Nio stock moved 9% higher on Tuesday after the company announced stronger-than-expected delivery results for the first quarter alongside plans to hand over all-new ES8s, its seven-seater SUV later this month.
Why it matters: Nio’s first-quarter performance was a big relief for investors. It also eased worry over potential knock-on effects from recent Luckin Coffee fraud scandal on other US-listed Chinese companies.
- Nio shares slumped 9.81% to $2.39 on Apr. 2, when Luckin said its COO and several others fabricated nearly half of its sales. The stock rebounded 9.31% to $2.7 on Tuesday after March delivery was announced.
We are pleased to see the gradual recovery of our production in March, with special thanks to the great support from our supply chain partners since the second half of March.
—Founder and CEO, Li Bin
Details: Nio on Tuesday reported an 11.7% year-on-year increase in deliveries to 1,533 vehicles in March. 1,479 vehicles of those were ES6. Its five-seater SUV, the bigger ES8, made up the balance.
- Total deliveries for Q1 were 3,838, a 4% decrease year-on-year but 9.7% higher than the company’s median guidance.
- Nio had its best-ever quarter delivery numbers of 8,224 vehicles in the fourth quarter of last year.
- The company says they are on track to expand their sales network to 200 stores by the end of this year.
Context: Despite a general auto sales slump amid the Covid-19 outbreak, analysts expect the world’s biggest EV market to resume growth. China has made signals it will ramp up support with measures to boost consumption in electric vehicles.
- Beijing last week announced a two-year extension of new energy vehicle subsidies and tax breaks, along with new incentives for the replacement of diesel vehicles in bid to lift the slowing market.
- China-based Huachuang Securities on Wednesday maintained its estimates of 1.6 million units for China EV sales this year, a 30% increase than the last year.