MONA L03 passes 20,000 deliveries; XPulse estimates 50,000–65,000 orders awaiting delivery in China

A monthly record for an XPeng model

The MONA L03 is a compact SUV from XPeng’s lower-priced MONA range, on sale in China since 16 July from RMB123,800 to RMB156,800. XPeng’s MONA account wrote on 2 November that L03 deliveries passed 20,000 in October, about 40% of XPeng’s record 50,237. No XPeng car has reached 20,000 in a month before: the best for the MONA M03, the previous top seller, is 16,593 in March 2025, on the count by China’s passenger-car association, CPCA.

MONA L03, month by month

July to September are CPCA’s wholesale count, factory sales with exports included, from XPulse’s model data; October is XPeng’s own figure, over 20,000.

Demand was strong from launch. XPeng counted 46,859 firm orders, each with a deposit, in the first hour. It said on 2 October that more than nine in ten orders are for the Max or Ultra SE trims, the ones with its own Turing AI chips.

How many orders may be awaiting delivery in China

XPeng has not published a current count of unfilled L03 orders, so this is XPulse’s own estimate of a possible queue.

XPeng’s order page in China quotes a wait for every trim, counted from the day an order is locked, that is, made final. Only a locked order joins the production queue, Yu Tao, a vice-president of XPeng Group, wrote on 28 October. A quoted wait can also include production planning, transport and a buffer. If it mainly reflects the orders ahead of a new buyer, multiplying it by weekly deliveries gives a rough size for the queue.

The estimate rests on three assumptions. First, the quoted waits mainly reflect orders already placed. Second, deliveries in China continue at around October’s pace: XPeng expected more than 15,000 L03 deliveries in China that month, about 3,400 a week. Third, the mix of cars stays the same as September. XPulse’s records of CPCA figures show that 83% of the L03s sold in China were battery-electric and 17% had range extenders. These use a small petrol engine to charge the battery. Using that split gives the following estimate:

On these assumptions, roughly 50,000 to 65,000 L03 orders are awaiting delivery in China today. That would be more than three months of deliveries at October’s pace.

XPulse’s estimate, on the assumptions above. A month is about 15,000 deliveries, XPeng’s expected figure for China in October.

The figure would be lower if a large part of the wait is planning, transport or a buffer, or if some buyers walk away from their deposits.

What the estimate leaves out

The estimate covers only orders already locked in China today. It excludes any orders still awaiting delivery outside China. XPeng counted 12,136 L03 orders in Europe from July to September, before any test or display cars had reached the shops, and deliveries there began on 13 October. Yu Tao wrote on 29 October that XPeng’s partners abroad want more cars shipped this year, but that buyers in China get priority.

It does not include future orders, which would extend the queue later. Yu Tao wrote on 28 October that daily new L03 orders still exceed daily deliveries.

The delivery rate could also change. At the launch of the MONA L05, a larger SUV, on 29 October, He Xiaopeng, XPeng’s chairman and chief executive, said he had recently visited the factory, where L03 output was being raised so that waiting buyers in China get their cars sooner. On 2 November, Jiang Wen, general manager of the MONA range, wrote that he expects L03 deliveries to hold above 20,000 a month from October, without limiting that figure to China, and that the latest waits are shorter than before.

At a higher delivery rate, the same quoted wait would imply a larger queue. As an illustration, if all of those 20,000 cars a month went to buyers in China, the same waits would imply about 65,000 to 87,000 orders.

What Chinese reviewers say about the L03

Chinese reviewers say the L03 offers a lot for its price. Jacky, a host of the car show Jisu Paidang, wrote on 21 October that it impressed him most among the electric cars in a car-of-the-year selection. In a five-day test on a car lent by XPeng, the news site Diandong Xingqiu placed it in the top group at RMB120,000 to 150,000 for technology and fun. One blogger, Lizi Car Talk, called charging on long expressway trips its biggest hardware weakness and found rear headroom tight for tall passengers.

What this means for XPeng

XPulse’s reading: for now, L03 deliveries look limited by how many cars XPeng can build, not by how many people want one. He Xiaopeng tied his challenge of passing 60,000 deliveries in a single month this quarter to two new models, the G9L and the L05. The L03 could help too, if output rises: XPeng needs 9,763 more cars than in October, and if the estimate is about right, the queue in China is several times that gap.

The long wait has drawn criticism. Jiang Wen apologised to waiting buyers on 2 November, writing that July’s orders were far above XPeng’s expectations. He Xiaopeng said at the L05 launch that the criticism was fair.

The L03 also appears to have taken some sales from the similarly priced M03: CPCA’s count of the M03 fell from 14,197 in June to 5,554 in September. Together, the two cars still reached 19,769 in September, 39% more than the M03 alone in June.