Chinese electric vehicle maker Nio set a record for quarterly vehicle deliveries despite disruptions due to the Covid-19 outbreak, sending its shares soaring 16.6% to $9.23 in premarket trading.
Why it matters: Amid an extended slump in China’s EV market, Nio is accelerating into the fast lane following a significant cash injection and new production model coming to the market.
- Nio on Monday announced it had already received RMB 4.8 billion ($678 million) of the first two installments totaling RMB 5 billion in its RMB 7 billion financing project with the government of Hefei, capital city of the eastern Anhui province.
- Registered capital of its newly established China entity, Nio (Anhui) Holding Ltd., surged to RMB 5.07 billion last month from RMB 11 million, according to information on Chinese business research platform Tianyancha.com.
Details: June deliveries for Nio’s two models nearly tripled to 3,740 units from a year earlier, pushing quarterly deliveries to 10,311 units in the second quarter of this year, 191% year-on-year growth, the company said Thursday.
- Q2 deliveries exceeded the upper limit of the company’s target of 9,500 to 10,000 vehicles. Nio’s financial chief Steven Feng expressed confidence about reaching previous goals including a 5% margin on vehicles in the second quarter.
- The Chinese auto market began to rebound—June sales increased 11% year-on-year to 2.28 million units, according to preliminary figures from the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers.
- China auto sales declined 17% year-on-year to 10.24 million units during the first half of the year.
Updates on the EC6: Nio is on track to launch the EC6, its third mass market model, an electric coupe SUV likened to Tesla’s Model Y, with pricing information to be available during the upcoming Chengdu Motor Show later this month, according to multiple sources familiar with the matter.
- A set of what it called “Battery as a Service” (BaaS) solutions will also be released, through which a battery rental service will sell separately from vehicles in bid to lower the threshold for purchasing, according to people close to the company.
- During the first quarter earnings call, CEO Li Bin said the company was working on new products and service solutions “based on the separation of vehicle and battery,” which Li expects will be released in the second half of this year.
- Last week, the company unveiled its first pre-production EC6 as part of its joint plan with Chinese automaker JAC in Hefei, reported Chinese media on microblogging platform Weibo.