NIO Achieves First Quarterly Profit, Delivered Over 320,000 Vehicles Last Year! Company Market Value Surges Over 12 Billion Yuan in a Single Day, Li Bin Responds to "Flash Charging vs. Battery Swap Debate"

Edited by: Zhang Jinhe, Yu Tingting, Du Bo Proofread by: Jin Mingyu

On the evening of March 10th, NIO released its Q4 and full-year 2025 financial reports. Data shows that in Q4 2025, NIO achieved an operating profit of 1.25 billion yuan, marking the company’s first quarterly profit; total revenue was approximately 34.65 billion yuan, a year-over-year increase of 75.9%; cash reserves reached 45.9 billion yuan, a significant increase of nearly 10 billion yuan compared to the previous quarter.

NIO’s founder, Chairman, and CEO Li Bin stated that the quarterly profit fully confirms the core competitiveness of NIO’s technological route, products, and business model. It also reflects the continuous improvement of NIO’s systematic capabilities and operational efficiency, laying a solid foundation for the company’s long-term sustainable development. “The company has officially entered the third stage of development and begun a new cycle of rapid growth,” Li Bin said.

Image source: NIO financial report

Looking ahead to Q1 2026, Li Bin provided a delivery guidance of 80,000 to 83,000 vehicles during the earnings call, representing a year-over-year growth of 90.1% to 97.2%; revenue guidance is 24.48 billion to 25.18 billion yuan, a growth of 103.4% to 109.2% year-over-year. After achieving quarterly profitability, Li Bin set the operational goal for 2026 to be “full-year profit.”

“Reasonable profit is the foundation for NIO’s sustained development. The company must achieve this goal,” Li Bin emphasized.

In the market, NIO’s US stock price surged over 15% at close, with a market capitalization increase of approximately $1.887 billion (about 12.640 billion RMB).

Striving for full-year profitability in 2026

While achieving quarterly profit, NIO’s total revenue, delivery volume, and gross profit in Q4 2025 all hit record highs. In Q4 2025, approximately 124,800 vehicles were delivered, a year-over-year increase of 71.7%, and a quarter-over-quarter increase of 43.3%. Gross profit totaled 6.07 billion yuan, up 163.1% year-over-year and 100.8% quarter-over-quarter.

Image source: NIO financial report

Thanks to the rapid growth in vehicle deliveries, NIO’s car sales revenue in Q4 2025 also saw a significant increase. The financial report shows that in Q4 2025, NIO’s car sales revenue was about 31.606 billion yuan, an 80.9% increase from Q4 2024, and a 64.6% increase from Q3 2025. “The increase in vehicle sales revenue compared to Q4 2024 and Q3 2025 is mainly driven by higher delivery volumes and favorable product mix, which led to an increase in average selling price,” NIO explained.

The report indicates that NIO’s comprehensive gross margin in Q4 2025 was 17.5%, up 5.8 percentage points year-over-year and 3.6 percentage points quarter-over-quarter, reaching a new high since 2022. The vehicle gross margin was 18.1%, up 5 percentage points year-over-year and 3.4 percentage points quarter-over-quarter, also a three-year high, indicating a significant improvement in vehicle business profitability. Other sales gross margin was 11.9%, up 10.8 percentage points year-over-year and 4.1 percentage points quarter-over-quarter, with other sales businesses remaining profitable for three consecutive quarters, and services and community business contributing steady growth. “This is mainly due to the substantial increase in sales and revenue, product structure optimization, and the implementation of cost reduction and efficiency measures,” said NIO’s CFO Qu Yuxi.

Data shows that NIO delivered a total of 326,028 new vehicles in 2025, a year-over-year increase of 46.9%, setting a new record; annual revenue reached 87.49 billion yuan, up 33.1% year-over-year, also a record high; total annual gross profit was 11.92 billion yuan, an 83.5% increase, reaching a new high.

Regarding the gross profit margin of vehicles in Q1 2026, Qu Yuxi stated it could maintain the level of Q4 2025. Despite seasonal and policy influences, the stock orders for ES8 and the recovery of orders after the Spring Festival are good, and their delivery proportion in the overall quarterly deliveries is high.

Qu Yuxi said that with five large SUVs on sale this year and the strong gross margin performance of large vehicles (ES8 gross margin in Q4 2025 exceeding 20%, approaching 25%), NIO aims to achieve non-GAAP full-year profitability in 2026. He added that NIO will continue to improve operational efficiency, promote cost optimization, and deliver more stable business performance to users, partners, and shareholders.

