China's electric vehicle market is seeing another round of price cuts with at least 10 firms, including Zeekr and Zhejiang Leapmotor Technology (9863), joining the price war in a bid to boost sales.
Zeekr, which is part of Geely Automobile (0175), announced on Friday a price cut of up to 37,000 yuan (HK$39,971) for its Zeekr 001, with the cheapest one now priced at 269,000 yuan.
Earlier this month, Leapmotor cut prices for its C11 and C01 models by up to 20,000 yuan for some versions.
Other automakers who have cut prices or stepped up promotion campaigns this month include Great Wall Motor (2333), Nio (9866), SAIC Volkswagen, and Hozon Auto, which has an EV brand called Neta.
US automaker Tesla has also cut prices on multiple variants of its Model 3 and Model Y vehicles in Hong Kong from August 4, with discounts ranging from 6 to 12 percent. Last month, the group representing China's auto manufacturers retracted a pledge to avoid "abnormal pricing" that it had brokered between 16 automakers including Tesla, breaking a truce in a brutal price war over EVs.
The China Association of Auto Manufacturers said in a statement earlier in July it recognized the agreement had violated China's antitrust law and would retract it.
China's auto market, the world's largest, is on track to reach nearly 25 million vehicles in sales this year with overall growth of about 3 percent, and the share of EVs and plug-ins is rising fast. Consultancy AlixPartners forecasts this will be the first year made-in-China brands top 50 percent of their home market.
Zeekr is offering discounts of up to 37,000 yuan. Reuters
