Nio remains in the red over Q1 of 2023

Nio has presented its balance sheet for the first quarter of 2023. The Chinese electric car manufacturer delivered 31,041 vehicles between January and March and also announced that it would reduce the base prices for all its models in China. Possibly in view of the currently strongly weakening sales.

First the business figures: The 31,041 vehicles delivered are 20.5 per cent more than in the first quarter of 2022, but 22.5 per cent less than in the fourth quarter of 2022. Revenue was just under 10.7 billion yuan ($1.6 billion) from January to March, up 7.7 per cent from the first quarter of 2022 and down 33.5 per cent from the fourth quarter of 2022. Net loss was around 4.7 billion yuan (610 million euros) in the first three months of the year. This is considerably higher than the same quarter last year by 165.9 per cent, but 18.1 per cent lower than the fourth quarter of 2022.

William Bin Li, founder, chairman and CEO of Nio, stresses that it has been the leading manufacturer of premium battery electric vehicles priced above RMB 400,000 in China for 12 consecutive quarters. Yet the manufacturer is far from profitable: although Nio delivered 34 per cent more vehicles in 2022 than in 2021 and sales grew 36 per cent to 49.3 billion yuan (€6.7 billion), the bottom line was a net loss of 14.4 billion yuan (€1.96 billion) on the books last year. That is almost 260 per cent more than in 2021. The fourth quarter of 2022 was a bright spot, with 40,052 vehicles delivered, but the present Q1 results show that Nio will not be able to maintain this level.

The first two months of the second quarter also speak against a turnaround. On the contrary: Nio delivered only 6,658 vehicles in April and only 6,155 vehicles in May. The background to this is that the production of some models is currently at a standstill as they are being converted from the NT1.0 to the NT2.0 platform. As a result, Nio was unable to benefit from the electric car market in China, which picked up again in May.

The company is betting everything on the near future: on 15 June, Nio will present new models, namely the estate version of the ET5 as well as the EL6. Only in May, the manufacturer launched the new edition of the ES6. At the same time, Nio announces that it will reduce the base prices for all its models in China by 30,000 yuan (equivalent to just under 4,000 euros). For example, the entry price of Nio’s cheapest model, the ET5 sedan, is reduced to 298,000 yuan (approx. 38,800 euros) or to 228,000 yuan (approx. 31,000 euros) if the battery is rented. However, Nio no longer offers its battery replacement service free of charge.

ir.nio.com, cnevpost.com, reuters.com (beide Preissenkung)