NIO’s July Sales Tumble Amid Overall EV Industry Slowdown

On Aug. 13, Chinese EV maker NIO saw its stock close at $3.05, down 2.56%, a day before the company released its July delivery data indicating that only 837 new vehicles were delivered, slumping 37.5% from the previous month. The number of ES8 (NIO’s flagship model) deliveries plummeted 67% year-on-year, totaling to 164 units.

With annual sales targets set at 40,000 to 50,000 units, NIO has only managed to deliver a total of 8,379 units in the first two quarters of 2019, completing only 20.95% of its minimum annual target.

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Additionally, NIO’s automobiles have been experiencing frequent spontaneous combustion incidents, with first reports dating back to April 2019. Shortly after, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology issued the “Notice on Conducting the Investigation of Safety Hazards of New Energy Vehicles.” In June NIO filed a recall plan with the State Administration of Markets.

NIO announced that starting June 27, it will be recalling 4,803 of the ES8 electric cars equipped with power battery packs produced between April 2 and October 19 last year. The EV manufacturer has delivered a total of 19,727 vehicles as of July, now recalling 24% of that batch.

William Li, the founder of the company, is however optimistic about sales in the second half of the year. He expects August to be a “stronger month” and hopes to deliver 2,000 to 2,500 vehicles.

According to the July production and sales data released by the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers, the month saw a total of 84,000 new energy vehicles produced and 80,000 sold, down 37.2% and 47.5% respectively from the previous month, as well as down 6.9% and 4.7% respectively year-on-year.