NIO lowers second-quarter revenue prediction, warns rising commodity costs to continue to eat into margins

Chinese electric vehicle maker NIO today announced financial results for the first quarter ended March 31, 2022, with losses rising 295.3% from a year earlier to $281.2 million.

Total revenue for the quarter was $9.9 billion ($1.56 billion), an increase of 24.2% year over year and a 0.1% increase from the fourth quarter of 2021.

Vehicle sales in the quarter reached 9.24 billion ($1.458 billion), up 24.8% year-over-year, but only up 0.3% quarter-over-quarter. Vehicle margin slipped to 18.1% from 21.2% a year earlier.

In the first quarter, 25,768 vehicles were delivered, an increase of 28.5% over the same period last year and an increase of 2.9% over the previous quarter. The company expects second-quarter deliveries to range between 23,000 and 25,000 vehicles, implying a particularly strong June. Nio’s total deliveries in April and May were just over 12,000 due to Covid-19 shutdowns and supply chain snags.

Gross profit for the quarter fell 6.9% year over year to around 1.45 billion yuan ($228.2 million), and net losses for the quarter rose 295.3% from a year earlier to 1.78 billion yuan ($281.2 million). 

Rising commodity costs have continued to eat into margins, according to CEO William Bin Li during the company’s earnings call. However, he expects NIO’s gross margin to begin to recover in the third quarter as cost-cutting measures take effect.

For the second quarter, NIO expects revenue to be between 9.34 billion yuan ($1.40 billion) and 10.09 billion yuan, lower than FactSet’s 11.65 billion yuan forecast.