William Li
Analyst · Morgan Stanley. Please ask your question
Hello, everyone. Thank you for joining NIO’s 2020 Q1 Earnings call. In the first quarter of 2020, NIO delivered an aggregate of 3,838 ES8 and ES6. Starting from April, our sales and deliveries have witnessed a solid recovery. We delivered a total of 3,155 ES8 and ES6 in April, representing a robust 105.8% month-over-month growth. We are extremely proud that since October 2019, new ES6 has outperformed others and ranked as the top-selling electric SUV in China auto market for 7 consecutive months, it is the only electric vehicle among the top 10 best-selling luxury midsized SUVs. Due to the impact of COVID-19, the overall passenger vehicle sales in China has slumped by 41% year-over-year yet our Q1 deliveries decreased only by 3.8% compared with the same period of 2019, our bucking the trend performance is mainly attributable to the end-to-end direct sales business process and the cloud-based service system. Our products and services systems have withstood the arduous test during this unprecedented outbreak and won wide recognition from the market and users. On April 19, the all-new ES8 commenced deliveries to users. It boasts over 180 improvements with the NEDC range reaching up to 580 kilometers. With further enhancement and its comprehensive competitiveness the all-new ES8 has received rave reviews across the board from the users and media after the deliveries. As the novel coronavirus outbreak has been brought under control in China, since April, our business operations have started to return to normalcy in every aspect, including supply chain, manufacturing, sales, services and R&D. The supply chain and manufacturing have gradually recovered from the pandemic. In the meantime, our R&D activities are picking up speed, and the off-line sales network is also bouncing back. Starting from April, we have been continuously exploring innovative sales channels leveraging the advantages of both online and off-line platforms. In 2020, we have opened 44 new NIO Spaces in 24 cities. So far, we have opened 22 NIO Houses and 92 NIO Spaces in 76 cities around China. We will continue to open more efficient and flexible NIO Spaces to increase our off-line touch points and community presence. Since late April, our daily new order rate has already returned to the level before the outbreak. In light of the normalization of supply chain and production, we are confident to deliver 9,500 to 10,000 ES8 and ES6 in total in the second quarter, reaching all-time high in our quarterly deliveries. As for the gross margin, along with the strong recovery of quarterly deliveries, reduction of the battery pack and other comp costs, optimization of manufacturing expenses and efficiency and the steady rise of the average selling price, we expect our overall gross margin to substantially improve and the vehicle gross margin to reach over 5% in the second quarter this year. After a series of restructuring and operational optimization initiatives across the company since 2019, our overall efficiency has been significantly improved. In the first quarter 2020, the company SG&A has dropped by 45.1% from Q4 2019 and the operating loss has decreased by 44.4% quarter-over-quarter. In the second quarter, the SG&A and R&D expenses will increase to some extent. But considering our gross margin improvement, we are still confident to reduce operating loss. Next, I like to share with you the latest progress on two important tasks in the second quarter. First, the progress on the innovative business model of a battery as a service, it is a widely acknowledged that we have always been working on the chargeable, swappable, and upgradable battery service model based on the separation of vehicle and battery. That can lower the initial purchase price and enable users to continuously upgrade the battery and enjoy better power replenishment experience. NIO owns more than 1,200 battery swap-related patents on the vehicle battery pack, battery swap stations, and cloud service solutions. To date, we have deployed 131 battery swap stations in 58 cities nationwide and completed over 500,000 battery swaps accumulatively. NIO’s innovative business model based on the separation of battery and vehicle has won wide recognition from the users and the industry. In April, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, the Ministry of Science and Technology, the National Development and Reform Commission and the Ministry of Finance promptly issued the latest new energy vehicle subsidy policy, which clearly stated to encourage the development of battery swap technology and innovative business models based on the separation of battery and vehicles. With the new policy, NIO is the only premium EV brand with products priced over RMB300,000 yet still receiving the national EV subsidy. Based on the latest published policy, we will speed up the development of best products and service solutions which are planned to release to users in the second half of this year. As the time goes on, we believe our competitive edge enhanced by best will become more self-evident. Last but not least, I would like to share with you the progress of NIO China project. On April 29, NIO entered into definitive agreements with a group of strategic investors. Under the agreement, NIO will inject its core businesses and assets in China into NIO China including vehicle research and development, supply chain, sales and services and NIO Power. The strategic investors will invest in aggregate of RMB7 billion into NIO China. In addition, NIO will invest RMB4.26 billion into NIO China. Upon the completion of the investment NIO will hold 75.9% of controlling equity interest in NIO China, while the strategic investors will collectively hold the remaining 24.1%, and NIO China will be a subsidiary of NIO. The strategic investment in NIO China is another important milestone of NIO for its long-term growth. With investment, NIO will have sufficient funds to support its business development and to open RMB financing channels in order to enhance its leadership in products and the technologies of smart electric vehicles and offer services exceeding users’ expectations. The launch of NIO China headquarters in Hefei will enable NIO to improve its operational efficiency and to sustain its growth and competitiveness in the long run. The transactions are proceeding well according to plan. We are fully confident that it will be closed before the end of June 2020. Thank you for your support. With that, I will now turn the call over to Steven to provide the financial details for the quarter. Steven, please go ahead.