Nio CEO William Li Bets Big On In-House Chips, Battery Swaps Amid Strong Q4 Earnings
Nio Inc. CEO William Li has reiterated the company's battery swapping efforts, as well as in-house self-driving chip development, at the company's Q4 earnings call.
Self-Driving Efforts
During the company's fourth-quarter earnings call, the CEO hailed Nio subsidiary GeniTech Co. Ltd.'s latest funding round as a boost for the company's in-house chip design and self-driving efforts, such as developing "the world's first automotive-grade 5-nanometer chip" for Nio's Smart Driving tech.
"We will continue to make determined and sustained investments in the 12 full-stack technology domains for smart EVs," he said. He also outlined Nio's updated NIO World Model (NWM), which promises better performance of the Navigate on Pilot, which is the company's ADAS offering.
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On the chip efforts, the CEO shared that the company's new chip would be more cost-efficient than competitors. He added that the chip can be used for "autonomous driving," as well as "smart driving" and "embodied AI." The chip will also have inference capabilities and Li said that there was "strong interest" from industry clients in the new chip.
William Li Reaffirms Battery Swapping
As for the battery swapping tech, Li shared that the company had over 3,815 battery swap stations. He shared that the company "reached the milestone of 100 million cumulative swaps" on February 6.
"Over time, the continued expansion of the power swap network will enhance the EV user experience and provide a unique defensible competitive advantage," he said.
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The CEO had earlier reiterated his support for the technology as rival BYD Co. Ltd. had unveiled new charging technology that could charge a battery from 10% to 97% within 9 minutes.
Nio's Earnings
The company posted a strong earnings report, sharing that it had a quarterly revenue of $4.95 billion, up 75.9% YoY. Nio's adjusted earnings came in at around RMB 0.29 (4 cents) per American Depository Share (ADS). It's worth noting that the company had earlier reported a loss of RMB 3.17 per ADS last year.
As for deliveries, the company delivered 124,807 units in the quarter, which illustrated a surge of 71.7% YoY and more than 43% over the previous quarter, while vehicle revenue increased 80.9%.