An Nio Inc. ES6 electric SUV at a battery exchange station inside a parking lot in Shanghai on March 1, 2021.
Qilai Shen | Bloomberg | Getty Images
BEIJING – Chinese electric car startup Nio said on Tuesday that a global chip shortage would force it to make fewer cars in the second quarter.
The high demand for electronic products amid the coronavirus pandemic and the pressure of commercial tensions between the US and China in the highly specialized semiconductor supply chain contributed to an accumulation in chip manufacturing.
As a result, major automakers had to cut production, with China Nio being the last to announce such reductions.
The company increased production capacity in February to 10,000 vehicles per month, an increase from the previous 7,500 vehicles, founder William Li said in a quarterly earnings call on Tuesday. But the lack of chips and batteries means that Nio will need to return to the 7,500 level in the second quarter, he said.
Nio predicts strong deliveries
Despite competition from Tesla, Nio remained ahead of its novice rivals in terms of vehicle sales.
The company delivered 7,225 vehicles in January and 5,578 in February amid the weeklong Lunar New Year holiday. With a forecast of 20,000 to 25,000 deliveries in the first quarter, Nio anticipates that deliveries will increase to at least 7,197 cars in March.
In contrast, Xpeng said on Tuesday that it delivered 2,223 electric cars last month, while Li Auto expects it to deliver less than 4,000 cars a month in the first quarter.
Nio’s founder Li said the pre-orders for the et7 sedan unveiled in January exceeded those for the company’s other models, but declined to disclose specific figures. The et7 is Nio’s first non-SUV consumer car and is scheduled to begin deliveries next year.
Li added that the company is still on track with plans to enter Europe later this year.
New York-listed Nio shares fell 4% on the extended trading session after reporting a fourth-quarter loss of 0.93 yuan (14 cents) per share. This is greater than the 0.39 yuan per share loss forecast by analysts, according to FactSet.
The company attributed a nearly 33% quarterly increase in net losses – to 1.39 billion yuan ($ 212.8 million) in the last three months of 2020 – mainly to the devaluation of the US dollar.
Nio’s shares soared more than 1,000% last year, after the struggling newcomer received a capital injection of about $ 1 billion from state-backed investors, and traders amassed shares along with an increase in Tesla’s shares. .
Looking ahead, Nio expects total revenue of 7.38 billion yuan to 7.56 billion yuan in the first quarter, compared with 6.64 billion yuan in the fourth quarter.