New York, June 1, 2026, 11:01 (EDT)
- NIO’s U.S. shares traded up 6.6% in the morning as May deliveries jumped 62.3% year over year.
- The rally raises the question of whether NIO will hit its second-quarter goal of 110,000 to 115,000 deliveries.
- XPeng climbed after monthly delivery numbers, but Li Auto fell. Investors are still picking out winners and losers in China’s packed EV market.
NIO Inc. shares rose in New York on Monday. The Chinese electric vehicle maker reported much higher deliveries for May, driven by its expanded brand lineup and new models. The U.S.-listed ADRs traded up 6.6% to $5.97 late in the session, with intraday volume topping 35 million shares.
NIO is in a key stretch, with May marking the midpoint of a critical quarter. The company is looking to show it can boost sales with new vehicles from its NIO, ONVO and FIREFLY brands, while holding margins in China’s hard-fought electric-vehicle market.
NIO delivered 37,705 vehicles in May, a 62.3% jump from last year. That figure breaks down to 20,013 from the NIO brand, 12,029 from ONVO and 5,663 from FIREFLY. So far this year, deliveries have climbed 68.7% to 150,526, NIO said.
Investors kept an eye on the run-rate. NIO delivered 29,356 vehicles in April, so May deliveries were up around 28% month-on-month. NIO must deliver 42,939 vehicles in June to meet the bottom of its second-quarter guidance, or 47,939 for the top end.
William Bin Li, who runs NIO as founder, chairman and CEO, said in the May 21 earnings report that the company started an “intensive new product launch and delivery cycle” in Q2. NIO is looking for second-quarter deliveries of 110,000 to 115,000 vehicles, which would be up 52.7% to 59.6% from last year. NIO Inc.
NIO’s Q1 numbers gave bulls more than the usual sales growth case. Vehicle margin hit 18.8%, up from 10.2% last year. Total revenue more than doubled to 25.53 billion yuan, or $3.70 billion.
NIO CFO Stanley Yu Qu said vehicle margin rose for the fourth quarter in a row, with the company also posting positive adjusted operating profit in Q1. Companies use adjusted or non-GAAP figures, which leave out certain items, to show what they call underlying performance.
XPeng’s U.S.-traded stock ended up 6.0% after the company posted May deliveries of 32,158 units, up 4% from the month before. Li Auto dropped 1.9% even with 33,350 deliveries in May and over 10,000 new orders for its Li L9 Livis in two weeks since launch. The peer read-through was mixed.
China EV stocks showed mixed moves. BYD, the world’s biggest EV maker, posted a 0.3% global sales increase in May after eight straight monthly drops. But Reuters said its China sales fell 24%, a sign that exports and lower prices are still balancing out soft local demand.
NIO’s big risk is still out there. May numbers came in solid, but that doesn’t answer if June demand will keep up. There are questions about whether fresh models will drive enough orders, or if competitors will trigger more price cuts. If NIO misses its second-quarter guidance, Monday’s rally could fade fast as the focus shifts back to execution.
Li pushed back on expectations for a return of the old China car boom. “We’re focused primarily on China,” he told reporters last week. He called the domestic market saturated and said it isn’t a straightforward growth market anymore. Reuters
Traders are still buying into proof of volume. NIO’s next hurdle is showing it can keep May’s pace in June without giving back the margin improvement from its latest results, which have some seeing more than just a one-off rebound.
