Nio’s deliveries fall by around 13% in February due to the coronavirus outbreak

NIO Inc.’s (NYSE: NIO) stock is seeing a recovery after crashing a day ago due to the oil price slump. Shares were up 2.2% in afternoon hours on Tuesday. Nio’s stock has fallen 16% since the beginning of this year as the Chinese company feels the heat of the coronavirus outbreak.

Nio reported that it delivered 707 vehicles in February, which included 671 ES6s and 36 ES8s. The company plans to start delivering the new ES8 in April. Nio delivered a total of 2,305 vehicles in 2020.

In February, overall passenger vehicle sales in China declined more than 78% year-over-year due to the coronavirus outbreak, while Nio’s deliveries dropped by 12.8%. As of the end of February, cumulative deliveries of the ES8 and the ES6 reached 34,218 vehicles.

Also read: How has COVID-19 impacted these major Chinese stocks?

The February delivery numbers were lower than January, during which Nio delivered 1,598 vehicles, reflecting an 11.5% drop from the same period last year, due to the comparatively early Chinese New Year holiday and the coronavirus outbreak. The company delivered 1,493 ES6s and 105 ES8s.

Nio is set to report its fourth quarter 2019 earnings results next week. While the company had previously guided for total revenues to increase around 53% to RMB2.81 billion ($393.2 million) and deliveries to surpass 8,000 units, in light of the current situation, it is likely that the quarterly numbers may fall below this outlook.

In the third quarter of 2019, Nio had reported total revenues of RMB1.83 billion ($257 million) and adjusted loss per ADS of RMB2.38 ($0.33).

The drop in oil prices is a headwind for the electric vehicle industry in general. In addition to this, Nio faces rising competition in the EV sector both from Tesla and from other automakers who are entering this space. It also remains to be seen how the coronavirus situation will play out and what impact this will have on the company’s sales in the coming days.

Follow our Google News edition to get the latest stock market, earnings and financial news at your fingertips.