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A Li Xiang One Hybrid SUV is on display at the China Import and Export Fair Complex, China, during the 18th Guangzhou International Auto Show on November 23, 2020.

Li Zhihao | Visual China Group | Getty Images

BEIJING – At the beginning of 2021, Chinese automaker Li Auto is in third place behind its start-up competitors Nio and Xpeng with a drop in deliveries in January.

Li Auto, listed on Nasdaq, said late Monday, Eastern Time, it shipped 5,379 Li One SUVs in January. That is less than 6,126 deliveries in December and less than Nios 7,225 and Xpeng’s 6,015 deliveries in January.

Li Auto also announced that it will establish a new research and development center in Shanghai for autonomous driving and other technologies related to electric vehicles.

Li Auto’s shares fell the hardest among competitors in US trading on Tuesday, down 5.7% from losses of about 4.6% for Xpeng and 2.1% for Nio. Tesla shares rose 3.9%.

Competition for high-end electric SUVs increased in January, and Tesla announced it would soon begin shipping its China-made Model Y at a price close to that of Nio and Li Auto cars. Tesla delivered 180,570 electric cars worldwide in the last three months of 2020 alone.

The Li One SUV is the first and so far only model from Li Auto. According to China’s Passenger Car Association, it was the best-selling high-end electric SUV in 2020 and even made it into the top 10 list of high-end SUVs overall along with Nio.

According to Morgan Stanley analysts, the Li One SUV is characterized by its fuel tank that can charge the battery and extend the range by 620 kilometers to a total of 800 kilometers.

One of the biggest concerns Chinese consumers have when buying an electric car is whether the battery will run out too quickly, with no charging station nearby, or with long charging times.

Deliveries of 5,379 Li One SUVs in January still quadrupled from the same period last year, and cumulative deliveries have exceeded 38,900 since the vehicle launched in December 2019, according to Li Auto.

That is less than half of the over 82,800 vehicles that Nio delivered cumulatively at the end of January. Nio has three SUV models on the market and plans to start delivering a sedan next year.

Rachmat Kaimuddin hadn’t even been 100 days in his new role as CEO of the Indonesian e-commerce market Bukalapak when the pandemic broke out.

It was a crossroads for one of the country’s leading startups that needed to act quickly to support millions of family-owned street stalls for which it provides digital services. But it was also a turning point for the newly installed leader.

Fortunately, Kaimuddin already had experience.

“I don’t know if it’s luck or bad luck, but I have to get pretty close to some major crises, economic crises,” the 41-year-old told CNBC Make It.

Learn crises

Kaimuddin, an Indonesian national, had just graduated from high school in a small town in Central Java in 1997 when the Asian financial crisis hit.

Four years later, when he left the Massachusetts Institute of Technology with an engineering major, the dot-com bubble burst. Then, in 2008, the global financial crisis broke out as a freshly minted Stanford MBA graduate.

The path of a leader is to provide that circle of security to the people below.

Rachmat Kaimuddin

CEO, Bukalapak

However, that experience, and the resilience it has gained, has helped him navigate the ups and downs of the business – and help others do the same, he said.

“I’ve seen what it was like to see some crises before your eyes,” said Kaimuddin, who has a decade of experience in leadership roles in a number of industries including aerospace, construction and finance.

“But I’ve also seen that these crises usually happen (because of) something that isn’t sensible,” he continued. “At some point the law of economics or mathematics will prevail.”

Guide through the coronavirus

In 2020, Kaimuddin was served his greatest challenge.

He replaced Bukalapak co-founder Achmad Zaky as CEO and began managing a network of thousands of employees, millions of dealers and millions of customers amid the coronavirus.

However, the chairman said his main job is to reassure employees and customers that this crisis will also pass.

Rachmat Kaimuddin, CEO of the Indonesian e-commerce marketplace Bukalapak.

Bukalapak

“This is something I think I have to keep telling people, ‘Look, just try to do the right thing and this crisis will end,'” he said.

Now, on Kaimuddin’s indictment, 11-year-old Bukalapak is juggling the still escalating global health crisis with the economic consequences of the pandemic that has hit developing markets like Indonesia hard. The company is also facing increasing demand for e-commerce and a possible listing later this year.

But Kaimuddin said he intended to keep that mentality and urged others to adopt it – inspired by Simon Sinek’s business book “Leaders Eat Last”.

“The premise is that a leader’s path is to provide that safety circle to the people below,” he said. “When this leadership path comes to you, try to form this circle.”

Don’t Miss: How 3 Friends Made A Billionaire Deal With Indonesia’s Street Stalls

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The latest prototype of SpaceX’s next-generation spacecraft rocket was successfully launched on Tuesday but exploded on impact during a landing attempt after a development test flight.

