During a media briefing on the first-quarter earnings, NIO Inc. founder, chairman, and CEO Li Bin discussed the company's outlook for the second quarter, particularly regarding gross margin and delivery growth. Li noted that cost pressures have intensified compared to the first quarter, with the per-vehicle cost increase averaging over 10,000 yuan, varying by model, and potentially reaching up to 15,000 yuan for some. This rise is primarily attributed to higher prices for components such as memory, lithium carbonate, copper, and aluminum.
Li stated that these pressures remain manageable. NIO plans to address them through increased sales volume, maintaining stable pricing, partially rolling back some promotional discounts, and implementing supply chain cost reductions. He acknowledged that the second quarter brings additional expenses due to multiple new model launches and related marketing costs, indicating that "Q2 pressure is also present." However, he suggested a broader industry challenge might not be "raising prices and losing volume, but rather cutting prices and still losing volume."
Regarding the pricing of the new Onvo L80 model, Li emphasized that NIO will not simply use price reductions to boost sales volume. Addressing market expectations for a lower L80 price, he explained that internal calculations show reducing the price by 10,000 yuan per vehicle would require selling three to four times more units to offset the profit impact from an EBIT perspective. Therefore, the company prefers to achieve a "reasonable volume" rather than sacrificing profitability to chase sales.
On the sources of delivery growth in the second quarter, Li projected that NIO's monthly deliveries will exceed 40,000 units going forward. The increase is expected to come from the start of Onvo L80 deliveries, the launch of the new L60 model in June, incremental contributions from the ES9, and the production ramp-up of the L90. He highlighted that the L80 and L90 represent net new additions, the refreshed L60 will also contribute to growth, while ES8 deliveries are expected to remain largely stable.