CHINA-BASED electric vehicle (EV) maker Nio : NIO 0% narrowed its fourth-quarter loss for FY2023 by 4.3 per cent year on year to 5.6 billion yuan (S$1.1 billion) on higher vehicle sales margin.

The company, which is listed in the United States, Hong Kong and Singapore, delivered a 4.6 per cent year-on-year rise in vehicle sales to 15.4 billion yuan for the period to December 2023, with vehicle sales margin improving to 11.9 per cent from 6.8 per cent for the year-ago quarter.

The higher vehicle sales margin was mainly attributed to lower material cost per unit and the absence of inventory provisions and losses on purchase commitments that were recorded in Q4 FY2022.

The higher vehicle sales over Q4 FY2022, meanwhile, were mainly due to the rise in delivery volume, partially offset by lower average selling price as a result of changes in product mix, Nio said in a regulatory filing on Tuesday (Mar 5).

Nio is engaged in the sale of accessories and provision of power solutions as well.

Revenue amounted to 17.1 billion yuan, up 6.5 per cent over the corresponding period in 2022.

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Loss per share stood at 3.18 yuan for Q4 FY2023, lower than the 3.55 yuan loss per share for the year-ago period.

However, for FY2023, the EV maker’s net loss widened to 21.1 billion yuan from 14.6 billion yuan in FY2022, despite its top line having risen by 12.9 per cent year on year to 55.6 billion yuan.

This was due to vehicle sales margin being 4.2 percentage points lower at 9.5 per cent, compared to 13.7 per cent for FY2022.

“In 2023, Nio set a new delivery record of 160,038 vehicles, ranking first in China’s premium BEV (battery EV) market with an average transaction price over 300,000 yuan,” noted William Li Bin, chief executive officer.

Nio expects to deliver between 31,000 and 33,000 vehicles in Q1 FY2024, representing between 0.1 per cent fewer and 6.3 per cent more from the same quarter of 2023.

Revenue is forecast to come in at between 10.5 billion yuan and 11.1 billion yuan, translating to between a decrease of approximately 1.7 per cent and an increase of about 3.8 per cent, compared to Q1 FY2023.

Nio shares traded in Singapore closed 4.2 per cent lower at US$5.44 on Tuesday, before the results were announced.