NIO hat Gewinne erzielt, die Aktienkurse sind gestiegen und Li Bin lächelt.

Yesterday, NIO released its annual and quarterly reports for the fourth quarter and the whole year of 2025. Revenue, deliveries, and gross margin reached new highs. The most important news is that after 11 years of losses, NIO has finally turned a profit.

In the fourth quarter, the company made a profit. The adjusted operating profit was 1.25 billion yuan.

Not only in terms of adjusted operating profit, but also in the traditional sense, NIO achieved an operating profit of 800 million yuan in the fourth quarter, and the net profit was 280 million yuan. Regardless of the statistical method, NIO successfully turned from loss to profit in the fourth quarter.

NIO's stocks also rose sharply. On today's stock market opening day, the price continued to rise. At the time of reporting, NIO's stock price had risen by 13.32% to HK$43.33, and the market capitalization of the brand exceeded 10 billion yuan and reached HK$106.5 billion.

Not only customers and shareholders are happy about the profit, but also Li Bin. To motivate him to keep NIO profitable, NIO's board of directors will award Li Bin 248 million restricted shares.

Assuming the latest closing price of NIO's HK stocks is HK$43.33, the value of these shares is over HK$10.7 billion. Li Bin's hard work has finally paid off.

The profit is not a coincidence

Let's first look at how NIO made a profit in the fourth quarter of 2025.

NIO's revenue in the fourth quarter of 2025 was 34.6502 billion yuan, which was 14.9468 billion yuan, or 75.9% higher than 19.7034 billion yuan in the fourth quarter of 2024, and also increased by 59% compared with the third quarter of 2025.

In terms of deliveries, NIO delivered 124,800 vehicles in the fourth quarter of 2025, which was 52,100 vehicles, or 71.7% more than 72,700 vehicles in the same quarter of 2024. This is an absolute record.

The sharp increase in margin was the key to NIO's profit. The overall gross margin was 17.5% in the fourth quarter of 2025, compared with 11.7% in the fourth quarter of 2024 and 13.9% in the third quarter of 2025. The margin increased both compared with the previous year and the previous quarter.

Looking at the core automotive margin, the automotive margin in the fourth quarter was 18.1%, which was five percentage points higher than the previous year. This is surely due to the strong sales of the new NIO ES8, which has significantly improved the sales structure. The new ES8, which started deliveries on September 21 last year, sold 22,256 units in December.

As a result, there was an operating profit of 807.3 million yuan in the fourth quarter of 2025. The adjusted operating profit (non - US GAAP) was 1.2513 billion yuan. Even the most difficult - to - achieve net profit was 282.7 million yuan, while in the same quarter of the previous year, there was a loss of 7.1115 billion yuan.

Looking at the whole year of 2025, NIO's financial figures are also good. Last year, NIO delivered a total of 326,028 new vehicles, which was 114,000 vehicles, or 46.9% more than 212,000 vehicles in 2024. This is a record high. The increase in sales directly led to an increase in revenue. The annual revenue in 2025 was 87.49 billion yuan, which was a 33.1% increase compared with the previous year, also a record high.

In addition, the gross profit was 11.92 billion yuan, which was an 83.5% increase compared with the previous year. The overall gross margin for the whole year of 2025 was 13.6%, and the automotive margin was 14.6%, which are the highest values since 2022 respectively.

Of course, NIO still faced losses throughout 2025. The net loss was 14.9426 billion yuan, but it was 7.4591 billion yuan, or 33.3% less than 22.4017 billion yuan in 2024.

In addition, NIO's profit in the fourth quarter is not only due to strong sales and margin increase, but also to cost - saving measures.

For example, the research and development costs decreased from 3.635 billion yuan in the fourth quarter of 2024 to 2.026 billion yuan in the fourth quarter of 2025, which is a 44.3% decrease compared with the previous year and a 15.3% decrease compared with the previous quarter. NIO's total research and development costs in 2025 were 10.6 billion yuan, which was 18.7% less than the previous year.

