"Nio will not go out of business, and there is absolutely no possibility of it going out of business," the company's president said in a speech.
Some users on Chinese social media recently raised questions about Nio (NYSE: NIO) possibly going out of business. While the comments didn't offer solid logic, they still generated a lot of discussion.
At the Guangzhou auto show, which began on Friday, Nio co-founder and president Qin Lihong dismissed the questions and related rumors.
"Nio will not go out of business, and there is absolutely no possibility of it going out of business. Please feel assured to experience and buy Nio's cars," Qin said in a speech on the first day of the Guangzhou auto show on November 17, according to a video seen by CnEVPost.
Nio completed the switchover of its vehicles from a first-generation platform to a second-generation platform this year, released and began deliveries five new models during the year, and built a factory with a capacity of 300,000 vehicles a year, Qin said.
"[Nio's deliveries] were up 40 percent year-on-year in the January to October period, and even with that momentum, the company was being challenged for not performing well enough, and there was talk of us going out of business," Qin said.
He believes that the current electric vehicle (EV) industry presents a huge and historic opportunity, but Nio may not be running fast enough.
That opportunity also creates a high bar for every company, so much so that 40 percent growth could be seen as not fast enough, Qin said.
The company needs to face this opportunity head-on, but also stick to its unique path, which requires strategic resolve and enduring a lot of skepticism, according to Qin.
If a company can't get over that hurdle, no matter how hard it tries, it is not qualified to survive in the industry, he said.
"So we are grateful for that, have expectations, and the determination to go further, and thank you all for your concern for Nio," Qin said.
Nio delivered 16,074 vehicles in October, bringing cumulative deliveries from January to October to 126,067, up 36.3 percent year-on-year, according to figures it previously announced.
Qin didn't mention much more about the new factory in his presentation, though it should be the company's F2 plant at NeoPark in Hefei, Anhui province. The other plant that produces Nio vehicles is the Hefei JAC-Nio advanced manufacturing base.
One reason for the recent skepticism may be that Nio has yet to announce the date on which it will release its third-quarter earnings.
The company's local peers Li Auto (NASDAQ: LI) and Xpeng (NYSE: XPEV) have already announced their third-quarter earnings on November 9 and November 15, respectively, with revenues of RMB 34.68 billion and RMB 8.53 billion, respectively.
Last year, Nio announced its 2022 third-quarter earnings on November 10, Xpeng on the much later November 30, and Li Auto on December 9, respectively.
In the second quarter of this year, Nio reported revenue of RMB 8.77 billion, down 14.79 percent from RMB 10.29 billion in the same period last year, as vehicle deliveries fell.
Nio delivered a record 55,432 vehicles in the third quarter, above the lower end of its guidance range of 55,000 to 57,000 vehicles.
The company previously guided for third-quarter revenue of RMB 18.9 billion to RMB 19.52 billion, implying year-on-year growth of about 45.3 percent to 50.1 percent.
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