Nio launched its first sedan, Nio ET7, with a maximum range of over 1,000 km at the Nio Day 2020 over the weekend. Several banks have subsequently raised their price targets for the company.
China's top investment bank CICC says Nio's NAD (Nio Autonomous Driving) opens a new hardware race and raises its price target by 42% to $85. CICC maintains an Outperform rating on Nio.
According to CICC analysts, the launch of ET7 further expands Nio's product line and continues its strategy of positioning products at the high end.
CICC believes that Nio's leading "smart driving + smart hardware" will lead to a positive cycle of iterations and volume releases on both the hardware and software sides of the company.
Deutsche Bank analyst Edison Yu raised his price target on Nio from $50 to $70, saying Nio provided customers and investors alike with a bold roadmap for the next two years including an impressive high-end flagship sedan, a new 150 kWh solid-state battery pack, and very ambitious vision for autonomous driving ("NAD') that will shift to a software subscription model.
Yu believes Nio is targeting the large premium sedan segment with the ET7, a market currently dominated by the German luxury OEMs (Audi, BMW, MB), which should then pave the way for a lower price + higher volume mid-size sedan at next year's Nio Day.
Yu said the Nio's solid-state battery is expected to provide more than 620 miles of range and enter production in the fourth quarter of 2022, a few years before QuantumScape's pilot line begins production.
Yu noted the ET7 will feature Nio's new autonomous driving platform called NAD (Nio Autonomous Driving), which the company believes will enable Level 4 autonomy in 2022.
Yu said that achieving all of these goals will undoubtedly be challenging, but believes Nio is one of the companies best positioned to do so.
Bank of America also raised its price target to $70 and JPMorgan Chase raised its price target to $75.
In addition, CNBC's "Mad Money" host Jim Cramer said Nio had "lots of bells and whistles" that could rival Tesla in the electric vehicle market.
On Monday, Nio hit a new all-time high of $66.99 at the beginning of the session, and the stock rose 6.42% to $62.7 by the close of trading.
Nio shares went down as much as 5 percent after house after the company said it plans to offer $1.3 billion in convertible notes. Nio stock finished the after-hour trading session down 0.64 percent.
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