Shanghai (ZXZC)- For the first quarter of 2021, NIO's vehicle margin rose to 21.2% from negative 7.4% for the prior-year period mainly driven by higher deliveries and solid average selling price, and the gross margin also grew to 19.5%, William Li, founder, chairman and CEO of NIO said at an earnings call after the startup released its Q1 2021 financial results.

Currently, NIO's costs in the items like BOM (bill of materials) are quite stable, said Stanley Qu, NIO's vice president of finance. He added the increase in vehicle margin was mainly thanks to the higher take-rate of NIO Pilot and 100kWh battery pack, which contributed 8,000 yuan ($1,240) and 5,000 yuan ($770) per car to the first-quarter profit. The take-rate of the 100kWh battery pack was around 25% in the first quarter and is expected to be maintained over the next several months.

During the reporting period, NIO delivered 20,060 new vehicles, including 516 ES8s, 8,088 ES6s and 7,456 EC6s, representing a hike of 422.7% from the previous year and an increase of 15.6% from the previous quarter.

In April, the company celebrated the 100,000th mass-produced vehicle rolling off the assembly line. It took NIO only nine months to achieve the production volume for the second 50,000 vehicles.

For the second quarter of 2021, the company expects to deliver 21,000 to 22,000 vehicle.

ET7; photo credit: NIO

NIO launched its fourth production model, the ET7, at this year's NIO Day in January. At the Auto Shanghai 2021, the interior of the smart flagship sedan model was unveiled to the public. According to William Li, the company is energetically advancing the production and the tests of the ET7 and will possibly start delivery in the first quarter of 2022 despite the challenges it is facing in volume production.

As the first model based on NP2 (NIO Platform 2.0), the ET7 embodies NIO's ambition to rapidly release all-new generation of products and lead the industry in using many new technologies. The aim makes NIO face a big challenge in ET7 volume production partly as its suppliers of LiDAR, chips and other devices should achieve mass production much ahead of their schedules according to NIO's plan.

As for the production capacity, due to the shortage of semiconductors, NIO suspended the vehicle production in the Hefei-based JAC-NIO manufacturing plant for five workings days from March 29, which had some negative effects on the production and delivery in April. William Li said the whole supply chain will keep facing a huge challenge in production capacity in the second quarter of 2021.

“To ensure sufficient production capacity for our upcoming products, together with our partners, we have kicked off the planning and building of a new plant in Xinqiao Industrial Park in Hefei,” concluded William Li.