NIO posted operating profit for the first time in the last quarter of 2025

NIO, the well-known Chinese electric vehicle manufacturer, has achieved, for the first time since the company was founded in 2014, a favourable quarterly operating profit. According to preliminary figures announced after an initial review of its unaudited financial results, in the fourth quarter of 2025 the company expects to record an adjusted operating profit -excluding share-based compensation expenses- of between 700 and 1,200 million yuan. That is, roughly between 85 and 175 million euros at the current exchange rate.

This result is a notable achievement, considering that in the same period of the previous year NIO reported an adjusted operating loss of 5,540 million yuan -just over 675 million euros-. Throughout 2025, the Chinese manufacturer progressively reduced its losses quarter after quarter, until it finally posted an operating profit in the last three months of the year.

In the fourth quarter of 2025, NIO delivered a total of 124,807 vehicles to its customers, an increase of 71.7 per cent compared with the same quarter of 2024. This figure represented almost 38 per cent of the 326,028 vehicles delivered over the whole of 2025. The latter figure was also an annual record, with growth of 46.9 per cent compared with 2024.

NIO’s good results are the consequence of the company’s current strategy, which relies on three different brands aimed at different types of customers. NIO, the main brand, focuses on offering a premium experience in its vehicles; Onvo is the company’s family brand; while Firefly puts the emphasis on premium compact vehicles for urban use. These three brands contributed to the sustained increase in the number of deliveries throughout 2025, leading to the current situation.

The secret of success

NIO highlights three key factors that have made it possible to achieve a positive operating profit for the first time. These are the sustained increase in sales volume, the optimisation of margins per vehicle thanks to cost reductions and, finally, lasting improvements in operating efficiency.

Although the company has not specified which areas it has cut back on to limit costs, what we do know is that its spending on research and development had been higher than that of its competitors for a long time, and this is something management has moved to curb.

Looking ahead to 2026, the trend also appears positive. During last January NIO delivered 27,182 vehicles, which represents 96.1 per cent more than in the same month of the previous year. Breaking this result down by brand, the main brand NIO accounts for the vast majority of deliveries, with 20,894 vehicles. Onvo, for its part, contributed 3,481 vehicles to the total, while Firefly reached a delivery volume of 2,807 vehicles.

In this way, the total cumulative number of vehicles delivered to customers by NIO since its founding in 2014 has surpassed one million units, with a total of 1,024,774 units.