BEIJING, August 8 (TMTPost)— Tesla’s Chinese rival Li Auto Inc. recorded robust growth in sales and highest-ever earnings in the second quarter despite the stiff competition.

Credit：Visual China

Li Auto’s revenue surged 228.1% year-over-year to RMB28.65 billion (US$3.95 billion) in the quarter ended June 30, beating the analysts’ estimated RMB27.21 billion. The revenue increased 52.5% from the previous quarter. The electric vehicle (EV) company posted net income of RMB2.31 billion in the June quarter, the best quarterly earnings since it founded in 2015. That  suggested the company maintained profitability for the third consecutive quarter, also highlighted a successful turnaround compared with the net loss of RMB641 million a year earlier.

Vehicle sales in the second quarter jumped 229.7% YoY to RMB27.97 billion, with a quarter-over-quarter (QoQ) increase of 52.6%. Vehicle margin stood at 21.0% that quarter, topping the analysts’ expectation of 20.6%. The margin was roughly in line with the same period a year ago and edged higher from the previous quarter’s 19.8%.

Like the previous quarter, Li Auto’s strong performance was driven by its record high sales. The EV maker delivered 86,533 vehicles in June quarter with a 201.6% YoY increase, jumping 64.6% from the previous record its set in the first quarter. “We crossed the 30,000 monthly delivery milestone in June, closing the second quarter with an all-time high vehicle delivery, while all of the three Li L series models maintained sales leadership in their respective categories,” Li Auto chairman and CEO Li Xiang commented. Li said his company achieved record high profitability amid the heated competition in China’s new energy vehicle (NEV) industry, and was well on the track to achieve the revenue target of RMB100 billion this year.

Looking forward, Li Auto said the delivery in the third quarter will hit another record, rising between 277.0% and 288.3% YoY to 100,000 units and 103,000 units, and revenue that quarter between RMB32.33 billion and RMB33.30 billion, up 246.0% to 256.4% YoY. The outlook suggested the boom sales will last, with stronger momentum of delivery and revenue than the June quarter.

Li Xiang expressed upbeat about the performance in the coming months as Li Auto is scheduled to unveil Li MEGA, its super flagship 5C battery electric vehicle (BEV) model, in the last quarter of the year. “Embodying our latest technological advancements in electrification and intelligentization, we are confident that Li MEGA will become a new sales blockbuster in the RMB500,000 and higher price segment,” Li said.

At the earnings conference, Li told analysts that sales guidance in the third quarter is made based on the limit of the current capacity, and delivery in the next quarter will by all means top 40,000 units when the capacity scaled up in that period. He said he felt confident in challenging three German auto giants Audi, Benz and BMW in China, and Li Auto is expected to be the No. 1 luxury EV brand in the market next year.

Li Auto just released another monthly record at the beginning of this month. It shipped 34,134 EVs in July with an astonishing yearly growth of 227.5%. Its monthly delivery topped 30,000 units again after it first exceeded the 30,000-unit monthly delivery mark in June. Li Xiang said his company successfully delivered our 400,000th vehicle in July, becoming the first emerging NEV manufacturer in China to achieve this milestone. Li noted launches this year achieved solid delivery. Li Auto delivered over 50,000 Li L7s, a five-seat flagship family SUV, within five months of delivery commencement. Li added deliveries of two six-seat SUVs, Li L9 and Li L8, increased to around 20,000 in July, up from about 12,000 in March.

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