(Yicai) Sept. 2 -- Leapmotor and Seres Group spearheaded sales gains among Chinese EV makers last month, with producers reporting mixed sales figures amid intense price competition in the world’s biggest auto market.

Stellantis-backed Leapmotor saw deliveries soar 114 percent to a record 30,305 vehicles in August from a year ago, while Seres, which is part of Huawei Technologies' auto grouping Harmony Intelligent Mobility Alliance and makes the Aito brand, handed over 36,181 units to buyers, representing a nearly six-fold surge.

BYD, the market leader among Chinese EV builders, sold a record 373,083 cars last month, up 36 percent. The Shenzhen-based firm's overseas sales exceeded 31,450.

Li Auto's deliveries jumped 38 percent to 48,122, reaching a total of 288,103 in the first eight months of the year. The startup is confident about achieving its annual sales target of 500,000, Chief Financial Officer Li Tie said on the firm’s first-half earnings conference call last week.

Nio and Xpeng made deliveries of 20,176 and 14,036 units in August, up 4.4 percent and 3 percent, respectively. The former is expected to hand over the first L60 model under its new Onvo brand this month, while the latter last month released the M03, the debut auto of its new Mona marque.

Xiaomi Auto delivered more than 10,000 SU7s for the third consecutive month, with the vehicle production arm of the smartphone giant expecting to hit its annual sales goal of 100,000 units in November, one month ahead of schedule.

Other firms logging growth included the EV marques of Zhejiang Geely Holding Group, Dongfeng Motor, and SAIC Motor, with deliveries of Zeekr, Voyah, and IM Motors vehicles rising 46 percent, 54 percent, and 239 percent to 18,015, 6,156, and 6,117, respectively.

But some Chinese EV builders did not report sales gains for August. GAC Aion's global sales fell 21 percent to 35,355, while Great Wall Motor's Ora sold 5,151, almost halving the figure from a year earlier. Deliveries of Hozon Auto, the owner of EV brand Neta, fell 9 percent to 11,005 units.

Retail sales of passenger vehicles likely sank 4.4 percent to 1.84 million units last month, according to an Aug. 22 forecast by the China Passenger Car Association. New energy vehicle sales are expected to have climbed by nearly 37 percent to about 980,000, accounting for more than 53 percent of the total.

Editor: Futura Costaglione