NIO Deliveries Lag Other Chinese EV Makers. What It Means for the Stock.

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Chinese electric vehicle maker

NIO

reported healthy delivery figures for July on Tuesday morning. Unfortunately, NIO’s peers delivered more cars than it did, the first time that’s happened.

NIO (ticker: NIO) delivered 7,931 vehicles in July, down a little from the 8,083 vehicles delivered in June. Ordinarily, deliveries in the 8,000-range look good, but month-to-month declines are typically problematic for the stock.

NIO deliveries dropped from January to February, from March to April, and from April into May. The stock dropped each time the sequential delivery drops were disclosed, falling about 13%, 1%, and 2%, respectively.

That might not be the case this time. NIO shares have gained 0.7% in early premarket trading Monday, while

S&P 500

and

Dow Jones Industrial Average futures

are up about 0.5% and 0.4%, respectively. But shares of NIO peers

Li Auto

(LI) and

XPeng

(XPEV) are both up between 4% and 5% on their own delivery numbers.

XPeng delivered 8.040 vehicles in July, a new monthly record and up from 6,565 vehicles delivered in June. Li delivered 8,589 vehicles, a monthly record for Li too, up from 7,713 vehicles delivered in June.

It’s the first time NIO hasn’t delivered the most vehicles in a month, among the three, since delivery numbers have become available, stretching back to May 2020.

In July, the three combined delivered roughly 24,500 vehicles. That’s up almost 10% compared with June and up about 190% over July 2020. Chinese EV demand remains solid. The companies are, essentially, selling all the EVs they can make.

NIO is still the largest, most valuable of the three peers, but its stock results have lagged recently. NIO stock is up 12% over the past three months. XPeng stock has added 36%. Li shares have added 69%.

Coming into Monday trading, NIO shares are down about 8% so far in 2021. XPeng stock has fallen 5% year to date. Li shares have added almost 16%.

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