March 20 (Reuters) - Electric vehicle maker XPeng forecast first-quarter revenue below market estimates on Friday, hit by intense price competition and slowing demand in China.
The weak forecast took the shine off its maiden quarterly profit and sent the automaker's U.S. shares down nearly 5% in morning trading.
The Chinese government's pullback in subsidies to rein in deep discounting after years of rapid growth has hurt demand in the world's largest auto market, and also affected rivals such as NIO and BYD.
Last month, China's new electric and plug-in hybrid car registrations fell 32%, data from consultant Benchmark Mineral Intelligence showed.
To counter domestic weakness, XPeng is expanding aggressively overseas and said on Friday it would launch EVs for the Latin American market later this month. However, its push into Europe faces challenges due to tighter rules on foreign investment.
The company expects revenue between 12.20 billion yuan and 13.28 billion yuan ($1.77 billion and $1.93 billion) for the quarter ending March 31, below analysts' average estimate of 17.38 billion yuan, according to data compiled by LSEG.
Vehicle deliveries are expected to decline between 29.8% and 35.1% during the period.
"XPeng's sales growth this year may depend on new models—particularly the Mona D02—as well as incremental growth from overseas markets," Third Bridge analyst Rosalie Chen said.
For the October-December quarter, XPeng's higher-margin P7 sedan helped drive a 30% jump in sales to 19.07 billion yuan.
The EV maker has also been trying to license its technology to other automakers and rebrand itself as a "physical AI" company. The strategy has led to a tie-up with Volkswagen (VOWG.DE), opens new tab, which will develop new EVs in China using XPeng's technology.
XPeng posted a profit of 383.21 million yuan, compared with a 1.33 billion yuan loss a year ago. Revenue rose to 22.25 billion yuan in the fourth quarter, exceeding estimates of 22.13 billion yuan.
($1 = 6.8857 Chinese yuan renminbi)
