This article first appeared on GuruFocus.
Nio (NYSE:NIO) just hit a milestone that actually matters: it built its 1,000,000th vehicle. For a company that didn’t even exist before 2014, that’s a big deal in China’s brutally competitive EV market. Shares popped about 2.5% premarket as investors took notice.
Instead of turning it into a pure victory lap, Nio used the moment to talk about what comes next. The company donated the milestone car, a new ES8, to support scientific research and rolled out a special ET9 edition to mark the moment. Industry officials at the event praised Nio for helping push China’s EV tech and brand image forward.
CEO William Li says Nio is now entering its third phase, shifting from rapid expansion to higher-quality growth. The company is targeting 40% to 50% annual sales growth and more than 10,000 battery swap stations by 2030, while continuing to expand overseas. building 1,000,000 cars proves Nio can scale. Now it has to prove it can make money doing it.