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NIO · Forward model · Street case

The Street case, 20 quarters out

Model as of

Each segment is projected from its own operating driver, rolled up into consolidated cash flow, and discounted back to a fair value per share. The assumptions below are editable — change them and every number on this page moves with them.

Five decisions decide how this model reads. 1. CURRENCY. NIO reports in renminbi. Every dollar figure here is translated at the single constant rate of RMB6.8980 to US$1.00 that NIO itself used in its 2026 Q1 release. NIO's own historical releases each translate at that quarter's own noon buying rate, so the dollar series on the stock page differs from this one by up to about 1% in the older quarters; the renminbi underneath is identical. The basis quarter reconciles exactly: RMB25,532.7m is US$3,701.5m in both. 2. THE SPLIT IS THE COMPANY'S. NIO publishes exactly two revenue lines - vehicle sales and other sales - and nothing below them. Deliveries are broken out by NIO, ONVO and FIREFLY brand every month, but revenue and margin never are, and battery swapping, BaaS and power solutions have never been reported as a revenue figure of their own. No brand split and no swap-revenue line is estimated anywhere here. Vehicle sales is tabulated in every quarterly release; other sales is marked estimated in the nine quarters where it is total revenues less vehicle sales rather than a printed line, even though the identity is exact. 3. THE FIRST PROJECTED QUARTER IS ALREADY A FACT ON VOLUME. On 21 May 2026 NIO guided the June quarter to 110,000-115,000 deliveries and RMB32,777-34,436m of revenue. On 1 July 2026 it disclosed 107,658 actual deliveries - 2.1% below the low end. The unit driver is set to reproduce 107,658, not the guide, which is why the model's first quarter lands at RMB32,779m, at the bottom of the guided range rather than the middle. 4. WHERE THE OPERATING LEVERAGE LIVES. Corporate overhead is held at 13.24% of revenue - R&D plus SG&A less other operating income, less a quarter of 2025 depreciation, over basis-quarter revenue. That is deliberately a flat ratio even though NIO's operating costs have been falling in absolute terms while revenue doubled: R&D was down 40.7% and SG&A down 20.5% year over year in the basis quarter. The leverage is expressed once, in the verticals' terminal margins, rather than twice. 5. NO PRODUCTION CEILING. NIO discloses no installed capacity anywhere - the 20-F says only 'three advanced manufacturing bases'. The unit driver therefore has no cap, and at base assumptions deliveries reach roughly 632,000 a year by 2030. Nothing in the filings confirms that is buildable. NO SEASONALITY IS APPLIED, and that is a finding rather than a gap. The Chinese New Year trough is real - the Q1 factor measures 0.626 - but the centred four-quarter moving-average test fails on its own terms for both verticals: vehicle-sales signal 0.555 against a worst window-to-window spread of 0.504, other sales 0.161 against 0.148. The spread is the launch calendar, not noise, and the amplitude is compressing as the base grows: Q1 as a share of the prior Q4 was 0.600 in 2024, 0.579 in 2025 and 0.669 in 2026. Applying the measured factors makes the model print 73,054 deliveries in 2027 Q1 against 83,465 actual in 2026 Q1, a 12.5% year-over-year fall nothing supports. The cost of leaving them out is that each modelled year is smooth where the real one swings.

What the sell side is actually underwriting. Twenty-four analysts polled by S&P Global carry an average target of $7.37 on revenue of RMB135.69bn this year and RMB157.06bn next. The revenue is not the disagreement: this model's 2027 figure is within about 1% of theirs. Running a slightly faster ramp through the same margins and the same cash economics gets to $6.85, and only because the exit multiple goes to 0.85 times revenue and the discount rate drops to 13%. What this case does not reach is the $7.37 target itself, and no revenue assumption gets there - the last 7% is multiple, not volume. Free cash flow still does not turn positive until the December 2029 quarter.

