Nio lost USD 835 million in the second quarter, more than twice its year-ago loss.
On August 29, NIO (NIO:NYSE; 9866:HK) announced its Q2 2023 unaudited financial report. The report shows that in the second quarter of 2023, NIO realized a total revenue of CNY 8.77 billion (USD 1.21 billion), missing the market's expectation of CNY 9.254 billion and down 14.8 percent year-on-year, while its net loss of CNY 6.0558 billion increased 119.6 percent year-on-year, after the market expected a net loss of CNY 5.332 billion.
The financial report shows that in the second quarter of 2023, NIO's R&D expenses reached CNY 3.345 billion, exceeding CNY 3 billion for three consecutive quarters, an increase of 55.6% year-on-year and 8.7% year-on-year, mainly due to the increase in R&D personnel costs, equity incentive expenses, and the design and development of new products and technologies.
“NIO delivered 23,520 vehicles in the second quarter of 2023. In July 2023, NIO delivered 20,462 vehicles, representing a substantial increase of 103.6% year-over-year, which propelled NIO to the top position in China’s premium electric vehicle market for vehicles priced above CNY 300,000,” said William Bin Li, founder, chairman and chief executive officer of NIO.
However, this figure dropped 6.1% year-over-year and 24.2% sequentially from last year.
Bin Li forecasted that the sales of the four models of NIO Auto - ET5, ET5T, ES6 and the to be launched EC6, are expected to reach 15,000 to 20,000 units, which, stacked with the improved sales of the remaining models, will result in sales confidently stabilizing at more than 20,000 units per month.
In the reporting period, NIO's gross profit was approximately CNY 87 million, down 93.5% year-over-year. Gross margin slipped to 1%, compared to 13% in the same period last year, mainly due to the company's declining revenue and expanding R&D investment.
In the future, with the completion of product switchover based on the NT2.0 platform, the expansion of the energy network, and the company's sales capacity, NIO's vehicle deliveries will steadily increase in the second half of 2023, and the average gross profit will also improve. The company's gross margin is expected to steadily improve in the second half of 2023 and has the opportunity to return to double digits in the third quarter and work toward 15% in the fourth quarter.
As of press time, NIO closed at HKD 83.75 apiece, with a market cap of HKD 148.4 billion.