morning Post . Xpeng, which has been ahead of its two closest domestic EV rivals since October, saw its total deliveries in 2021 reach 98,155 units, up 263 per cent from the previous year. Li Auto, which is headquartered in Beijing, hit a new monthly record in December with deliveries of 14,087 vehicles. That is up from November’s 13,485 tally. The company delivered a total of 90,491 vehicles in 2021, a 177.4 per cent increase from a year ago. Shanghai-based NIO sold 10,489 units in December, which is 389 less than the 10,878 units it moved in November. Its total delivery last year climbed 109.1 per cent to 91,429 vehicles. Global chips shortage to partially freeze China’s EV industry in 2022 Tesla’s Gigafactory 3 in Shanghai delivered 52,859 EVs in November, according to data from the China Passenger Car Association (CPCA). The US carmaker does not report its monthly sales figures on the mainland. About 21,127 units of Tesla’s Shanghai-made Model 3 and Model Y vehicles were exported to markets outside China. The strong car sales posted by Xpeng, Li Auto and NIO in December showed that their young buyers are savvy about getting a good deal ahead of market changes. “Some of the buyers rushed to get the deals done ahead of the reduction in subsidy,” said Tian Maowei, a sales manager at Yiyou Auto Service in Shanghai. “But the top EV start-ups will still be among the top winners of China’s rising adoption of ‘green cars’ in the coming years.” The Ministry of Finance last Friday announced that cash subsidies granted to encourage purchases of new-energy vehicles (NEVs) – which consist of pure electric, plug-in hybrid and fuel-cell cars – will drop 30 per cent in 2022 before they are scrapped next year. Only NEVs that cost below 300,000 yuan (US$47,158) are eligible to receive a subsidy. Most of the premium edition models developed by Tesla and its three Chinese rivals are priced above 300,000 yuan. After the cuts, a pure electric car with a driving range of more than 400 kilometres is eligible for a 12,600 yuan subsidy. NEV sales on the mainland were expected to top 2.4 million units in 2021, more than double the number of 1.17 million a year earlier. Cui Dongshu, secretary general of the CPCA, predicted sales of at least 5.5 million NEVs on the mainland in 2022.