In addition to NIO, Tesla's stores in Shanghai are also seeing a lot of customers again, with one store selling nearly 50 cars in a single day.
NIO's (NYSE: NIO, HKG: 9866, SGX: NIO) stores in Shanghai have seen traffic return to full pre-Covid lockdown levels, with the city's travel restrictions lifted earlier this month.
NIO's 27 stores in Shanghai have seen all staff return to their posts, and traffic at those stores has returned to levels seen before this round of Covid outbreak, Shanghai Securities News said in a report yesterday evening.
Meanwhile, NIO vehicles in Hefei have been gradually transferred to the Shanghai delivery center as logistics in cities around Shanghai gradually resume, and models including the NIO ET7 are being delivered to customers, the report said.
The report includes a picture with a caption mentioning that NIO's store in Shanghai's busy West Nanjing Road saw many customers on the evening of June 18, many of whom were families coming together to see the show cars.
(Customers visit one of NIO's stores on the West Nanjing Road in Shanghai. Image credit: Shanghai Securities News)
Shanghai, where NIO's global headquarters is located, went into a phased lockdown on March 28, bringing sales activities of all car companies, including NIO, to a halt.
The city lifted restrictions on travel for residents on June 1, and 14 NIO stores here resumed operations that day, with vehicle deliveries resuming on June 2.
Life is now back to normal for Shanghai residents, except that they will need to show proof of a negative Covid test within 72 hours if they want to enter public areas.
There are currently more than 15,000 newsstand-like facilities in Shanghai offering Covid testing services to residents, and this is free until July 31.
In addition to NIO, Tesla's (NASDAQ: TSLA) sales activity in Shanghai is also back to normal, with stores seeing a large number of customers again.
(Consumers experience a show car at Tesla's store in Hkri Taikoo Hui, Shanghai. Image credit: Shanghai Securities News)
"There are many people ordering cars now, and many are worried about another price increase, and this store sold more than 40 new cars on Friday," Shanghai Securities News quoted a staff member at Tesla's store in the busy Hkri Taikoo Hui shopping complex as saying on June 19.
On June 17, the price of the Tesla Model Y Long Range in China was raised by RMB 19,000 ($2,840) to RMB 394,900 from RMB 375,900 previously. The expected delivery lead time for the model is 20-24 weeks.
The price hike and long wait times have not dampened enthusiasm for new energy vehicles (NEVs), the Shanghai Securities News report said, adding that at many of the Tesla stores their reporters visited, there was a steady stream of customers coming into the store and orders were up significantly from before.
After Tesla's Model Y Long Range price increase on June 17, its store in Hkri Taikoo Hui sold nearly 50 cars in one day, the report said.
