(Reuters) -Chinese electric vehicle maker XPeng ( XPEV ) forecast fourth-quarter revenue below estimates on Monday, as a prolonged price war and intensifying competition in the world's largest auto market threaten to slow its growth.

The company's U.S.-listed shares, which have more than doubled this year, fell nearly 3% in premarket trading.

The cautious outlook comes despite XPeng ( XPEV ) and rival NIO posting record deliveries in October, even as Tesla's China sales slumped to a three-year low. The contrasting performance underscores the uneven impact of a bruising price war that has eroded profitability across China's crowded EV sector.

XPeng ( XPEV ) expects fourth-quarter revenue between 21.5 billion yuan ($3.03 billion) and 23 billion yuan, below analysts' average estimate of 26 billion yuan, according to data compiled by LSEG.

"Since the launch of the mid-to-low-end Mona 03 last year, combined with reduced investment in intelligent driving, XPeng ( XPEV ) has lost its brand appeal in models priced above 200,000 yuan," according to Third Bridge analyst Rosalie Chen.

The Mona M03, XPeng's ( XPEV ) first model under a new mass-market brand built with ride-hailing giant DiDi, is central to the automaker's push into China's more affordable EV segment.

At an AI Day event earlier this month, XPeng ( XPEV ) unveiled work on future consumer-facing "flying car" concepts and humanoid robots aimed at factory and warehouse uses. The long-term projects demand heavy research and development investment that could further pressure near-term earnings.

For the third quarter, XPeng ( XPEV ) reported revenue of 20.38 billion yuan, in line with expectations, driven by a 149.3% year-on-year jump in vehicle deliveries. XPeng ( XPEV ) expects vehicle deliveries to grow between 36.6% to 44.3% year-on-year.

The company's net loss narrowed to 380.9 million yuan from 1.81 billion yuan a year earlier.

($1 = 7.1068 Chinese yuan renminbi)