US-listed shares of Nio soared to a ten-month high on Thursday, hours after founder and chief executive William Li pre-launched the revamped version of the company’s flagship ES8 SUV.
The rally reflects growing investor confidence in the Chinese electric carmaker, which has launched two new models in the past six weeks with lower than expected prices while continuing to trim costs.
However, the first months of 2025 were critical for the EV stock. Nio shares reached a new five-year low last April at $3.02 after its sub-brand Onvo sharply missed its sales targets by over 70% causing the exit of the brand’s chief Alan Ai.
Since then, the stock has surged by about 87%.
Late last year, Li has set an ambitious target of reaching the first profitable quarter in Q4 2025 based on signifcantly higher sales without compromising margins an while reducing investments and fixed costs.
The target was reiterated last week and was one of the catalysts mentioned on Wednesday by Morgan Stanley as the firm raised its price target on the stock. With its new target, the firm sees a 28% upside potential on Nio shares.
Executives have also confirmed improvements in supply chains and production ramp-ups at Nio’s two sub-brands, Firefly and Onvo, bolstering expectations for August delivery figures due on September 1.
Firefly’s marketing chief said in late July the brand had fixed its production line issues while teasing a delivery record for August.
The Onvo brand chief, Shen Fei, said this week the factory is working at full capacity for both L60 and L90 models.
The stock has gained nearly 26% in the past five sessions and is up 28% since the start of the year.
The surge comes as the company accelerates its international expansion. Earlier this week, Nio announced plans to enter Uzbekistan, Singapore and Costa Rica — its first market in the Americas.
The company had opened only seven of the 25 markets it had pledged by the end of 2024, but the pace has recently quickened following a strategic shift away from direct sales to a dealership model in Denmark and other new markets across Europe and southeast Asia.
Nio vehicles have also been spotted undergoing road tests in Australia.
Li told reporters last week that Nio was moving “from years of heavy investment into a harvest period.”
“So in the second half of this year, actually since 2019, it means we have entered a harvest period,” he stated. “The investment, this cycle of accumulated investment, enters its harvest period this year.”
The company has sought to cut costs this year, aiming to limit research and development (R&D) spending to between 2 billion yuan and 2.5 billion yuan ($278–$348 million) per quarter, a reduction of 20–25% from a year earlier.
Nio has a recent history of sharp share price reactions to model launches.
On July 9, the day before the pre-launch event for the Onvo L90 SUV, its stock closed at $3.48. In the two weeks since, the price climbed 40%.
As with the L90, which debuted on July 31 at 265,800 ($36,860) — 5% below its pre-sale price — ES8’s final pricing in September is expected to come in slightly lower than the pre-sale level.
The EV maker will report second-quarter results on September 2, when management is expected to update investors on its 2025 delivery goal of 440,000 units — double last year’s total — as well as progress on international roll-outs and margin improvements.
Nio’s shares last peaked at $66.99 in January 2021 after the unveiling of its ET7 sedan.
Despite the recent surge, the stock is still down 91.6% from the 2021 peak.
