NIO's May Deliveries Rise 13% Y/Y But Is That Good Enough?

Chinese electric vehicle (EV) maker NIO Inc. NIO delivered 23,231 vehicles in May, up 13.1% year over year. But the numbers tell a more mixed story on closer look. Deliveries were actually down from April’s 23,900 units, and the May growth rate lagged April’s 53% jump.

The company now operates three EV brands: NIO, ONVO, and Firefly. The main NIO brand, which includes models like the ES6, ET5T, ES8, EC6, ES7, ET5, ET7, EP9, EVE, ET9, and EC7, saw deliveries drop 31% month over month to 13,270 units. That’s a concern, given this lineup includes NIO’s core premium offerings.

Meanwhile, ONVO—NIO’s mass-market brand—delivered 6,281 units, up 42% from April. Its first model, the L60 SUV, was launched last September and continues to be well received. Firefly, NIO’s smaller premium EV brand, delivered 3,680 units in May, a sharp jump from just 230 in April when it began deliveries of its first model.

ONVO and Firefly are gaining momentum, but their growth is seemingly coming at the cost of NIO’s namesake brand. This raises concerns about how well NIO can manage and balance its brand portfolio.

NIO has bold goals. It wants to double sales in 2025 from 221,970 units delivered last year. This translates into a monthly average run rate of 37,000 deliveries. Since the beginning of the year till May end, the company has delivered 89,225 vehicles—up 34.7% year over year, but still short of what’s needed to hit that target.

How Do LI and XPEV Stack Up Against NIO’s May Deliveries?

Li Auto LI delivered 40,856 units last month, up 16.7% year over year. The deliveries also improved from 33,939 vehicles sold in April. Not only did Li Auto’s year-over-year growth rate in May come in better than NIO's but deliveries also rose month over month. Even in terms of absolute volumes, Li Auto fared better. Deliveries of the Li MEGA Home began in late May, with production ramping up quickly as orders have far surpassed expectations.

XPeng Inc. XPEV delivered 33,525 smart EVs last month, marking a whopping 230% increase year over year. With that, XPeng’s deliveries surpassed the 30,000 mark for the seventh straight month. However, the deliveries still declined from 35,045 units in April. On May 28, XPeng launched the MONA M03 Max.

The Zacks Rundown for NIO

Shares of NIO have lost around 19% year to date compared with the industry’s decline of 0.5%.

From a valuation standpoint, NIO trades at a forward price-to-sales ratio of 0.46. It carries a Value Score of D.

Take a look at how the Zacks Consensus Estimate for NIO’s earnings has been revised over the past 90 days.

NIO stock currently carries a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold).  You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here.

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This article originally published on Zacks Investment Research (zacks.com).

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