(Yicai) Feb. 2 -- Aito, the electric vehicle brand co-developed by Chinese carmaker Seres Group and tech giant Huawei Technologies, has surpassed Leapmotor Technology to become the best-selling new energy vehicle startup in China last month.

Aito's deliveries surged 83 percent to 40,016 units in January from a year earlier, Seres announced yesterday. Leapmotor, which sold the most EVs among NEV startups in China last year, slipped to third position, with deliveries up 27 percent to 32,059 units in the period.

In fact, Xiaomi Auto also overtook Leapmotor last month, having delivered over 39,000 electric vehicles.

Shanghai-based Nio saw its deliveries nearly double to 27,182 units in January from a year earlier, driven by strong sales of its new ES8, which was released in the second half of last year.

Meanwhile, both Li Auto and Xpeng Motors experienced declines in deliveries in the period, with the former down 8 percent to 27,668 units, and the latter down 34 percent to 20,011 units.

On a monthly basis, sales of NEV startups generally declined in January. Leapmotor and Xpeng reported drops of 47 percent, and Nio experienced a 44 percent fall. Sales of Li Auto plunged 37 percent, and those of Aito and Xiaomi Auto shrank 31 percent and 22 percent, respectively.

Due to the tendency of Chinese carmakers to engage in aggressive promotional activities at the end of the year to boost sales and achieve their annual delivery targets, the market typically experiences a cooling adjustment in January.

Moreover, China has abolished the 12-year policy of exempting NEVs from purchase taxes from Jan. 1, replacing it with a 5 percent tax based on the vehicle's selling price, which has led to an increase in consumers' purchasing costs this month.

China's retail sales of passenger cars totaled 679,000 units between Jan. 1 and 18, down 28 percent from a year earlier and 37 percent from a month earlier, according to data from the China Passenger Car Association. Among them, NEV sales reached 312,000 units, down 16 percent and 52 percent, respectively, in the period.

Editors: Dou Shicong, Futura Costaglione