Short positions in XPeng's Hong Kong shares reach a record

Never above 9% before this year

Selling short usually means borrowing shares and selling them. Each week Hong Kong's securities regulator, the SFC, adds up the net short positions still open that are large enough to be reported, and publishes the total for each stock about a week later.

The usual way to size such a position is against the free float: the listed shares outside the hands of founders, directors and large strategic holders. On XPulse's estimate that is 1.42 billion of XPeng's Class A shares, of which 13.4% were sold short. Against all the Class A shares, the class that trades in Hong Kong, the figure is 12.2%.

For the comparison over time XPulse uses all Class A shares, because it has not reconstructed the free float for each reporting date. On that measure the position had never been above 9% until this year. It passed 10% in late June, 11% in early September and 12% in the latest week.

Net short positions in XPeng's Hong Kong shares reported to the SFC. Percentages are XPulse arithmetic on Class A share counts: Hong Kong monthly returns from December 2024, annual reports for earlier years.

More shares, less money

XPeng got here quickly. This year's low was 123.7 million shares in mid-April. Since then the position has grown by 67 million shares, or 54%, and it rose in each of the five weeks to 25 September.

Over the same months the Hong Kong share price fell from HK$69.70 to HK$39.46, a drop of 43%.

That makes this a record in shares, not in money. On 25 September the position was worth HK$7.5 billion. In mid-January, when fewer shares were short but each cost about HK$80, it was worth HK$11.6 billion.

Shares and value as the SFC reports them; the share price is that day's close in Hong Kong.

The founder's own purchase gives a longer yardstick. He Xiaopeng, XPeng's chairman and chief executive, bought 3.1 million shares in August 2025 at an average of HK$80.49. At the 2 October close of HK$36.36 they were worth 55% less, and he has disclosed no sale.

Deliveries, the one figure XPeng reports every month, recovered over the same period: 34% and 50% below a year earlier in January and February, 16% above in June and close to level from July to September. The short-position figures give no reasons.

A larger position in thinner trading

Days to cover divides the shares sold short by the average number traded in a day. On 25 September that was 25.2 days, the highest in the series. It had not passed 13 days before this year, and the three highest readings on record are the last three weeks.

Two things produced it. The position is at its largest, and trading has thinned: 7.6 million shares a day changed hands in the ten sessions to 25 September, about half the usual level this year.

The figure is XPulse's own arithmetic. It is a ratio, not an estimate of how long buying the shares back would take.

New York has moved the other way

The record is a Hong Kong one. XPeng's ADSs in New York have their own count, published twice a month by FINRA, the US brokerage regulator. It stood at 45.5 million ADSs on 15 September, down from 55.3 million at the end of June and below the record of 61.1 million set in June 2024.

One ADS is two Class A shares, so the two counts can be added. The latest of each, Hong Kong's for 25 September and New York's for 15 September, come to about 282 million shares, or 19.8% of the free float. The reports are ten days apart, so this is arithmetic on two dates, not one position.

The comparison over time again uses all Class A shares, and pairs each New York report with the Hong Kong figure on or just before it: for 15 September, the week of 11 September. On that pairing the combined position was 17.3% of Class A, the highest in the series. The step up is smaller than in Hong Kong alone, because at the earlier peaks more of the position sat in New York.

Short positions as a share of Class A, XPulse arithmetic. Each row pairs a New York report with the Hong Kong weekly figure on or just before it, so the two can be a few days apart; one ADS counts as two shares. Rounded parts may not add to the total.

How XPeng compares

With both listings counted, XPeng has more shares sold short than either of the other two carmakers listed in Hong Kong and New York: 281.9 million, against 244.6 million at NIO and 232.2 million at Li Auto. It is also the largest share of the listed stock, 18.0% of Class A. Against free float Li Auto is fractionally higher, 20.2% to 19.8%.

Hong Kong: the SFC's figure for 25 September. New York: FINRA's short interest for 15 September (45.5 million ADSs at XPeng, 29.3 million at Li Auto, 138.9 million at NIO). One ADS is two Class A shares at XPeng and Li Auto, one at NIO.

In Hong Kong alone, XPeng's 12.2% of listed shares is the highest of the 14 carmakers listed there, a tenth of a point ahead of Leapmotor. On XPulse's estimates of free float three are higher: Leapmotor, Li Auto and Brilliance, where founders, partners or state holders own far more of the listed stock. XPeng's float is 91% of Class A.

Net short positions reported to the SFC, Hong Kong dollar counters. Listed shares are the class that trades in Hong Kong. Free float is XPulse's estimate, on one rule for all 14: the listed shares less those held by founders, directors and executives, and less any holding of 5% or more by a company, a state body, a private-equity fund or an individual. Options and unvested awards are not deducted; portfolio fund managers, banks and depositaries count as float.

What the figure counts

Anyone whose net short position in XPeng's Hong Kong shares is worth about HK$12 million or more must report it, banks and market makers included. The total is published without names and covers only shares sold short in Hong Kong, not options or other contracts.

A short position is not always a bet on a falling price. A bank that has sold a client a contract tied to the shares may sell shares short to offset it, and some investors are short one listing against a holding in the other. The figures do not separate these. One common source of such hedging is absent: XPeng has no convertible bonds, whose buyers often sell the shares short.

What the next reports will show

The 25 September figure predates XPEV's first close below $10 since September 2024, on 28 September, and September's deliveries, published on 1 October. The next Hong Kong figure, for 2 October, and New York's for 30 September are both due around 9 October.

The figures show how many shares are sold short. They do not show why, and they say nothing about where the price goes next.