Nio aims to achieve break-even in the fourth quarter of 2023 and its first annual profit in 2024.
Nio (NYSE: NIO, HKG: 9866) today announced its fourth-quarter and full-year results for last year, followed by a conference call.
The company reported revenue of RMB 9.9 billion ($1.55 billion) in the fourth quarter, up 49 percent year-on-year and above the median analyst estimate of RMB 9.72 billion in a Bloomberg survey.
Here are the key takeaways from the call, which was updated in real-time until the end of the conference. The latest information was placed at the top.
William Li, founder, chairman and CEO of Nio:
Nio will not go into the mass market at the expense of gross profit.
Nio aims to allow users to subscribe to NAD services in certain regions in the fourth quarter of this year.
Nio aims to achieve break-even in the fourth quarter of 2023 and its first annual profit in 2024.
Nio's R&D investment in 2022 will more than double compared to 2021, and the R&D team will reach 9,000 people by the end of this year.
Nio calls on upstream manufacturers not to do speculative price increases, and the price increases are not good for the industry as a whole. Nio does not believe that the continued rise in lithium carbonate prices is mainly due to capacity and supply issues, with speculative factors contributing more.
Nio's 2022 ES8, ES6, and EC6 will be significantly upgraded with the 8155 chip and 5G communication module, as well as several other optimization improvements, with reasonable price adjustments.
Nio will also provide existing customers with post-installation upgrades for the above hardware.
This year's battery capacity should be able to match Nio's demand, and the price increase is another matter.
Chip supply is still a challenge, of which 10 percent will be tight from time to time. Nio has already had some gross profit losses last year because of chip price increases, and this year it has taken them into account.
The supply of high-end chips, including Nvidia Orin, is fine, and the main challenge is some basic and cheaper chips.
Nio is unable to announce the number of orders for the ET7 at this time, but it is more than the rumors you just mentioned. (Credit Suisse analyst Bin Wang mentioned previous rumors that ET7 orders reached 15,000 with an estimated 5,000 units to be delivered per month.)
The ES7 is currently scheduled to be released in the second quarter, and pricing will be announced then. With a total addressable market of 200,000 units for mid-size SUVs priced above RMB 400,000, Nio is confident in the product.
Nio sees the large five-seat SUV market growing rapidly and does not believe the ES7 will have an impact on the sales of existing SUV models.
Nio currently has no plans to increase prices, but has plans for product improvement this year and will consider product pricing strategies based on the price of raw materials.
The cost of apportionment has dropped a lot after the sales volume has improved. This would have helped gross profit improvement, but the increase in raw material prices had a negative impact.
Work on Nio's new brand for the mass market is well underway, with the core team built out, strategic direction and development plans defined, and the first products already in the critical development phase.
In 2022, Nio will continue to expand its sales and service network in China, planning to add no less than 100 new sales outlets and more than 50 new Nio service centers and authorized service centers throughout the year.
In 2022, Nio plans to add over 30 power-up lines.
The plant construction and equipment installation at the second production base in NeoPark, Hefei is almost completed and the commissioning work is progressing well.
The second production base has a planned production capacity of 60 jobs per hour and is scheduled to be put into production in the third quarter of this year, with the first model produced being the ET5.
The first Nio ET5 pilot car rolled off the production line at the pilot production center on March 16.
The current JAC-Nio plant will reach a capacity of 60 jobs per hour by mid-year.
Nio will unveil the ES7, the first SUV on the NT2.0 platform, in the near future, with deliveries scheduled to begin in the third quarter of this year.
In 2022, Nio can see some of the results of last year's increased investment in R&D.
The electric vehicle industry is under pressure from rising costs, and Nio is closely monitoring the dynamics and working closely with partners.
The Nio ET7 has been available for test drives since the beginning of March, and those who participated in the test drives have rated it highly, with conversion rates exceeding expectations. delivery of the Nio ET7 will begin on March 28.
In 2021, Nio reached a 23 percent market share of all fuel and electric SUVs priced above RMB 350,000 in Shanghai, ranking first in overall sales. Nio believes this trend will also extend to third and fourth-tier cities.
2021 was a challenging year, especially with supply chain volatility, and Nio delivered 91,429 vehicles for the full year, up 109.1 percent year-on-year.
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