One year ago, NIO kept about ten cents of every dollar it collected from vehicle sales. In the second quarter of 2026, it kept nearly nineteen.
Vehicle margin reached 18.5% in the quarter, against 10.3% a year earlier, according to unaudited results NIO released on September 1. Gross profit more than tripled year-over-year to about US$870 million. The company says the improvement came from a more favourable product mix, with higher-margin models making up a larger share of deliveries.
For shareholders who have been waiting for NIO to stop losing money, the quarter produced a first: stripped of share-based compensation, adjusted net profit came in at about US$3.8 million. Under standard accounting NIO still reported a loss — US$77.8 million — but a year earlier that quarterly loss was close to RMB5 billion, and the gap has closed quickly.
Deliveries reached 107,658 vehicles, up 49% from a year earlier, split across the flagship NIO line, the ONVO family brand, and the FIREFLY compact-car range. The company says each brand grew in both volume and average transaction price.
Shares closed 4.14% lower at $4.0550 on September 2, on dollar volume of about $327 million.
Cash stood at about US$8.4 billion at the end of June. For the third quarter, NIO guides for 108,000 to 111,000 deliveries. The adjusted profit of US$3.8 million arrived on revenues of about US$4.7 billion — a thin enough margin that CFO Stanley Yu Qu flagged "rising cost pressures" as something the company had to work around to hold it.