EV Startup April Sales Shake-Up: Leapmotor Surpasses 70,000 Units to Lead the Pack

April Shake-Up: Leapmotor Dominates the EV Startup Rankings

April 2025 marked the most dramatic monthly shift in China's EV startup delivery rankings since the beginning of the year. Leapmotor surged ahead with over 70,000 units delivered, while Li Auto, Xiaomi, and XPeng fought tooth and nail for second place, rewriting the industry hierarchy in real time.

Behind this reshuffling lies not just a battle of product cycles and pricing strategies, but a comprehensive showdown in core technological capabilities including autonomous driving and AI cockpits.

Leapmotor Breaks 70K: Dual Engines of Value and Intelligence

Leapmotor's April deliveries soared past the 70,000-unit mark, setting a new all-time brand record. This achievement was anything but accidental. With its C-series and B-series product lineup, Leapmotor has built formidable coverage across the mainstream 100,000–200,000 RMB price range. More critically, the company has adhered to a "full-stack in-house R&D" approach — from intelligent driving chips to AI algorithms — achieving full self-reliance and bringing advanced smart driving features down to lower-priced models under a differentiated "class-defying intelligence" banner.

Leapmotor founder Zhu Jiangming has repeatedly emphasized that "intelligent technology shouldn't be exclusive to premium vehicles." April's sales figures fully validated this strategy — as AI-powered driving shifts from an optional add-on to a standard feature, mainstream consumers are voting with their wallets.

Li Auto, Xiaomi, and XPeng: A Three-Way Battle for Second Place

The fight for second place was equally riveting. Li Auto maintained a robust delivery pace, buoyed by the steady performance of its L-series family and the gradual ramp-up of the MEGA. Li Auto's AI initiatives also deserve attention — its proprietary "Mind GPT" large language model has been deeply integrated into the smart cockpit, with continuously evolving voice interaction and contextual understanding capabilities serving as a key driver of user loyalty.

Xiaomi Auto continued the strong momentum it has maintained since entering the market. The Xiaomi SU7 series remained a hot seller, with April deliveries holding at elevated levels. Xiaomi's edge lies in its comprehensive AIoT ecosystem — seamless connectivity from smartphones to cars, combined with deep deployment of Xiaomi's large model in the cockpit — making its "People, Car, Home" ecosystem experience a unique selling proposition. Lei Jun's celebrity effect combined with genuine product strength has propelled Xiaomi Auto's ranking steadily upward among EV startups.

XPeng secured its position at the top of the table through sustained volume from the MONA M03 and strong market reception of the P7+. XPeng's technical depth in intelligent driving ranks among the deepest of any EV startup — its XNGP urban smart driving system now covers major cities nationwide, and its end-to-end large-model-driven autonomous driving experience has become a core competitive moat. In April, XPeng's smart driving user engagement and mileage data both hit record highs, as technological reputation translates into real sales.

Intelligence Becomes the Sales Dividing Line

Looking across the April EV startup sales rankings, one clear trend emerges: AI-powered intelligence is becoming the decisive variable in determining sales rankings.

In the past, consumers chose new energy vehicles primarily based on battery-motor-control technology and value for money. Today, the usability of autonomous driving, the interactive experience of AI cockpits, and the pace of OTA upgrade iterations are carrying increasing weight in purchase decisions. Whether it's Leapmotor's "democratization of intelligence," Li Auto's "large-model cockpit," Xiaomi's "ecosystem connectivity," or XPeng's "end-to-end smart driving," every leading EV startup has placed AI capability front and center as their primary competitive advantage.

Meanwhile, brands that have underinvested in or fallen behind on intelligence are accelerating their slide. The decline of certain brands on the April leaderboard is a stark confirmation of this harsh reality.

Looking Ahead: The AI Arms Race Accelerates

As we enter the second quarter of 2025, competition among EV startups will intensify further. Multiple automakers have announced plans to launch new models this year equipped with more powerful AI chips and end-to-end autonomous driving solutions, escalating the intelligence "arms race."

From an industry perspective, several key trends are worth watching:

• End-to-end autonomous driving accelerates real-world deployment: Large-model-driven intelligent driving is shifting from novelty to practical utility, with urban NOA coverage and experience quality becoming critical benchmarks
• AI cockpits enter the multimodal era: The fusion of voice, visual, and gesture-based multimodal interaction, powered by large models, will redefine human-vehicle interaction
• The cost of intelligence continues to decline: In-house chip development and algorithm optimization will drive advanced intelligent features into vehicles priced below 150,000 RMB
• Data feedback loops build competitive moats: Automakers with higher delivery volumes will accumulate more real-world driving data, creating a positive flywheel of "sales → data → algorithm optimization → experience improvement → more sales"

April's sales reshuffling is merely a microcosm of a larger transformation. As AI technology profoundly reshapes the automotive industry, competition among EV startups is no longer just about building cars — it's an all-out war over the ability to deploy artificial intelligence. Those who can move faster and more steadily in this AI arms race will seize the initiative in the next round of industry upheaval.