NIO has skyrocketed.
Revenue soared by 76% year-on-year! Gross profit skyrocketed by 163% year-on-year! The cash reserve reached 45.9 billion yuan, with a month-on-month increase of over 10 billion yuan!
This is the report card NIO presented in the fourth quarter of 2025.
More importantly, during the same period, the net profit attributable to the parent company was 122 million yuan, achieving a positive net profit for the first time since its establishment 11 years ago.
Even looking at the whole year of 2025, NIO's revenue increased by 33%, the delivery volume of new cars soared by 47%, and the gross profit increased by 83.5%.
On the first trading day after the release of the financial report, NIO's stock price also went crazy: the U.S. stock price closed up 15.4%, and soared to 19.7% at one point during the session. The Hong Kong stock price also soared by 14%.
Who could have thought that just half a year ago, some people were worried about whether NIO could survive. Now, it not only survived but is also doing quite well!
The guidance for the first quarter of 2026 given by NIO shows that the delivery volume of new cars will increase by more than 93% year-on-year, and the revenue will increase by more than 100% year-on-year.
For 2026, Li Bin, the founder, chairman, and CEO of NIO, set the goal of achieving annual profitability!
In such a competitive market, how did NIO become stronger? Is the goal of annual profitability reliable? Is it really completely stable? This article will answer the above questions clearly for you.
Is the profit time similar to that of JD.com?
Whether in the spotlight or in the trough, NIO's business logic has never changed from the very beginning.
NIO is the most "spendthrift" new force in history. I'm talking about spending money. In the first five years of its establishment, it spent more money than Tesla did in its first 15 years. Often, when the financial report is released, the loss exceeds the total of several other listed new forces.
Even in 2019, NIO almost ran out of funds, and Li Bin became the "unluckiest person" in the eyes of netizens.
Li Bin, the founder, chairman, and CEO of NIO
Although NIO has experienced many life-and-death moments and endured long-term cynicism, it can't be said that NIO is spending money recklessly.
Since its establishment, NIO has had a very clear strategy: to show differentiation through services and battery swapping, and to build a moat through self-developed intelligent technologies.
Building battery swapping stations and NIO Houses costs a lot of money, and NIO also provides top-notch user services in the industry. NIO's R & D investment has also long remained at the top among new forces, at least in the first echelon.
Due to its high-end positioning, NIO always "adds extras" to users in terms of materials and configurations. For a brand with an average price of over 300,000 yuan, the gross profit per vehicle often can't compare with that of some competitors whose average price is less than half of its own.
In order to lay a solid foundation in terms of technology, infrastructure, and reputation in the early stage, NIO was often in a passive position during the ten-year investment period. Coupled with the capital losses caused by occasional strategic mistakes, the pressure was even greater.
Although NIO's development has often fluctuated, its route has never wavered. They are betting on a qualitative change after long-term investment. At least for now, NIO has won the bet initially.
Li Bin often compares NIO to JD.com. JD.com, established in 2004, achieved its first annual profit in 2016. After that, its development became unstoppable.
If NIO can really achieve annual profitability in 2026, it is really similar to JD.com, which was established 10 years earlier, at least in terms of the profit rhythm.
Can it continue to "win"?
Whether from the first-quarter guidance or the annual goal, NIO is likely to be on an upward trajectory in 2026.
Making such a prediction is not just because NIO said so. More importantly, some signals have emerged.
Since September 2025, the sales growth rate of pure-electric three-row models has led all categories for five consecutive months. In the second half of 2025, the sales volume of pure-electric three-row SUVs increased by more than 350% year-on-year.
NIO's product rhythm just matches the market trend. Their ability to achieve quarterly profitability is closely related to the good sales of the NIO ES8 and the LeDao L90, two three-row SUVs.
In addition to these two models and the new flagship SUV ES9, whose application drawings have been released, the large five-seater SUV based on the new ES8 platform and the LeDao L80 will also be launched in 2026.
These new cars are all high-priced, high-gross-profit models, which will bring significant benefits to revenue and profitability.
To sell cars well, Li Bin said in a conference call after the release of the financial report that NIO, LeDao, and Firefly will jointly expand into the sinking market in 2026. Through the SKY stores of the three brands, they will cover more prefecture-level cities.
Not only are there current benefits, but NIO also hasn't lost sight of the future.
At the financial report conference call, Qu Yu, NIO's CFO, said that they will maintain a quarterly R & D investment of 2 billion to 2.5 billion yuan in 2026 and continue to improve R & D efficiency based on the CBU operating mechanism.
The second chip of Shenji, NIO's in-vehicle intelligent chip company, has successfully completed tape-out in February and is being promoted for mass production. This chip will not only be used by NIO but also be available to a wider range of customers.
By the way, this subsidiary of NIO just completed its first-round financing of over 2.2 billion yuan in February, with a post-investment valuation of nearly 10 billion yuan.
NIO has really had one good piece of news after another recently.
The future may not be all smooth sailing
Is NIO's future going to be all plain sailing? It's really hard to say.
The Chinese auto market is becoming increasingly competitive. In the first two months of 2026, the sales volume of Chinese passenger cars decreased by 10.7% year-on-year. During the same period, the proportion of new energy vehicle sales was 41.2%, a significant drop from 48% in 2025.
Since 2026, new energy vehicles have officially bid farewell to the era of exemption from purchase tax. At the same time, the prices of power battery raw materials and in-vehicle storage chips are skyrocketing, which is really unfavorable for a pure-electric vehicle brand like NIO.
The domestic market is shrinking, and NIO is still in the initial stage overseas. Now, a large number of Chinese automakers are expanding globally. The overseas annual sales of BYD and Chery have exceeded one million. Obviously, NIO will face significant challenges in the era of global expansion.
Not only the market, but also the iteration speed of automotive intelligent technologies in recent years has been quite astonishing. The technology that seems far ahead this year may be left behind by the new generation next year.
For example, in the field of assisted driving, just one year after BEV became popular, a new term, transformer, emerged; then, the OCC occupancy network appeared. After that, the technology switched to a new track, moving towards the end-to-end direction, and then there was VLM. Soon after, VLA and the world model came into the picture.
With such a fast technology iteration speed, who can guarantee to stay invincible?
The external environment is harsh, and it's hard to say that NIO has completely entered a positive cycle internally. In the past period, in order to achieve profitability, NIO implemented a large number of "cost-cutting" measures and advocated "saving" within the company. It is even said that in order to cut costs by 6,000 yuan, two engineers drove the test car from Shanghai to Beijing.
Although waste is shameful, excessive "cost-cutting" may also eliminate the future. How to balance short-term cost-cutting and long-term development remains an important issue for NIO to face in the future.
Conclusion
Different from some companies that "steal profits", NIO's first quarterly profit is relatively healthy. The signal it shows is that the potential accumulated in the past 11 years has finally exploded.
In 2026, NIO is estimated to still be in a period of rapid growth.
However, looking further into the future, NIO is not completely stable. Market changes and technological development are unpredictable, and the internal system is still being adjusted.
The quarterly profit is a good start. But to reach the future it expects, NIO needs to take every step steadily in the present.
This article is from the WeChat official account "Autostinger" (ID: autostinger). The author is Zhang Yuzhe. It is published by 36Kr with authorization.