NIO’s Q4 Financial Report in the Spotlight

Chinese electric vehicle manufacturer NIO Inc. (NYSE:NIO) was founded in 2014. It initially started operating under the name NextCar but later renamed itself to NIO. The company went public in 2018 by selling 160 million American depositary shares (ADS) at $6.26 each share for total proceeds of $1 billion. Industry experts recognize NIO as a direct competitor of Tesla in China.

The boom in the electric vehicle (EV) market in recent years has created a massive opportunity for both established and new players to capitalize on the increasing demand for EVs. NIO also benefitted from the trend and sold 43,728 vehicles during 2020 despite the difficult operating environment caused by the Covid-19 pandemic. Comparatively, the company had sold 20,565 in 2019. NIO share price has skyrocketed nearly 1000 percent during the past 12 months.

The company on Monday announced mixed financial results for the fourth quarter. It reported a loss of 1.39 billion yuan for the three months ended December 31, narrower than a loss of 2.8 billion yuan in the comparable period of 2019.

On the bright side, revenue for the quarter climbed 133 percent on a year-over-year basis to 6,641.1 million yuan. The deliveries in the quarter climbed to 17,353 vehicles, significantly higher than 8,224 in the same period, a year earlier.

Commenting on the quarterly performance, CEO William Bin Li said, “NIO concluded a transformational 2020 with a new quarterly delivery record of 17,353 vehicles in the fourth quarter of 2020. The strong momentum has continued in 2021 as we achieved a historic monthly delivery of 7,225 vehicles in January and a resilient delivery of 5,578 vehicles in February, representing strong 352% and 689% year-over-year growth, respectively.”

Looking forward, NIO expects to report revenue in the range of 7,382.3 million yuan to 7,557.2 million yuan for the first quarter, translating to a year-over-year growth between 438.1 percent to 450.8 percent, respectively.