NIO explained that the decrease in research and development costs is mainly due to the optimization of the organization, which has led to a reduction in personnel costs in the research and development areas, as well as the different development phases of new products and technologies, which have led to a reduction in design and development costs.

In addition, NIO has become significantly more cost - efficient in operating costs. The sales and administrative costs decreased from 4.877 billion yuan in the fourth quarter of 2024 to 3.537 billion yuan in the fourth quarter of 2025, which is a 27.5% decrease compared with the previous year and a 15.5% decrease compared with the previous quarter.

NIO explained in its quarterly report that the decrease in sales, administrative, and general costs in the fourth quarter compared with both the previous year and the previous quarter is due to the optimization of the organization, which has led to a reduction in personnel and related costs in the marketing and other support areas, as well as a reduction in sales and marketing activities. This also shows that the CBU mechanism implemented since 2025 is still effective and affects the overall business situation.

Another important, though unnoticed, factor is that NIO's liabilities increased from 39.5 billion yuan in the third quarter of 2025 to 53.3 billion yuan in the fourth quarter, which is an increase of over 10 billion yuan.

In fact, Li Bin gave a formula for NIO's profit as early as July last year: The total monthly sales of the three brands should be over 50,000 units, the margin should be between 17% and 18%, the sales and administrative costs should be about 10%, and the research and development costs should be between 6% and 7%.

Looking at the current figures, NIO has achieved an overall margin of 17.5%. The sales, administrative, and general costs were 3.537 billion yuan, which is only 10.2% of the revenue. The research and development costs of 2.026 billion yuan are only 5.8% of the revenue. Only in terms of sales volume, there is still a deficit of about 25,000 units compared with the quarterly target of 150,000 units.

But since most of the set goals have been achieved and NIO is increasing revenue and reducing costs, the profit is an inevitable result.

Attack on the annual goal: Profit

After the first profit, NIO now has to strive to maintain profit - making.

On the one hand, the "leader" is motivated. NIO's board of directors has approved the 2026 stock - based compensation plan and decided to award Li Bin about 248 million restricted shares of the company. This is about 10% of NIO's total outstanding shares as of February 28 this year.

The salary plan of nearly 250 million shares is divided into ten parts, with each part corresponding to a milestone. As long as Li Bin serves as the Chief Executive Officer, Chairman of the Board, or in a management position recognized by the board, 10% of the salary plan will be paid out when each small goal is achieved on the US stock market.

The goals are divided into two categories. First, when NIO's market value on the US stock market exceeds $3 billion, $5 billion, $8 billion, $10 billion, or $12 billion respectively, Li Bin will be awarded one - tenth of the above - mentioned shares. Second, when NIO achieves an annual net profit of $1.5 billion, $2.5 billion, $4 billion, $5 billion, or $6 billion, one - tenth of the shares will also be paid to Li Bin.

If NIO finally becomes a company with a market value of $12 billion and an annual net profit of $6 billion, Li Bin will receive the entire stock - based salary plan. According to the then - market value and with the number of outstanding shares on the US stock market remaining the same, the value of the bonus shares for Li Bin will be $1.2 billion, about 82.3 billion yuan.

Motivated by such a high bonus, Li Bin will work with full enthusiasm again. In fact, during the conference call after the release of the quarterly report, Li Bin announced the goal for 2026: In 2026, NIO should achieve a non - GAAP profit, and the automotive margin should reach 20%.

Li Bin also explained in the conference that he is very optimistic about the annual growth because 2026 will be the breakthrough year for NIO's large vehicles.

The core will of course be the new flagship SUV model ES9. Li Bin announced that it will be launched in the second quarter of this year. On April 9, there will be a technology press release first. In addition, another large 5 - seater SUV based on the ES8 platform will appear in the third quarter. Although the exact model name has not been announced, it is very likely to be the new generation of the ES7.

Finally, the large SUV, the LeDao L80, will also be launched in the second quarter. Shen Fei previously mentioned it in a live broadcast as a "double - cabin super - large 5 - seater SUV".

Together with the Lid...