Nio delivers more ES8 electric SUVs than expected in Q1

China’s premium electric vehicle manufacturer Nio (NYSE: NIO) said it delivered 3,989 ES8 electric SUVs in the first quarter, surpassing its own guidance of  3,500 to 3,800 vehicles. As of March 31, 2019, the company has delivered a total of 15,337 vehicles.

Nio, which is often likened to Tesla (NASDAQ: TSLA), said deliveries in March touched 1,373 vehicles in March, which was approximately a 70% improvement from the prior sequential month. In February, the company delivered on 811 vehicles, primarily due to the Chinese New Year holiday period.

A total of 1,805 ES8s were delivered in January 2019.

Apart from the 7-seater ES8, the company offers 5-seater premium electric SUV ES6, which was launched in December last year.

Nio shares were trading up 3.3% during pre-market trading on Wednesday. Since the beginning of this year, the stock is down almost 13%. The stock had declined almost 10% on March 5 after the company warned of a worse-than-expected slowdown in deliveries in the first quarter.

On the other hand, Nio reported a narrower net loss in the fourth quarter when a sharp increase in deliveries drove up its revenues.

READ: KANDI TECHNOLOGIES ADDS TO AMERICA’S EV LINEUP

During the fourth quarter, deliveries of ES8 more-than-doubled to 7,980 units from 3,268 units in the third quarter. A total of 8,069 vehicles were manufactured in Q4.

Nio has emerged as a top electric vehicle maker in the region in a very short span of time, to the extent that it started giving competition to its better-established US counterparts. While the company is improving its bottom-line performance consistently, it is unlikely to achieve profitability in the near term due to the continuing drag on margins from the high expenses.

 

Get access to timely and accurate verbatim transcripts that are published within hours of the event.