New Power's March sales see a significant month-on-month increase: Leapmotor returns to the 50,000-unit mark, and Li Auto exceeds 40,000 units.

Automotive sales in March showed signs of a recovery.

On April 1, several new automakers disclosed their March delivery figures in succession. Overall, the recovery trend was evident. Except for Xiaomi Auto, the deliveries of all new automakers in March were significantly better than in February. From the perspective of individual automakers, Leapmotor saw a sharp month-over-month increase, breaking back through the 50,000-unit threshold. Li Auto and NIO also posted clear gains, with monthly sales exceeding 40,000 and 30,000 units, respectively.

Deliveries up month over month

Specifically, Leapmotor ranked first among new forces in delivery volume. In March, deliveries across the full lineup reached 50,000 units, up 35% year over year. In the first quarter of 2026, Leapmotor’s cumulative deliveries totaled 110,200 units.

On April 1, Leapmotor disclosed that its overseas expansion business had made an important breakthrough. The company’s first overseas innovation center officially opened in Munich; Leapmotor’s global strategy model B10 was officially rolled off the line at its SKD plant in Myanmar.

Li Auto delivered 41,100 new vehicles. As of March 31, 2026, Li Auto’s first-quarter delivery volume was 951,000 units, with a historical cumulative delivery volume of 16.354 million units.

Li Auto’s Chairman and CEO Li Xiang said, “With the production capacity bottleneck fully resolved after the Spring Festival, the delivery volume of the Li Auto i6 has continued to climb. In March, it exceeded 24,000 units, placing it among the leading pure-electric SUV sales in the 200,000 to 300,000 yuan range. The Li Auto i8 has benefited from excellent user word-of-mouth, and its order volume has also seen steady growth. In March, the month-over-month increase exceeded 100%.”

In March, NIO delivered 35,500 new vehicles, up 136% year over year, with a month-over-month increase of 70.6%. In the first quarter of 2026, NIO delivered 83,500 new vehicles in total, up 98.3% year over year, exceeding the upper limit of the earnings-report delivery guidance.

Among them, deliveries of new vehicles under the NIO brand were 22,490 units, up 120.1% year over year, and up 48.4% month over month; deliveries of new vehicles under the firefly brand were 6,119 units, up 130.3% month over month; and deliveries of new vehicles under the Ledo brand were 6,877 units, up 42.7% year over year, and up 130.7% month over month.

Xpeng Motors announced that it delivered 27,400 vehicles in March, up 80% month over month. In the first quarter, it delivered a total of 6.27 vehicles. For the month, Xpeng X9 delivered 3,075 units, up 134% year over year, and its global cumulative deliveries surpassed 55,000 units.

Possibly also affected by the launch of the next-generation SU7, Xiaomi Auto’s delivery performance came under pressure and did not achieve month-over-month growth like other automakers.

Xiaomi Auto’s official statement said that in March 2026, Xiaomi’s full lineup delivered “over 20,000 units.” Since the next-generation SU7 began deliveries on March 23, cumulative deliveries have already exceeded 7,000 units. By contrast, this is in line with its “over 20,000 units” disclosed for February. In addition, the company’s official disclosure shows that its March 2025 deliveries were “over 29,000 units,” which means its year-over-year deliveries declined by several thousand units.

In addition, Hongmeng Zhixing’s delivery data for March may also not be ideal.

As of 10:00 PM on April 1, Hongmeng Zhixing had not yet released delivery figures. However, according to a March production and sales quick report released by Seres, Seres’ new-energy vehicles sold 22,700 units in March, and Seres’ vehicle sales (typically the AITO series models) were 20,200 units, up 47.74%. Based on past data, AITO accounts for about 70% to 80% of Hongmeng Zhixing’s sales.

Deliveries of new-force brands under traditional automakers increased clearly.

IM Motors, under SAIC Group, disclosed that its March sales were 7,187 vehicles, up about 42.91% year over year; its sales in the first quarter of this year rose 97% year over year.

Dongfeng’s Lantu Motors announced that it delivered 15,000 new vehicles in March, up 50.1% year over year, with a month-over-month increase of 79.7%. From January to March 2026, it delivered 33,900 new vehicles, up 30.2% year over year.

A wave of new vehicle launches is about to begin, and it is expected to lift the auto market

The Beijing Auto Show is about to open, and automakers have also been sharing information about new model launches.

Leapmotor said it will release the Lafa 5 Ultra version model and the flagship model D19. The company also rolled out April vehicle-purchase incentive policies, allowing all models to enjoy up to 56.68 million yuan in comprehensive benefits.

As for NIO, it said that the technology executive flagship SUV NIO ES9 product technology conference will be held officially on April 9. NIO ES9 is “a milestone work of NIO technology turning from quantitative change to qualitative change, and also the comprehensive culmination of innovation across the NIO ecosystem.”

Xpeng said that the 2026 Xpeng MONA M03 will be officially launched on April 2. “The new product strength has been upgraded significantly—more refined, more than a step ahead of its class, and smarter.”

Li Auto said that the all-new generation of the Li Auto L9 will be launched in the second quarter. It will be equipped with the company’s in-house Mach 100 chip, the first mass-production full-line-by-wire chassis, and an 800V fully active suspension. Li Xiang said that this mass-production vehicle “fully possesses the capabilities of sensing, thinking, and acting, and will become a flagship SUV product that opens the era of embodied intelligence.”

The Passenger Car Association (CPCA) believes that the auto market showed signs of recovery as early as the second week of March. New energy vehicles are expected to be launched and released one after another throughout the year. At the same time, the CPCA pointed out that since new-energy vehicle brands adopt a direct-operated model, compared with the dealership model, retail volatility is smaller, and the market’s recovery can be sensed earlier.

(Source: The Paper)