Chinese electric carmaker Nio Inc prepares to boost capacity, it said on Tuesday following their reporting that quarterly revenue more than doubled, beating expectations.
The auto industry in China is showing signs of recovery after being hit by the coronavirus crisis and Nio forecast current-quarter sales would be above expectations.
The automaker said it delivered a total of 3,533 of its ES8 and ES6 vehicles in July, showing an increase of 322% year-on-year.
Nio now prepares to boost capacity at the JAC plant in Hefei, China, where it makes its SUVs.
“Without major investment, we should be able to increase the production capacity of our current plant to 150,000 units a year under two shifts,” said William Li, the CEO of Nio, to analysts on the company’s earnings call.
Nio intends to raise its vehicle manufacturing capacity to 4,500 to 5,000 units on monthly basis by the end of August or September, Li said, without providing current capacity figures.
He also said the automaker’s next model after three electric SUV models will be a sedan. He did not describe.
The automaker has not made a gross profit since the 4th quarter of 2018 but its U.S.-listed shares have increased nearly fourfold this year as enthusiasm builds for electric vehicles.
Shares of other electric automakers such as Tesla Inc have also increased in recent months and automakers are looking to the markets for funds.
Nio secured a 7 billion yuan ($989 million) investment in April from state-backed Chinese investors.
Shares of the company initially jumped by over 8% when the market opened on Tuesday, before retreating and was last dropped around 4%.
The automaker said it also expects vehicle deliveries to be between 11,000 and 11,500 units in the third quarter, increasing from 10,331 in the second quarter.
Revenue of the automaker more than doubled to 3.72 billion yuan in the second quarter that ended on June 30, beating estimates of 3.51 billion yuan.
Excluding items, the automaker reported a loss of 1.08 yuan per American depository share. Analysts had expected a loss of 1.84 yuan per ADS.
$1 = 6.94 Yuan.
