What happened
Shares of Chinese electric-vehicle maker XPeng (XPEV -5.27%) were trading lower Tuesday, as good November sales results weren't enough to offset the downward pull of the morning's broad sell-off of electric-vehicle stocks. As of 11:21 a.m. EST, XPeng's American depositary shares were down by about 6.9% from Monday's closing price.
So what
Electric-vehicle companies have been on a tremendous bull run in recent months, but two developments on Monday -- a disappointing partnership deal for truck-maker Nikola (NKLA -6.77%) and a short-seller's scathing report on Kandi Technologies (KNDI -5.08%) -- may have spoiled auto investors' appetites for the entire niche for the time being.
XPeng's stock was dragged along by the wave of selling despite strong company-specific news. The automaker said on Tuesday morning that it delivered 4,224 vehicles in November, up from 3,040 in October and an increase of 342% from a year ago. That result suggests that XPeng is on track to meet or outperform the upbeat fourth-quarter guidance it issued last month, in which it predicted about 10,000 deliveries in the quarter.
XPeng's sleek, plush-riding P7 electric sedan is catching on with tech-savvy commuters. Image source: XPeng.
Now what
XPeng's best-selling vehicle, the P7 sedan, was just launched in late June, and the company is already moving to capitalize on strong consumer interest. At an auto show last month, XPeng showed off a new, limited-edition P7 with special Lamborghini-like doors, and said that all of its 2021 models will be available with a new advanced driver-assist system that incorporates lidar sensors for the first time on a mass-market vehicle.
The idea is that XPengs with the new system will have the computing capacity and sensor hardware needed to run full self-driving software, once that becomes available. For tech-obsessed car-shoppers in China, that's a compelling proposition -- even if the company's stock is slumping today.
