Deutsche Bank AG cut its holdings in XPeng, Li Auto and Nio in the third quarter and raised its Tesla stake to the most since 2019, according to its latest 13F filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.
The group’s XPeng holding fell 93.5% to 76,176 American depositary shares (ADS) from a record 1,179,321 at the end of June. Its Li Auto position dropped to 62 ADS from 751,717, and its Nio holding fell 37.7% to 212,938 ADS from 341,698.
Over the same period, it added 813,965 Tesla shares, taking the total to 10,417,128.
The report, filed on November 6 for the quarter ended September 30, lists holdings worth about $362 billion. It combines Deutsche Bank’s own units with those of its asset manager DWS, and the form does not separate client mandates from the bank’s own positions, so the changes cannot be read as directional views.
Chinese EV Makers
Almost all of the movement in the three Chinese EV makers came through DWS Investments UK Ltd, which held 1,179,170 of the group’s XPeng ADS in June and 76,076 in September, according to the filing.
The cuts reversed a build-up from earlier this year. Deutsche Bank held between about 80,000 and 113,000 XPeng ADS in every report from March 2024 to December 2025, before raising the position to 169,205 in March and to the record in June. The September count is the lowest since December 2023.
Li Auto followed the same path. The group held fewer than 3,000 ADS in each quarter from March 2024 to December 2025, then built a stake of 433,993 in March and 751,717 in June, its largest since September 2022.
The XPeng position was valued at $728,243 at the end of September, against $15.6 million in June. XPeng’s ADS fell 27.8% over the quarter, while Li Auto’s slipped 3.2%.
Nio is a much smaller holding than it once was. Deutsche Bank reported more than 3 million Nio ADS in every quarter from June 2022 to June 2024, peaking at 7,135,824 in September 2021.
The September position was worth $730,377, down from $1.73 million in June.
Deutsche Bank’s research arm has been active on the sector. It estimated in July that Chinese buyers had placed more than 50,000 non-cancellable orders for XPeng’s L03 SUV, and it has forecast 56,000 Nio ES9 sales this year.
Tesla
The 10,417,128 Tesla shares are the most Deutsche Bank has reported since June 2019, after adjusting for Tesla’s 2020 and 2022 stock splits. They were up 8.5% from 9,603,163 in June and above the 10,276,129 reported in June 2025.
The holding was valued at $3.70 billion, marked at Tesla’s September 30 close of $354.81, down from $4.04 billion in June as Tesla’s stock fell 15.6% over the quarter.
It equals about 0.26% of the 3,952,757,946 shares Tesla reported outstanding on October 15. DWS Investments UK Ltd held 8,064,250 of the shares, up from 7,215,815.
The filing lists no Tesla options.
Deutsche Bank analyst Edison Yu cut his Tesla price target to $420 from $465 on July 27 while keeping a ‘Buy’ rating, according to Price Target. Price Target, a sister publication of EV, archives Wall Street analysts’ research on the electric vehicle, artificial intelligence and semiconductor sectors.
Tesla closed at $390.84 on Wednesday, 7.0% below Yu’s target.
Rivian and Lucid
Deutsche Bank raised its Rivian Class A holding 14.1% to 2,872,627 shares, the most in its filings, valued at $42.9 million. It closed a put position on 100,000 underlying shares that it held in June.
The group also held $11.15 million in principal of Rivian convertible notes, up from $8.93 million, after adding $2.22 million of its 4.625% notes due 2029. Its holding of the 3.625% notes due 2030 was unchanged at $2.996 million.
Its Lucid holding slipped 1.4% to 160,256 shares, worth about $652,000 at Lucid’s September 30 close of $4.07.
Other Carmakers
Among other carmakers, Deutsche Bank cut its Ford holding by 33.8% to 12,747,471 shares, worth $153.7 million, and its General Motors holding by 5.9% to 4,686,673 shares, worth $360.9 million.
It raised Ferrari by 5.9% to 1,175,339 shares, worth $461.7 million, its largest carmaker position after Tesla. Its Stellantis holding edged up 0.7% to 11,518,134 shares, worth $50.2 million.
The bank trimmed Polestar by 12.8% to 134,558 shares and cut its Toyota ADS to 1,676 from 11,931. It raised China’s Pony AI to 54,072 ADS from 14,751 and Mobileye to 19,102 shares from 12,094.
Deutsche Bank’s moves on Chinese EV makers differ from those of several peers that have filed. UBS nearly doubled its Nio holding and raised XPeng by 52% while cutting Li Auto. Barclays added Nio and XPeng, and Citigroup cut XPeng and Li Auto.
Managers have until November 16 to report holdings as of September 30. Vanguard, BlackRock, State Street, Morgan Stanley, JPMorgan and Goldman Sachs had not filed as of Thursday.
