Chinese Tesla challengers Leapmotor and Zeekr, banking on their latest battery and self-driving technologies, bucked a downward trend in domestic electric vehicle sales with record deliveries last month, ratcheting up pressure on the US carmaker amid weak consumer sentiment towards big-ticket items. Stellantis-backed Leapmotor delivered 93,376 electric vehicles (EVs) last month, up 94.5 per cent year on year, as it rewrote its sales record for a second consecutive month. Zeekr, a premium EV unit of Geely Auto, China’s second-largest carmaker, also smashed its delivery record for a second straight month in June, reporting sales of 35,169 units, up 110.6 per cent year on year. “The two carmakers, along with Xpeng, Nio and Xiaomi, are emerging as the winners of China’s EV market this year, but they represent just a small portion of the country’s EV industry,” said Eric Han, a senior ­manager at Shanghai consultancy Suolei. “Their technological advancement and fancy new models effectively spurred a sales jump.” Tesla has yet to announce last month’s delivery volume in China, but its Shanghai Gigafactory now assembles only Model 3 and Model Y vehicles priced above 200,000 yuan (US$29,441). Hangzhou-based Leapmotor builds and sells midsize smart EVs at roughly half the price of comparable Tesla models. In May, Tesla’s Shanghai factory delivered 47,281 vehicles to customers in mainland China, up 22.5 per cent year on year, according to data from the China Passenger Car Association. Chinese EV makers and component suppliers now dominate the domestic and global EV markets, buoyed by their cost and technological advantages. Tesla was the front-runner in China’s premium category – where EVs cost more than 200,000 yuan – for five years until Xiaomi’s fully electric SU7 outsold Tesla’s Model 3 last year. A record 156 new models are expected to hit the mainland’s vehicle market in the second half of the year, with analysts saying that is likely to fuel a new round of price competition as carmakers try to reduce excess inventory. Global consultancy AlixPartners predicted this week that China’s car sales would fall by 10 per cent this year on the back of a shaky economy and softening government support. It added that top players could increase their market share because they were better placed to withstand the price war that would ensnare nearly all the country’s 100-odd carmakers. Shanghai-based Nio delivered 40,597 vehicles to domestic and international customers last month, up 62.9 per cent year on year and its best monthly result of the year. Guangzhou-headquartered Xpeng, part owned by Volkswagen, also saw deliveries hit a high point for the year, up 15.9 per cent year on year to 40,126 vehicles. BYD, the world’s largest EV assembler, recorded sales of 403,472 units last month, up 5.5 per cent year on year. Xiaomi, a smartphone maker and EV start-up, said its June deliveries exceeded 30,000 units.