NIO REVENUE MODEL

Latest: $9.30B (2031Q1E)

Period Value
2023Q1 $1.55B
2023Q2 $1.27B
2023Q3 $2.76B
2023Q4 $2.48B
2024Q1 $1.44B
2024Q2 $2.53B
2024Q3 $2.71B
2024Q4 $2.86B
2025Q1 $1.74B
2025Q2 $2.76B
2025Q3 $3.16B
2025Q4 $5.02B
2026Q1 $3.70B
2026Q2E $4.80B
2026Q3E $5.10B
2026Q4E $5.39B
2027Q1E $5.67B
2027Q2E $5.95B
2027Q3E $6.21B
2027Q4E $6.47B
2028Q1E $6.72B
2028Q2E $6.97B
2028Q3E $7.21B
2028Q4E $7.44B
2029Q1E $7.66B
2029Q2E $7.88B
2029Q3E $8.10B
2029Q4E $8.31B
2030Q1E $8.51B
2030Q2E $8.71B
2030Q3E $8.91B
2030Q4E $9.11B
2031Q1E $9.30B

What drives each segment

Vehicle sales

Units × price
Basis quarter$3.30B
Final quarter$8.66B
Implied CAGR+21%
Share of revenue, final quarter93%
PV of segment cash flow$12.01B

Deliveries times average selling price, and NIO discloses both halves. Deliveries come monthly, quarterly, and one quarter ahead as guidance; average selling price falls straight out of the vehicle-sales line. For the first time in the tracked window they moved together: 83,465 deliveries in the March 2026 quarter, up 98.3% year over year, at an average RMB272,973 that was up for a second quarter on the All-New ES8 mix after three years of continuous decline from RMB314,059. This vertical is 89.2% of revenue and carries all of the operating leverage.

Last four quarters
2025 Q2 $2.34B Reported
2025 Q3 $2.78B Reported
2025 Q4 $4.58B Reported
2026 Q1 $3.30B Reported
NIO brand premium smart electric vehiclesONVO brand family smart electric vehiclesFIREFLY brand small smart electric cars
Units 103517/qtr growing +4.0% per quarter 103,517 a quarter: the base that, at 4.0% trend, reproduces the 107,658 deliveries NIO reported for June 2026.
Price per unit $39573 drifting +2.0% per quarter US$39,573 = RMB272,973, vehicle sales divided by 83,465 deliveries in the basis quarter.
Vehicle sales

Latest: $8.66B (2031Q1E)

Period Value
2023Q1 $1.34B
2023Q2 $1.04B
2023Q3 $2.52B
2023Q4 $2.24B
2024Q1 $1.22B
2024Q2 $2.27B
2024Q3 $2.42B
2024Q4 $2.53B
2025Q1 $1.44B
2025Q2 $2.34B
2025Q3 $2.78B
2025Q4 $4.58B
2026Q1 $3.30B
2026Q2E $4.39B
2026Q3E $4.68B
2026Q4E $4.95B
2027Q1E $5.22B
2027Q2E $5.49B
2027Q3E $5.74B
2027Q4E $5.99B
2028Q1E $6.23B
2028Q2E $6.46B
2028Q3E $6.69B
2028Q4E $6.91B
2029Q1E $7.12B
2029Q2E $7.33B
2029Q3E $7.53B
2029Q4E $7.72B
2030Q1E $7.92B
2030Q2E $8.11B
2030Q3E $8.29B
2030Q4E $8.48B
2031Q1E $8.66B

Assumptions & reasoning

  • Deliveries are broken out by brand every month - 58,543 NIO, 13,339 ONVO and 11,583 FIREFLY in the basis quarter - but revenue and margin never are. No brand-level split is modelled.
  • Average selling price is a mix outcome, not a price list. It fell from RMB314,059 in 2023 Q3 to RMB220,536 in 2025 Q3 as ONVO and FIREFLY diluted the mix, then rose to RMB272,973 as the All-New ES8 and the ES9 came in above it. Forward drift is a mix assumption.
  • The volume base is calibrated to the 107,658 vehicles NIO reported for the June 2026 quarter on 1 July 2026: 103,517 times the 4.0% trend rate reproduces it exactly. Modelling the guided 110,000-115,000 instead would model a number the company has already missed.
  • 18.8% is the vehicle gross margin as reported, stated after the depreciation inside cost of sales. The whole depreciation add-back is applied once at corporate, so the group EBITDA line reconciles to operating profit plus D&A.

