US-listed shares of Chinese carmakers tumbled in the final trading session of 2025, erasing gains from earlier in the week as investors braced for monthly delivery figures that will determine whether companies met their annual targets.
As of press time, Nio shares fell 9.4% dropping below $5, XPeng dropped 6.2% to below $20, and Li Auto declined 4.9% to $16.43 in the first hour of trading on Wednesday.
The declines come less than 24 hours before Chinese automakers disclose December delivery figures and full-year totals.
Annual Targets
Among the three long-established US-listed Chinese EV makers, XPeng is the only one that will meet its 2025 sales target.
As exclusively reported by EV earlier this month, the company will host a global launch of the new P7+ sedan on January 8. Details on the European pricing and rollout timeline will be shared a day later at the Brussels Auto Show.
The Guangzhou headquartered brand became the first Chinese new energy vehicle (NEV) maker to reach its goal of 380,000 vehicles.
It was then followed by the tech giant Xiaomi, which raised its sales target in November from 350,000 to 400,000 units.
Both Nio and Li Auto will miss their initial annual targets. The carmakers lowered guidance multiple times throughout the year.
Li Auto faced a severe demand issue in 2025. After having delivered slightly over half a million units in 2024 alone, the Beijing-based carmaker aimed to reach 700,000 units in 2025.
However, Li Auto trimmed earlier this year its annual delivery target to 640,000, citing “weaker than expected” orders for the revamped Li L6 — the brand’s best-selling model.
The brand delivered 33,181 vehicles in November — a 31.9% year-over-year drop and the sixth consecutive month of decline.
Separately, Li Auto is preparing a major product realignment for 2026 affecting several of its models, local media outlet LatePost reported earlier this Wednesday.
Nio expected to double annual deliveries in 2025, which would represent a yearly total of over 442,000 units across the three brands.
However, the company founded and led by William Li has lowered expectations several times throughout the year.
In the latest one, Nio reduced its fourth-quarter delivery target in early November from 150,000 units to 120,000-125,000 units.
The company had previously revised its guidance, initially disclosing a 150,000-unit target for only the Nio and Onvo brands in June, then including the Firefly brand in early September to reach that figure.
Among the three companies, Nio remains a pure battery electric vehicle maker, while XPeng began producing extended-range electric vehicles this year and Li Auto — which built its business on EREVs — now also produces BEVs.
Subsidy Changes
Wednesday’s selloff follows a rally earlier in the week after China confirmed trade-in subsidies for new energy vehicles will continue in 2026.
According to a statement by the National Development and Reform Commission and the Ministry of Finance, owners can receive up to 20,000 yuan ($2,850) when scrapping and replacing an old vehicle for an eligible NEV, or up to 15,000 yuan ($2,140) for trade-ins.
However, the 2026 subsidies will be calculated as a percentage of the vehicle price — up to 12% — differing from the fixed amounts offered in 2025.
The revised policy significantly reduces per-vehicle subsidies for mid-to-low-priced cars — those priced below 150,000 yuan — according to a research note released Tuesday by Deutsche Bank analyst Wang Bin and first reported by CnEVPost.
Under the new rules, only NEVs priced above 166,700 yuan qualify for the full central government scrappage trade-in subsidy, the research note said. Local government used-car trade-in subsidies require NEVs to exceed 187,500 yuan to qualify for maximum benefits.
For example, an NEV priced at 80,000 yuan that received a 20,000 yuan central subsidy in 2025 would only qualify for 9,600 yuan in 2026, Deutsche Bank illustrated.
The move is interpreted as aiming to promote technological innovation and optimize the automotive industry’s product structure, the analysts wrote.
Higher-priced vehicles typically drive technological advancement due to their greater material costs.
