Li Auto Posts Huge Deliveries. Good News For EVs as Chip Shortage Abates.

“Driven by outstanding merchandise features and performance, the 2021 Li ONE acceptable an all-time precocious successful monthly deliveries erstwhile again.” said cofounder Yanan Shen successful the company’s quality release. “By the extremity of this year, we volition motorboat a bid of large OTA upgrades to elevate our merchandise offering to caller heights.”

Most of the caller EV offerings, including those from peers specified as NIO (NIO) and Tesla (TSLA), are continually improved done bundle updates to conveyance functions and artillery management.

It’s a large period and should beryllium bully quality for Li stock. So acold successful 2021, Li shares are up astir 16%, successful enactment with comparable gains of the S&P 500 and Dow Jones Industrial Average. But it’s been rather a thrust for investors. Shares are up astir 69% implicit the past 3 months.

Shares were anemic from aboriginal successful the twelvemonth coming into May arsenic investors disquieted astir the planetary semiconductor shortage that was hurting automotive production. Li, for instance, delivered conscionable 2,300 vehicles successful February. It besides delivered 4,323 vehicles successful May, the period earlier deliveries ramped higher successful June and July.

Li’s fig besides bodes good for adjacent XPeng (XPEV) and NIO, which volition study deliveries successful coming days. NIO, coming into July, has delivered astir 42,000 vehicles. XPeng has delivered 30,728 vehicles year-to-date, a small much than Li’s 30,154 conveyance deliveries coming into July. With July added in, Li’s year-to-date deliveries apical 38,000 vehicles.

The Li July fig is besides a positive for Tesla, but Tesla doesn’t study monthly deliveries by state oregon by month.

Write to allen.root@dowjones.com