Chinese electric vehicle maker XPeng (9868) forecast fourth-quarter revenue below estimates on Monday, as a prolonged price war and intensifying competition in the world's largest auto market threaten to slow its growth.

The company's U.S.-listed shares, which have more than doubled this year, fell nearly 3 percent in premarket trading.

The cautious outlook comes despite XPeng and rival NIO (9866), posting record deliveries in October, even as Tesla's China sales slumped to a three-year low. The contrasting performance underscores the uneven impact of a bruising price war that has eroded profitability across China's crowded EV sector.

XPeng expects fourth-quarter revenue between 21.5 billion yuan (HK$19.63 billion) and 23 billion yuan, below analysts' average estimate of 26 billion yuan, according to data compiled by LSEG.

"Since the launch of the mid-to-low-end Mona 03 last year, combined with reduced investment in intelligent driving, XPeng has lost its brand appeal in models priced above 200,000 yuan," according to Third Bridge analyst Rosalie Chen.

The Mona M03, XPeng’s first model under a new mass-market brand built with ride-hailing giant DiDi, is central to the automaker’s push into China’s more affordable EV segment.

At an AI Day event earlier this month, XPeng unveiled work on future consumer-facing "flying car" concepts and humanoid robots aimed at factory and warehouse uses. The long-term projects demand heavy research and development investment that could further pressure near-term earnings.

For the third quarter, XPeng reported revenue of 20.38 billion yuan, in line with expectations, driven by a 149.3 percent year-on-year jump in vehicle deliveries. XPeng expects vehicle deliveries to grow between 36.6 percent to 44.3 percent year-on-year.

The company's net loss narrowed to 380.9 million yuan from 1.81 billion yuan a year earlier.

REUTERS

Chinese EV maker XPeng forecasts weak fourth quarter revenue amid fierce competition