2024 results: Nio continues to grow, but moves further away from profitability
Nio sold 221,970 electric cars in 2024, a remarkable 39 per cent increase over 2023 (160,038 electric vehicles). The manufacturer’s revenue also grew to 65.7 billion yuan (around 8.4 billion euros), an increase of 18.2 per cent. However, since sales growth outpaced revenue growth, it can be concluded that, on average, each vehicle delivered generated less revenue than in the previous year. One reason for this is the expansion of the portfolio to include lower-priced models, but also industry-wide price cuts.
Nio presented further key financial figures for the past year: a gross margin of 9.9% (compared to 5.5% in the previous year) and a net loss of 22.4 billion yuan (around 2.86 billion euros). Despite the increase in revenue, Nio has not come any closer to breaking even. On the contrary, the company made an additional 8.1 per cent more losses than in 2023. At least this already indicates a reduced pace of loss-making: from 2022 to 2023, it still went up from -14.4 billion to -20.7 billion yuan (+43% YoY).
According to Nio, the fourth quarter of 2024 saw a new quarterly sales record. The manufacturer sold 72,689 EVs between October and December. Overall, Nio increased its deliveries throughout the year from 30,053 (Q1) to 57,373 (Q2), and 61,855 (Q3) to the aforementioned record in the final quarter. With the exception of the first quarter, all other quarterly results were significantly higher than in the previous year.
The debut of Nio’s new sub-brand Onvo has already been incorporated into the figures, as Nio CEO William Bin Li emphasised: “Throughout the year, Nio brand maintained its position as the leader in China’s BEV market for vehicles priced over 300,000 yuan, capturing a 40% market share. The market share of the Onvo L60 has been steadily increasing since its launch, securing a top-three position in China’s BEV SUV market priced between RMB200,000 and 300,000.”
Li does not give a specific sales forecast for the coming year, but he does for the first quarter: Nio aims to sell between 41,000 and 43,000 vehicles by March, which would correspond to an increase of 36 to 43 per cent compared to the first quarter of 2024. By way of comparison, Nio currently has 27,055 units after the first two months of the year. In terms of revenue, the company is targeting a range of 12.4 and 12.9 million yuan in the first quarter.
Meanwhile, the company’s CEO has announced “the beginning of a new product cycle for our three brands” for the current year. The core brand Nio will further consolidate its premium positioning by introducing more technology- and experience-oriented products. The Onvo brand, which is aimed more at the mainstream mass market, will focus “on increasing its sales volume and enriching its product portfolio.” And the Firefly brand will officially launch its debut electric car in April, which will be a driving force behind Nio’s future international expansion.
Looking at 2025, Nio intends to focus more on increasing its profitability “by driving cost reductions through technological advancements, optimizing operational efficiency and accelerating scalable growth,” said Nio’s CFO Stanley Yu Qu. Partnerships are also likely to be part of this strategy. For example, Nio recently signed an agreement with CATL to jointly develop battery swap stations. CATL’s Choco Swap technology will be used specifically in newly developed models of the Nio brand Firefly.
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