NIO reported a record revenue of RMB 16.06 billion ($2.33 billion) in the fourth quarter of 2022, marking the 11th consecutive quarter of revenue growth for the company. However, NIO fell short of Wall Street expectations and its gross margin plummeted to single digits.
The company’s Q4 revenue was up 23.55 percent from Q3 and 62.26 percent year-on-year, but fell short of analysts’ expectations of RMB 17.265 billion. The revenue guidance for the quarter was RMB17.37 billion to RMB19.23 billion, but the company gave no new revenue guidance when it lowered its delivery guidance in December.
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NIO delivered 40,052 vehicles in the fourth quarter, below the initial guidance range of 43,000 to 48,000 vehicles but above the lowered guidance of 38,500 to 39,500 vehicles.
While vehicle sales were up 60.2 percent year-on-year and 23.7 percent from the third quarter, NIO reported a vehicle margin of 6.8 percent in Q4, down from 20.9 percent in the year-ago quarter and 16.4 percent in Q3.
The company said its vehicle margin was negatively impacted by 6.7 percentage points in the fourth quarter due to inventory provisioning, accelerated depreciation of production facilities, and loss of purchase commitments for the current generation ES8, ES6, and EC6.
NIO’s gross profit in the fourth quarter was RMB 622 million, down 63.4 percent year-on-year and 64.2 percent from the third quarter. Its gross margin for the quarter was 3.9 percent, down from 17.2 percent a year ago and 13.3 percent in the third quarter.
NIO’s net loss for the fourth quarter was RMB 5.79 billion, up 169.9 percent year-on-year and 40.8 percent from the third quarter. Excluding stock-based compensation expense, it reported an adjusted net loss of RMB 5.07 billion in Q4, up 190.0 percent year-on-year and 44.8 percent from Q3.
Research and development expenses in the fourth quarter were RMB 39.8 billion, an increase of 117.7 percent from the fourth quarter of 2021 and an increase of 35.2 percent from Q3.
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As of December 31, 2022, NIO had RMB 45.5 billion in cash and cash equivalents, restricted cash, short-term investments, and long-term time deposits.
For the first quarter of 2023, NIO guided for deliveries of between 31,000 and 33,000 units, implying year-on-year growth of about 20.3 percent to 28.1 percent. Its revenue guidance for the quarter is between RMB 10.93 billion and RMB 11.54 billion, implying year-on-year growth of about 10.2 percent to 16.5 percent.
