NIO closes battery recall ahead of schedule, but deliveries in July take a hit

Shanghai (Gasgoo)- NIO announced on August 12 that it delivered 837 new vehicles in July, 2019, versus 1,340 units handed over a month ago.

Among vehicles delivered last month, 673 units and 164 units came from the ES6s and the ES8s, the Chinese EV startup said.

As of July 31, combined deliveries of the company's ES8 and ES6 amounted to 19,727 units, of which 8,379 vehicles were handed over in 2019.

(NIO ES6, Photo source: NIO)

NIO stated that its delivery performance in July was negatively impacted by multiple factors. Last month, they completed a voluntary battery recall for 4,803 ES8s and prioritized battery manufacturing capacity for the recalled vehicles, thus significantly affected its production and delivery results.

What's more, China's macro economy and overall auto market climate are still full of challenges. According to the China Passenger Car Association (CPCA), the national wholesale volume of locally-produced PVs (consisting of cars, SUVs, MPVs and minibuses) in July reached 1,557,566 units, edging down 2.7% over a year ago and down by 9.2% from the previous month.

Meanwhile, the EV manufacturer also mentioned the influence of the new NEV policy with free-fall subsidy amount after a three-month grace period ending June 25.

(NIO ES8, photo source: NIO)

The CPCA's data show that the ES6 and the ES8 entered the top 10 locally-produced premium SUV model lists by July retail sales and Jan.-Jul. retail sales respectively.

“On the positive side, we completed the ES8 battery recall in roughly half of the time compared to our original timeline”, said William Li, founder, chairman and chief executive officer of NIO. “Going forward, with battery capacity allocation back to normal, we will accelerate deliveries and make up for the delivery loss impacted by the recall. We expect August to be a much stronger month, and target to deliver between 2,000 and 2,500 vehicles,” Mr. Li concluded.