NIO stock rose again on Friday, building on its strong gains from the previous session as investors got excited about the electric-vehicle maker’s new, cheaper SUV.
NIO American depositary receipts jumped 14.4% to $6.34. The S&P 500 and Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 1.5% and 1.9%, respectively.
The ADRs rallied after NIO officially unveiled its new ES8 SUV, available for preorder at just 308,800 yuan ($43,000) with a battery subscription plan.
NIO is a leader in battery-swapping technology. Drivers can replace entire battery packs at a NIO station, instead of waiting for a recharge.
Investors like new models, and appear impressed that the company is selling a higher-end vehicle so cheaply, with Chinese EV makers locked in an aggressive price war to try to offset faltering domestic demand.
NIO also recently introduced the L90 SUV. Citi analyst Jeff Chung expects it to sell more than 10,000 of those vehicles a month in the fourth quarter. That’s significant for NIO. The company has been selling 20,000 to 30,000 cars a month for the past few months. He rates shares Buy and has an $8.10 price target for NIO ADRs.
Coming into Friday trading, NIO stock was up an incredible 76% from April lows reached shortly after President Donald Trump’s “Liberation Day” reciprocal tariff announcements.
New models have helped, and the entire market has rallied since then. Shares of U.S. rival Tesla were up 44% over the same span. A couple of other factors have helped NIO shares, too.
Sales growth has rebounded. NIO sold 72,056 cars in the second quarter, up 26% year over year. And its stock was helped by a couple of Wall Street upgrades. Goldman Sachs upgraded shares to Hold from Sell in June. Macquarie upgraded shares to Buy from Hold in July.
Tesla’s Chinese retail sales amounted to roughly 129,000 cars in the second quarter, down about 12% year over year, according to trade association data tracked by Wall Street. Trade tensions between the U.S. and China may have fueled the slump, with some Wall Street analysts believing Chinese shoppers are avoiding American products.