Confident in 40% to 50% sales growth in 2026

Li Bin divided NIO’s development into three stages: the first from 2018 when the first vehicle was delivered to 2021’s rapid growth period, maintaining 100% annual growth despite the 2019 crisis; the second from 2022 to mid-2025, with sales below expectations but still maintaining over 30% annual growth; and the third starting in the second half of 2025.

For 2025, Li Bin believes that the three major brands (NIO, Leado, and Firefly) have highly recognized product competitiveness in their respective market segments. Meanwhile, the company’s self-developed core technologies for intelligent electric vehicles have gradually achieved mass production, significantly reducing costs and enhancing product competitiveness. “In 2026, we will resolutely and continuously invest in twelve core technology stacks, launch new models, improve energy business operations of charging and swapping networks, and further optimize and upgrade our sales and service network,” Li Bin said.

According to Li Bin, in 2026, NIO will launch three new vehicles: the flagship ES9, the Leado L80, which will be launched in the second quarter; and a five-seat SUV based on the new ES8 platform, scheduled for the third quarter. “Along with the Leado L90 and the newly popular ES8, these five large and medium-sized SUVs will lay a solid foundation for this year’s sales growth,” Li Bin stated. He expressed confidence that the current product rhythm aligns with market trends and expects a 40% to 50% increase in annual sales.

Li Bin also revealed that this year, NIO, Leado, and Firefly will deepen their focus on key markets while jointly expanding into lower-tier markets through SKY stores operated by the three brands, providing efficient sales and service networks in more prefecture-level cities. By 2026, NIO plans to establish more stores in 210 prefecture-level cities, focusing on Hubei, Shandong, Henan, Sichuan, Hunan, Jiangxi provinces, as NIO still has significant growth potential compared to BMW, Audi, and Mercedes-Benz in these regions.

Fast charging and battery swapping modes are not fundamentally contradictory

Regarding charging and swapping networks, NIO has so far deployed 3,815 battery swap stations worldwide, with over 28,000 supercharging and destination charging stations built. NIO aims to surpass 10,000 charging and swapping stations by 2030. “The battery swap network is an innovative system solution to address the mismatch between vehicle and battery sales, and as an energy storage facility, it is also becoming an important part of the new power system,” Li Bin said. He believes that in the long term, continued deployment of the swap network will enhance the user experience of electric vehicles and provide a unique, hard-to-duplicate competitive advantage for the company’s long-term business success.

Recently, BYD Chairman and President Wang Chuanfu announced the second-generation Blade Battery and Flash Charging technology. Supported by flash charging, it can achieve “5-minute full charge, 9-minute top-up, and only 3 extra minutes at -30°C.” After the release of this technology, there was widespread discussion about the rivalry between BYD’s flash charging and NIO’s battery swap stations.

On March 8th, BYD’s Brand and Public Relations General Manager Li Yunfei stated: “Battery swapping and flash charging are two different modes, but both are good. They are a hundred flowers blooming, and ultimately, they serve the same purpose.” Both aim to solve the slow charging problem of new energy vehicles and promote the transition from oil to electricity.

During the earnings call, Li Bin addressed the relationship between ultra-fast charging and battery swapping, stating there is no fundamental contradiction. Instead, they are solutions for different usage scenarios. “NIO is pleased to see more automakers participate in the construction of charging and swapping networks. Flash charging and battery swapping will jointly accelerate the transition from fuel vehicles, range-extended, and plug-in hybrid vehicles to pure electric vehicles,” Li Bin emphasized.

Additionally, Li Bin disclosed that in 2025, NIO’s service and community business revenue exceeded 10 billion yuan, achieving profitability. He expects the profitability of NIO’s service and community business to continue improving in 2026. Even with an additional investment of 1,000 swap stations, this goal remains achievable.

Earlier on the evening of March 9th, Li Bin appeared on CCTV Finance’s “Dialogue: Innovation China Tour,” where he elaborated on NIO’s battery swap concept and responded to the debate over charging versus swapping. Li Bin stated that battery swapping and ultra-fast charging are not contradictory but are solutions tailored to different scenarios, each with its own advantages.

He believes that ultra-fast charging, no matter how fast, cannot surpass the speed of battery swapping. However, the benefit of ultra-fast charging is that it relies on charging piles, which can be more densely deployed than swap stations. Users may find charging more acceptable because some are concerned about swapping to old batteries. Nonetheless, frequent ultra-fast charging can damage battery life, health, and long-term safety.