delivered a record 55,432 vehicles in the third quarter, slightly above the lower end of its previously provided guidance range of 55,000 to 57,000 vehicles.

Nio (NYSE: NIO) continued its slide in deliveries last month, after seeing record deliveries in July.

The electric vehicle (EV) maker delivered 15,641 vehicles in September, down 19.08 percent from 19,329 in August while up 43.79 percent from 10,878 in the same month last year, according to data it released today.

The deliveries included 11,504 SUVs and 4,137 sedans, the company said, without providing model-specific figures. It also didn't provide an explanation for the decline in deliveries in September.

Nio currently sells the ES8, ES7, ES6, EC7, EC6, ET7, ET5 and ET5 Touring, the first five of which are SUVs and the last three sedans. Their combined deliveries were a record 20,462 units in July.

Nio delivered a record 55,432 vehicles in the third quarter, up 75.38 percent year-on-year and up 135.68 percent from the second quarter.

Deliveries for the quarter were slightly above the lower end of its previously provided guidance range of 55,000 to 57,000 vehicles. The company had previously guided third-quarter revenue at RMB 18.9 billion to RMB 19.52 billion, implying year-on-year growth of around 45.3 percent to 50.1 percent.

In the January-September period, Nio's deliveries amounted to 109,993 units, up 33.43 percent year-on-year.

By the end of September, Nio's cumulative deliveries since inception stood at 399,549 units, close to the 400,000-unit mark.

Nio's performance in deliveries so far this year means it will be hard to meet the target it set at the start of the year about doubling sales this year compared to last year.

The company's management said in an analyst call on March 1 after it announced its fourth-quarter earnings last year that Nio's goal was to see 2023 sales double from last year.

Nio delivered a total of 122,486 vehicles in 2022, up 34 percent from 91,429 in 2021. Doubling sales means that Nio would need to deliver around 240,000 vehicles this year.

To reach that target, Nio would need to deliver about 130,000 vehicles in the fourth quarter, or an average of about 43,000 vehicles per month on average.

Nio launched the new EC6 in China on September 15, completing the transition of all NT 1.0 platform models to the latest NT 2.0 platform.

The new EC6 starts at RMB 358,000 ($49,030), which is RMB 20,000 higher than the RMB 338,000 starting price of the new ES6. Deliveries of the model began on the night of the launch date.

On September 21, Nio launched its first smartphone at its first Nio In Innovation Day event and demonstrated the device's experience of seamlessly connecting to vehicles.

Nio has held exploratory talks with Mercedes for tie-up, report says