The spaceship prototype Serial Number 9 or SN9 was designed to fly up to 10 kilometers or about 32,800 feet in altitude. The flight was similar to the SpaceX conducted in December when the prototype SN8 took off on the tallest and longest flight to date.

While the missile flew successfully, it exploded onto the ground on its return, just like the SN8 flight in December.

“We had another great flight … we just need to work a little on this landing,” SpaceX Principal Integration Engineer John Insprucker said on the company’s webcast of the flight.

The spacecraft prototype of the SN9 rocket explodes on impact after a test flight at high altitude on February 2, 2021.

SpaceX

The rocket prototypes are made of stainless steel and represent the early versions of the rocket that CEO Elon Musk unveiled last year. The company is developing Starship with the aim of bringing cargo and up to 100 people simultaneously on missions to the moon and Mars.

The spaceship prototype SN9 starts.

SpaceX

Musk brought the company’s attention to Starship in May after SpaceX successfully launched its first astronaut mission. He named Starship a top priority for the company and stated in an email received from CNBC last year that the development program needs to be accelerated “dramatically and immediately.”

Although Starship SN9 suffered the same explosive fate as SN8 two months ago, SpaceX sees the test flight as an advance in the rocket’s development. SN10, likely the next to attempt a takeoff and landing, was already there when SN9 took to the skies.

“So all in all another big one [flight] – And as a reminder, this is a test flight, the second time that we have launched a spaceship in this configuration, “said Insprucker.” We have a lot of good data, and [achieved] the main objective is to demonstrate control of the vehicle and subsonic re-entry. “

Starship’s SN9 (right) and SN10 prototype missiles on launch pads at the company’s development facility in Boca Chica, Texas.

SpaceX

Musk previously said that Starship could potentially fly humans in 2020, but he has since acknowledged that the rocket still has many milestones, including “hundreds of missions”, before it does.

Several prototypes are being built at the same time at SpaceX’s growing facility in Boca Chica, Texas. The SN10 rocket has already been rolled out on a second launchpad nearby. While the SpaceX fleet of Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy rockets are partially reusable, Musk’s goal is to make Starship fully reusable – introducing a rocket that is more like an airliner with short turnaround times between flights where the the only major cost are fuel.

The Starship prototype SN9 stands on the launchpad at sunset at SpaceX’s development facility in Boca Chica, Texas.

SpaceX

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A customer wearing a protective mask enters a Chipotle Mexican Grill Inc. restaurant in San Francisco, California. .

David Paul Morris | Bloomberg | Getty Images

Chipotle Mexican Grill reported Tuesday that sales in the same store rose more than 5% in the most recent quarter, driven by higher digital orders and the return of Carne Asada.

Given the uncertainty caused by the coronavirus pandemic, the company declined to provide a forecast for revenue growth in the same business in fiscal 2021, but it expects a strong first quarter.

Chipotle’s shares fell 4% in expanded trading. The stock hit an all-time high of $ 1,553.55 on Tuesday.

The company reported for the quarter ended December 31st, versus Wall Street’s expectations, based on an analyst survey conducted by Refinitiv:

• Earnings per share: $ 3.48 adjusted versus expected $ 3.73
• Revenue: $ 1.61 billion versus $ 1.61 billion expected

Chipotle reported net income of $ 190.9 million, or $ 6.69 per share, for the fourth quarter, compared to $ 72.4 million, or $ 2.55 per share, last year. The company posted an income tax benefit of $ 3.77 for the quarter.

Without an income tax benefit, corporate reorganization expense, and other items, Chipotle earned $ 3.48 per share and fell short of what Refinitiv interviewed analysts had expected.

Net sales increased 11.6% to $ 1.61 billion and were in line with expectations.

Sales in the same store increased by 5.7%. The return of the Carne Asada in September has boosted demand. In addition, digital sales nearly tripled, accounting for nearly half of the company’s quarterly sales. In Chipotle’s second and third quarters, online sales more than tripled.

So far, sales in the same store in January are up 11%. And if the pandemic doesn’t worsen, the company expects first-quarter revenue growth in its mid-to-senior teens.

The company also said it increased menu prices for delivery orders. Third-party apps like DoorDash charge restaurants a commission that affects their profits. Chipotle had said in previous quarters that the higher incidence of supply orders sparked by the crisis had hurt profit margins.

The company opened 61 new locations, moved two restaurants and closed one in the quarter. Chipotle expects to open around 200 new restaurants in fiscal 2021, provided there is little construction and delays related to the crisis are allowed.

Read the full results report here.