Nio Inc. (NYSE: NIO) stock surged 22.35% on October 9th, 2018 (Source: Finviz). The Global clean energy investment in the third quarter (Q3) of 2018 slipped by 6% on the year to USD 67.8 billion (EUR 58.9bn) but the period was marked by growing investment in the electric vehicles (EVs) market, as per the figures from Bloomberg New Energy Finance (BNEF).
Equity raising by EV companies was “a conspicuous bright spot” in the July-September quarter, particularly given the EV boom in China. The third quarter witnessed the USD-1-billion initial public offering (IPO) by Chinese EV start-up NIO Inc (CVE:NIO), the USD-585-million Series C venture capital financing round by Guangzhou Xiaopeng Motors and the pre-IPO round of Zhejiang Dianka Automobile, in which it seeks to raise USD 294 million.
In spite of the year-on-year drop in Q3 investment, the total so far is just 2% below that for the first nine months of 2017, leaving hopes that figures for 2018 will match last year’s total, especially if some multibillion-dollar offshore wind deals are signed before Christmas. Moreover, According to BNEF’s statistics, global Q3 clean energy investment was once again led by China with USD 26.7 billion. In spite of the EV boom in the country, however, its solar market slowed down due to certain policy changes, with solar investment falling 23% to USD 14.2 billion in July-September.
Meanwhile, the company’s first production car, a seven-passenger SUV called the ES8, debuted in December 2017 and went into production in China earlier this spring. It costs about half the price that a Tesla Model X commands in the country, and NIO started shipping them to customers there in June. A smaller five-passenger SUV called the ES6 is already in development, with deliveries starting in 2019. In the push to get these cars out the door, NIO’s global ranks have swelled to over 6,000 employees. NIO is further along than most other EV startups not named Tesla. NIO is backed by big names, too: Tencent, Baidu, and Sequoia Capital all have stakes in the company. SoftBank is even reportedly interested in buying some of the public shares. It will need that backing, as the company also has big ideas about changing the car owning experience, from “NIO houses” (which mix service centers with cafe vibes), to battery-swapping technology, to a cute AI-powered assistant on the dashboard. The company is about to become the first electric car startup to follow Tesla in doing both. Faraday Future, Lucid Motors, SF Motors, Byton, Rivian; all of these fellow startups are still not in production, and many of them are still clamoring for funding.