Nio is “very confident” of assembly its goal of doubling gross sales to 250,000 electrical automobiles this 12 months, Chief Financial Officer Steven Feng mentioned, prompting the Chinese automaker’s shares to surge in Hong Kong.
“We are very confident to achieve our sales target in 2023,” Feng mentioned in an interview with Bloomberg Television on Wednesday.
That shall be achieved with new fashions, increasing the corporate’s charging and battery-swapping community, and unlocking autonomous driving applied sciences, he mentioned.
Meeting the quarter-million gross sales aim shall be a milestone for Nio, which delivered 122,486 vehicles in 2022. While that was up 34 % from a 12 months earlier, it missed the corporate’s authentic goal as a result of gross sales have been hampered by China’s now-abolished COVID restrictions.
However, it now faces intensifying competitors in China, the place a worth conflict has damaged out as home EV makers corresponding to BYD and main worldwide automakers search to bolster gross sales.
The worth cuts present the nation has too many automakers, Feng mentioned. The discounting was sparked by Tesla, which first lowered costs in October, after which lower extra deeply in January. Chinese automakers corresponding to Nio and Xpeng adopted swimsuit, in addition to main worldwide manufacturers together with VW and Ford.
“We expect the industry to go through some profound consolidation,” Feng mentioned. “It’s almost consensus that China now has too many automakers, but we have no plan to buy anyone.”
The China Association of Automobile Manufacturers on Wednesday urged automakers and native governments to finish the worth conflict, saying it’s not a long-term resolution, and the car market ought to return to regular order as quickly as attainable.
Nio earlier this month posted a wider-than-estimated 5.8 billion yuan ($843 million) fourth-quarter loss as advertising and promotional bills climbed.
The automaker additionally reported an annual web lack of 14.4 billion yuan on income of 49.3 billion yuan. Gross margins within the fourth quarter dropped to three.9 % from 13.3 % the three months prior as a result of a manufacturing platform change and COVID disruptions.
Feng mentioned the corporate is “confident” about breaking even on the group degree subsequent 12 months. “Strong revenue growth together with tightened spending are the key to improved profitability,” he mentioned.
Despite this week’s positive factors, Nio’s shares in Hong Kong and the U.S. have plunged greater than 50 % previously 12 months.
Worth nearly double Ford when its market worth peaked at nearly $100 billion in early 2021, Nio is now valued at lower than a 3rd of the U.S. automaker.
Source: europe.autonews.com