Other sales

Growth path
Basis quarter$399M
Final quarter$647M
Implied CAGR+10%
Share of revenue, final quarter7%
PV of segment cash flow$1.15B

What the installed fleet buys after the car: parts, accessories and after-sales servicing, power solutions including battery swapping, used cars, auto financing and technical research and development services. It is 10.8% of revenue and, at a 20.6% margin the CFO called a four-year high, now the higher-margin half of the business. Cumulative deliveries reached 1,188,715 by 30 June 2026, and NIO attributes the line's growth directly to that base - but publishes no attach rate, no subscriber count and no revenue per fleet vehicle, so growth is the only honest driver.

Last four quarters
2025 Q2 $416M Estimated
2025 Q3 $376M Estimated
2025 Q4 $441M Reported
2026 Q1 $399M Reported
Parts, accessories and after-sales vehicle servicesPower solutions including battery swapping and chargingUsed car salesAuto financing servicesTechnical research and development services
Sequential growth +2.0%/qtr decaying toward +1.0% 2% a quarter, well under the 8% average of the last eight, because the fleet compounds and per-car spend does not.
Other sales

Latest: $647M (2031Q1E)

Period Value
2023Q1 $210M
2023Q2 $230M
2023Q3 $240M
2023Q4 $241M
2024Q1 $221M
2024Q2 $256M
2024Q3 $286M
2024Q4 $323M
2025Q1 $304M
2025Q2 $416M
2025Q3 $376M
2025Q4 $441M
2026Q1 $399M
2026Q2E $411M
2026Q3E $423M
2026Q4E $434M
2027Q1E $446M
2027Q2E $458M
2027Q3E $470M
2027Q4E $482M
2028Q1E $494M
2028Q2E $506M
2028Q3E $519M
2028Q4E $531M
2029Q1E $543M
2029Q2E $556M
2029Q3E $568M
2029Q4E $581M
2030Q1E $594M
2030Q2E $607M
2030Q3E $620M
2030Q4E $633M
2031Q1E $647M

Assumptions & reasoning

  • Other sales is a printed line in the income statement for 2025 Q1, 2025 Q4 and 2026 Q1. The other ten quarters are total revenues less vehicle sales from each release's own table, so they are marked estimated even though the identity is exact to RMB0.1m.
  • The line grows because the fleet does, not because each car spends more: RMB2,748.9m over a 1,081,057-vehicle fleet is RMB2,543 per vehicle a quarter, down from RMB2,979 on the same calculation a year earlier.
  • Roughly a tenth of this line is lumpy rather than recurring. NIO attributed the March quarter's sequential fall to lower technical research and development services and used car sales, neither of which is a fleet service.
  • Battery swapping is the strategic core of the company and is not separable here: it sits inside 'provision of power solutions', which NIO has never reported as a revenue figure, and which the release still describes as carrying a gross loss whose rate improved.
Scenarios

Where each case comes from

Bear case — primary sources

The primary sources this case is built from — filings, calls and posts. Where they are claims by an interested party rather than disclosures, every number in the Bear column is what happens if they are taken at face value.

Bull case — primary sources

The primary sources this case is built from — filings, calls and posts. Where they are claims by an interested party rather than disclosures, every number in the Bull column is what happens if they are taken at face value.

Street case — primary sources

The primary sources this case is built from — filings, calls and posts. Where they are claims by an interested party rather than disclosures, every number in the Street column is what happens if they are taken at face value.

