US-listed shares of the carmaker Li Auto fell on early Thursday to $21.68, hitting a new four-month low after the Chinese carmaker’s second-quarter earnings results missed expectations on both revenue and Earnings per Share (EPS).
Li Auto posted Q2 earnings of 1.37 yuan per share, missing analyst estimates of 1.81 yuan by 0.44 yuan. Revenue came in at 30.24 billion yuan, below the consensus forecast of 33 billion yuan.
The company’s CFO Tie Li said that, in the second quarter, Li Auto “remained focused on cost optimization and operational efficiency enhancement.”
The Beijing-based new energy vehicle (NEV) maker said it expects vehicle deliveries to plunge between 37.8% and 41.1% in the third quarter.
Li Auto expects to deliver between 90,000 and 95,000 vehicles. Based on the 30,731 vehicles delivered in July, the carmaker expects to deliver between 59,269 and 64,269 in August plus September.
In the third quarter of 2024, deliveries stood at 152,831 vehicles.
For total revenue in the July-September period, the company founded and led by Li Xiang expects it to fall between 38.8% and 42.1% — to between 24.8 billion yuan ($3.5 billion) and 26.2 billion ($3.7 billion).
Automotive revenue dropped nearly 5% year over year to $4.0 billion on lower sales while gross profit and net income edged lower by 1.8% and 0.4%, respectively.
As of press time, the stock is falling 4.65% at $21.58.
Despite being up nearly 15% over the last twelve months, Li Auto’s US-listed shares have lost 21% in the last 90 days.
The company began deliveries in China of its second fully electric model, the three-row SUV i8, last week. It starts at 339,800 yuan and is equipped with a 97.8 kWh battery that provides 720km of range based on China’s CLTC cycle.
The i6, a smaller SUV, will follow later in September as the carmaker expands its fully electric portfolio.
Earlier this month, the founder and chief executive officer Li Xiang said that, besides him, only Xiaomi‘s co-founder and CEO Lei Jun is capable of creating a “super product” among China’s new wave of automakers.
