Yesterday, NIO Automobile released its financial reports for the fourth quarter and full year of 2023. Compared to Ideal Automobile's first full year profit in 2023, NIO's net loss for the year further expanded to 20.72 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 43.5%. Over the past six years, NIO has incurred a total loss of over 86 billion yuan.
According to the financial report, NIO's annual revenue for 2023 was 55.62 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 12.9%, reaching a new historical high; Throughout the year, 160038 new cars were delivered, a year-on-year increase of 30.7%. In the fourth quarter, NIO achieved a revenue of 17.10 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 6.5%; The net loss was 5.3677 billion yuan, a year-on-year decrease of 7.2% and a month on month increase of 17.8%.
In terms of gross profit margin, NIO's annual gross profit margin was 5.5%, a decrease of 4.9 percentage points from 10.4% in 2022; The gross profit margin for the fourth quarter was 11.9%, which was also lower than market expectations and the company's previous guidance of 15%. However, at last night's financial report press conference, Li Bin, Chairman and CEO of NIO Automobile, stated, "NIO brand's annual gross profit margin target will reach 15% -18%. In the long run, we have confidence in a gross profit margin of 20%."
In terms of expenses, in 2023, NIO R&D invested 13.4314 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 23.9%, and exceeded 10 billion yuan for two consecutive years. In the past few years, NIO's investment in research and development has exceeded 43 billion yuan. Previously, Li Bin had repeatedly stated in public statements that "NIO's losses mainly came from research and development investment.".
In addition, in 2023, NIO's sales, general, and administrative expenses amounted to 12.8846 billion yuan, an increase of 22.3% compared to the previous year; Excluding equity incentive expenses, its sales, general and administrative expenses (non GAAP) amounted to 12.1167 billion, an increase of 25.8% from the previous year. In the fourth quarter, its sales, general, and administrative expenses were 3.9727 billion yuan, an increase of 12.6% and 10.1% respectively compared to the same period last month.
By comparison, sales volume remains the biggest development bottleneck for NIO. Throughout 2023, apart from selling over 20000 vehicles in July, NIO has only sold over 10000 vehicles in most other months, still unable to shake off its title of "NIO 10000". In the first two months of this year, due to the impact of the Spring Festival holiday and other factors, NIO's delivery volume was only 8132 vehicles and 10055 vehicles respectively. Li Bin expressed his belief that sales will continue to improve from March onwards, and he is confident that monthly sales will reach 20000 units. He is very optimistic about the full year sales this year.
At present, all 2024 models of NIO brand have been launched, with a starting price range of 298000-598000 yuan, and the product's cost-effectiveness has been improved through "upgrading without price increase". Among them, the 2024 ES8, EC7, ES6, EC6, and ET5T will be delivered in March; The delivery of the 2024 ET5 will begin in April; The 2024 ES7 will begin delivery in May; The 2024 ET7 will be released and unlocked in April.
More importantly, NIO's second brand - Alps - will be launched in the second quarter of this year. As the only car company among the new forces to develop a sub brand, the Alps brand targets the mainstream Volkswagen market with a price range of 200000 to 300000 yuan. Its first product is benchmarked against Tesla Model Y and will be released in the third quarter and delivered in the fourth quarter. The brand will adopt a separate sales network and part of NIO's after-sales system, and share the battery swapping network with NIO.
The second model of the Alps will be aimed at SUVs for large families, and is currently in the development stage. It is expected to enter the market next year. In addition, NIO's third brand Firefly project is planned to be launched in 2025, and Li Bin stated that this brand is mainly aimed at markets worth over 100000 yuan.
It is worth noting that the continuously expanding battery swapping "friend circle" is expected to become a major growth point for NIO's revenue in 2024. In just the past three months, NIO has reached cooperation agreements with multiple enterprises such as Changan, Geely, Jianghuai, Chery, etc. on battery swapping business.
It is reported that NIO is the first domestic enterprise to implement a battery swapping model in the private passenger vehicle field, and has currently built 2375 battery swapping stations nationwide. According to the China Electric Vehicle Charging Infrastructure Promotion Alliance, as of January 2024, the total number of battery swapping stations in China was 3624, with NIO firmly ranking first. NIO stated that by the end of this year, a total of 3310+replacement power stations will be built.
For 2024, Li Bin stated that the NIO brand will focus on improving efficiency and expanding its presence in the lower tier market, promoting sales through the deployment of charging, swapping, and energy replenishment facilities in the lower tier market. Data shows that first tier cities, represented by the Yangtze River Delta, have contributed significantly to NIO's sales, with sales in first tier cities accounting for over 70%.