NIO Inc. NIO marked a major production milestone as its one-millionth mass-produced vehicle rolled off the assembly line at the NIO Advanced Manufacturing Xinqiao Phase II facility in Hefei, per CnEVPost. The landmark unit was a third-generation ES8 SUV. NIO donated the milestone vehicle to the Anhui Mozi Quantum Technology Foundation to support professionals in the quantum technology sector and also unveiled a commemorative limited-edition version of its ET9 sedan.
The achievement comes 11 years after the company’s founding and roughly 20 months after it reached the 500,000-vehicle production mark. Per William Li, founder, chairman and CEO of NIO, the company is targeting annual sales growth of 40% to 50%. It plans to continue investing heavily in infrastructure to expand both charging and battery-swap networks to more than 10,000 locations each by 2030.
To date, NIO has invested approximately 65 billion yuan in research and development, building capabilities across 12 core intelligent electric vehicle technologies, per Gasgoo China Automotive News. It has also allocated 18 billion yuan to charging and battery-swap infrastructure, establishing 8,541 stations nationwide and completing more than 96 million battery-swap services.
NIO delivered a record 48,135 vehicles in December, lifting total deliveries for 2025 to 326,028 units, representing a 46.88% year-over-year increase. The company signed a framework agreement with Chery and Anhui Jianghuai Automobile Group Corp. to jointly develop an innovation platform, though specific details were not disclosed. NIO also completed a signing ceremony with Lontium Semiconductor for a collaborative automotive chip industrialization project.
NIO Zacks Rank & Key Picks
NIO carries a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold) at present.
Some better-ranked stocks in the auto space are General Motors Company GM, Atmus Filtration Technologies Inc. ATMU and PHINIA Inc. PHIN. While GM and PHIN sport a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy) each at present, ATMU carries a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy). You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank stocks here.
The Zacks Consensus Estimate for GM’s 2025 EPS has moved up 18 cents in the past 60 days. The Zacks Consensus Estimate for GM’s 2026 EPS has moved up 14 cents in the past 30 days.
The Zacks Consensus Estimate for ATMU’s 2025 sales and EPS implies year-over-year growth of 4.4% and 5.6%, respectively. EPS estimates for 2025 and 2026 have improved 7 cents and 12 cents, respectively, in the past 60 days.
The Zacks Consensus Estimate for PHIN’s 2025 sales and earnings implies year-over-year growth of 1.1% and 33.4%, respectively. EPS estimates for 2025 have improved 47 cents in the past 30 days. EPS estimates for 2026 have improved 52 cents in the past seven days.
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General Motors Company (GM): Free Stock Analysis Report NIO Inc. (NIO): Free Stock Analysis Report Atmus Filtration Technologies Inc. (ATMU): Free Stock Analysis Report PHINIA Inc. (PHIN): Free Stock Analysis ReportThis article originally published on Zacks Investment Research (zacks.com).
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