Chinese electric vehicle maker
Li Auto
is set to report quarterly numbers Tuesday morning. Along with results for the quarter just passed, investors will be looking for third-quarter delivery guidance.
The guidance will give an indication of how EV sales are trending in China, a key data point for Li (ticker: LI),
Tesla
(TSLA),
BYD
(1211.Hong Kong), and other EV makers that sell cars in the world’s largest market for new cars, and for new EVs.
As for Li’s second-quarter earnings, Wall Street is looking for a 3-cent per share loss from sales of $1.3 billion. A year ago, Li reported a 2-cent loss from $780 million in sales.
Li delivered about 87,000 units in the second quarter of 2023, up more than 200% from the roughly 29,000 delivered in the second quarter of 2022. The second quarter of 2022 was impacted by COVID-19 lockdowns in China.
Li delivered a record 34,134 vehicles in July, the first month of the third quarter. Wall Street is looking for something north of 90,000 for the full quarter.
That would be up roughly 5% quarter-to-quarter. If the industry was up 5% sequentially, battery-electric vehicle sales would be roughly flat year over year in China.
Flat might be a little disappointing. Industrywide battery-electric vehicle sales rose roughly 10% from a year earlier in the first quarter and then rose roughly 40% year over year in the second quarter, bouncing back off Covid lockdown-induced lows.
Some year-over-year growth in the third quarter would be welcomed by investors. Li guiding close to 100,000 units for the quarter would help investor confidence that could happen.
Guidance and earnings will be discussed when management hosts a conference call at 8 a.m. Eastern time.
Coming into earnings, Li’s U.S.-listed American depositary receipts, or ADRs, are up 122% year to date, far better than the comparable 18% and 34% gains of the
S&P 500
and
Nasdaq Composite.
Write to Al Root at [email protected]
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