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I’ve stated it earlier than a number of occasions — XPENG and NIO have had a humorously related progress trajectory over the previous a number of years.
Generally one surges forward of the opposite for some time, after which issues swing once more and the opposite one surges forward. NIO had a little bit of a bonus in 2020 and most of 2021, and the XPENG took over till late 2022, then NIO held the ground till late 2023, and so forth and so forth. XPENG reached new peaks on the finish of 2025, however then NIO took the lead in December 2025.
Properly, in latest months, it has gotten tight. Most just lately, in June, the 2 EV corporations from China have been as tight as a soccer shoe (or soccer boot). XPENG had 40,126 gross sales, whereas NIO had 40,597 gross sales. That’s nearly a 1% distinction.
Trying on the month-to-month gross sales charts, XPENG’s excessive gross sales seemed rather more strong on the finish of 2025, however then NIO had that spike and didn’t fall as a lot in 2026.
The place do these two corporations go from right here? I don’t know, however I’ve a whole lot of enjoyable monitoring them. Each maintain introducing new fashions whereas making an attempt to realize monetary sustainability, largely in a hyper-competitive Chinese language EV market. I really feel a bit extra bullish about XPENG, particularly since NIO’s strategy has concerned bringing two extra manufacturers to market as a way to obtain its gross sales progress. Additionally, NIO’s deal with battery swapping could also be getting a bit questionable within the face of “Flash Charging.” That stated, I’m not a giant fan of the robotic distraction or flying automobiles at this second in time.
What do you assume? What are your projections for progress and which firm leads within the second half of 2026?
For extra on every firm’s latest gross sales, see:
Listed here are static variations of the charts embedded above:

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