By Jiahui Huang


Chinese electric-vehicle maker NIO forecast soft sales in the first quarter after its fourth-quarter loss narrowed on higher deliveries.

NIO posted a net loss of 5.59 billion yuan ($776.4 million), compared with a net loss of CNY5.85 billion a year ago, the company said Tuesday.

Adjusted net loss, a widely tracked metric that excludes share-based compensation expenses, among others, was CNY4.95 billion in the fourth quarter, narrowing from CNY5.05 billion a year earlier.

Fourth-quarter revenue rose 6.5% to CNY17.10 billion, broadly in line with a FactSet-compiled consensus estimate of CNY17.11 billion.

For the full year, NIO reported a net loss of CNY21.15 billion, which missed an estimated CNY19.55 billion loss in a FactSet poll of analysts.

"Moving forward into 2024, we will prioritize our business objectives, improve system capabilities and optimize cost-management efficiency," Steven Wei Feng, NIO's chief financial officer, said in the earnings report.

NIO guided for relatively soft revenue and deliveries for the first quarter. The outlook comes as the company faces an intensifying price war in China's EV market and weaker demand.

NIO said it expects to deliver between 31,000 and 33,000 vehicles in the first quarter, compared with 31,041 a year earlier. It guided for quarterly revenue of CNY10.50 billion to CNY11.09 billion, compared with CNY10.68 billion a year earlier.

"March delivery may miss market expectation," 86 Research equity analyst Hanyang Wang said.

Fourth-quarter gross margin was 7.5%, compared with 3.9% a year earlier and 8.0% in the third quarter. Wang said the sequential margin decline could be due to disappointing cost management of suppliers for batteries and other materials and low production efficiency.

Its gross margin was 5.5% for 2023, down sharply from 10.4% in 2022.

By comparison, rival Li Auto reported gross margin of 23.5% in the fourth quarter and 22.2% for the full year. Tesla's global gross margin was 18.2% in 2023.

NIO's total operating expenses for the fourth quarter were CNY7.90 billion, up 24% from the previous quarter and 7.4% from a year earlier, which the company said was due to higher personnel costs and sales and marketing activities.


Write to Jiahui Huang at jiahui.huang@wsj.com


(END) Dow Jones Newswires

03-05-24 0652ET