Macquarie Bullish on NIO (NIO) After Strong Volume Growth

NIO Inc. (NYSE:NIO) ranks among the best high growth Chinese stocks to buy. On January 15, Macquarie upgraded NIO Inc. (NYSE:NIO) from Neutral to Outperform, boosting its price target to $6.10. According to the firm, NIO’s fourth-quarter 2025 sales exceeded the upper end of its 125,000-unit forecast, with a healthy demand for ES8 and Firefly models generating a 44% quarter-over-quarter volume increase.

Macquarie noted NIO’s increased adoption of its Battery-as-a-Service (BaaS) initiative, which currently accounts for more than 80% of sales, highlighting that this should further protect the firm from industry headwinds by keeping potentially greater battery costs off the balance sheet.

The firm upgraded its Hong Kong and U.S. price targets by 15% and lifted its fiscal year 2026 volume prediction by 7% to 451,000 units, citing greater ES8 demand as the key driver.

Furthermore, NIO Inc. (NYSE:NIO) reported shipping 36,275 units in November, a 10% decrease from October’s 40,397. Despite this monthly dip, the company’s year-to-date deliveries are up 45.6% over the same period in 2024, totaling 277,893 vehicles.

NIO Inc. (NYSE:NIO) is a leading Chinese smart electric vehicle manufacturer. The company designs, develops, and sells premium EVs. It is also building an ecosystem around battery-swapping technology, autonomous driving, and smart connectivity.

While we acknowledge the potential of NIO to grow, our conviction lies in the belief that some AI stocks hold greater promise for delivering higher returns and have limited downside risk. If you are looking for an AI stock that is more promising than NIO and that has 100x upside potential, check out our report about this cheapest AI stock.

READ NEXT: 10 Best Magic Formula Stocks for 2025 and 10 Best Retirement Stocks to Buy According to Hedge Funds.

Disclosure: None. This article is originally published at Insider Monkey.