Valuation

From cash flow to fair value

Present value of free cash flow, 20 quarters-$469M
Terminal-year revenue$36.04B
Terminal-year EBITDA$2.38B
Exit multiple, on revenue0.8x
Terminal value$30.63B
Discounted at 13.0% a year, terminal value becomes$16.63B
Enterprise value$16.16B
Net cash$1.00B
Equity value$17.16B
Shares2.51B
Fair value per share$6.85
Against the deployed price of $4.23, as of +62%

0.70 times terminal revenue, discounted at 14%. The anchor is what the market pays for the same kind of company on the same day: NIO itself at 0.66 times trailing sales, XPeng at 0.96 times, Li Auto at 0.09 times only because its enterprise value is 12% of its market capitalisation. This is a volume carmaker with a battery-swap network, not a software business, and 0.70 times sits just above what the tape pays NIO now and below XPeng. The 14% discount rate is a loss-making China ADR with negative explicit-period free cash flow: equity risk, execution risk and listing risk on top of each other.

Read the other way round: at $4.23 the market is paying 0.5x terminal-year revenue, holding every other assumption on this page fixed. That is the number to argue about.

Quarter by quarter

The projected path

Quarter Vehicle salesOther sales Revenue YoY EBITDA Capex FCF R40 PV of FCF
2026 Q2E $4.39B$411M $4.80B +74% $278M $359M -$81M +72 -$78M
2026 Q3E $4.68B$423M $5.10B +61% $299M $375M -$76M +60 -$71M
2026 Q4E $4.95B$434M $5.39B +7% $320M $390M -$71M +6 -$65M
2027 Q1E $5.22B$446M $5.67B +53% $340M $405M -$65M +52 -$58M
2027 Q2E $5.49B$458M $5.95B +24% $360M $419M -$60M +23 -$51M
2027 Q3E $5.74B$470M $6.21B +22% $380M $433M -$54M +21 -$45M
2027 Q4E $5.99B$482M $6.47B +20% $399M $446M -$47M +19 -$38M
2028 Q1E $6.23B$494M $6.72B +19% $418M $459M -$41M +18 -$32M
2028 Q2E $6.46B$506M $6.97B +17% $436M $471M -$35M +17 -$26M
2028 Q3E $6.69B$519M $7.21B +16% $454M $482M -$28M +16 -$21M
2028 Q4E $6.91B$531M $7.44B +15% $472M $494M -$22M +15 -$16M
2029 Q1E $7.12B$543M $7.66B +14% $489M $505M -$16M +14 -$11M
2029 Q2E $7.33B$556M $7.88B +13% $506M $516M -$10M +13 -$6M
2029 Q3E $7.53B$568M $8.10B +12% $523M $526M -$3M +12 -$2M
2029 Q4E $7.72B$581M $8.31B +12% $539M $536M $2M +12 $1M
2030 Q1E $7.92B$594M $8.51B +11% $555M $547M $8M +11 $5M
2030 Q2E $8.11B$607M $8.71B +11% $571M $557M $13M +11 $8M
2030 Q3E $8.29B$620M $8.91B +10% $586M $567M $18M +10 $10M
2030 Q4E $8.48B$633M $9.11B +10% $602M $576M $23M +10 $13M
2031 Q1E $8.66B$647M $9.30B +9% $617M $586M $27M +10 $15M

Every row is projected. A year-over-year change is shown only where the quarter it compares against exists — an em dash means there is no comparable quarter, not a flat year.

Track record

Model revisions

Assumptions are marked to reality as each quarter prints. Every change is appended here, with the fair value the model produced at the time, so the model's own history stays visible.

DateFair value thenNote
2026-09-01 $4.57 Initial model, built on the 2026 Q1 basis quarter and the 107,658 second-quarter deliveries NIO disclosed on 1 July 2026, the day before NIO reports the June quarter.