NIO Q2 2026 Earnings Call: Umsatzwachstum, 18,5 % Fahrzeugmarge und Auslieferungsprognose

Wichtigste Erkenntnisse

• NIO lieferte im zweiten Quartal 2026 107.658 Fahrzeuge aus, was einem Anstieg von 49,4 % gegenüber dem Vorjahr entspricht. Der Gesamtumsatz stieg um 69,1 % auf 32,1 Milliarden RMB.
• Die Fahrzeugmarge verbesserte sich von 10,3 % im Vorjahr auf 18,5 %, unterstützt durch einen vorteilhafteren Produktmix. Die Gesamtmarge erreichte 18,4 %.
• Der bereinigte Betriebsgewinn lag bei 0,2 Milliarden RMB, während der bereinigte Nettogewinn 26,1 Millionen RMB betrug. NIO verzeichnete zudem einen positiven operativen Cashflow und freien Cashflow.
• Flüssige Mittel, Zahlungsmitteläquivalente, Guthaben mit Verfügungsbeschränkung, kurzfristige Finanzanlagen und langfristige Festgelder beliefen sich zum Quartalsende auf insgesamt 56,7 Milliarden RMB.
• Das Management erwartet für das dritte Quartal Auslieferungen von 108.000 bis 111.000 Fahrzeugen und strebt für das vierte Quartal durchschnittliche monatliche Auslieferungen von über 40.000 Einheiten an.
• Steigende Kosten bleiben ein wesentlicher Belastungsfaktor. Laut Management belief sich der Kostendruck pro Fahrzeug im zweiten Quartal auf etwa 14.000 RMB gegenüber Ende des vierten Quartals 2025 und könnte in der zweiten Jahreshälfte um weitere 2.000 bis 3.000 RMB steigen.

Wichtigste Finanzergebnisse

Geschäfts- und operative Entwicklung

Die drei Marken von NIO erzielten im zweiten Quartal sowohl im Vergleich zum Vorjahr als auch zum Vorquartal ein Wachstum beim Absatzvolumen und beim durchschnittlichen Verkaufspreis. Die Marke NIO lieferte 60.945 Fahrzeuge aus, ONVO erzielte 29.124 Auslieferungen und FIREFLY 17.589.

Das Management hob den Produktmix der Premiummarke NIO als wesentlichen Margentreiber hervor. Der ES8 und der ES9 weisen laut Unternehmensangaben jeweils Fahrzeugmargen von über 20 % auf. Die Auslieferungen des ES8 erreichten im August etwa 10.099 Einheiten, während Kunden des ES9 mit Wartezeiten von drei bis fast vier Monaten konfrontiert waren. Etwa drei Viertel der ES9-Käufer waren neu in der NIO-Nutzer-Community.

Der durchschnittliche Verkaufspreis der Marke NIO lag im zweiten Quartal bei 406.000 RMB und überstieg im Juli 430.000 RMB, wie aus vom Management zitierten Daten des Versicherungsverbandes hervorgeht.

ONVO ist in einem wettbewerbsintensiveren Segment tätig. Laut Management liegt die Hauptherausforderung der Marke eher in der Bekanntheit als in der Umwandlung von Interessenten in Bestellungen. NIO plant, die Reichweite von ONVO durch Kooperationen, Offline-Aktivitäten, zusätzliche gemeinsame Stores und neue Produkte zu vergrößern und dabei ein Gleichgewicht zwischen Volumen und Fahrzeugmarge zu wahren.

FIREFLY hielt an seiner Ein-Modell-Strategie fest. Das Management plant, Sondereditionen und Technologie-Upgrades einzusetzen, anstatt das Angebot um mehrere Modelle zu erweitern.

NIO hat am 18. Juni seine neueste Smart-Driving-Software auf Basis eines World-Models für mehr als 700.000 NIO- und ONVO-Nutzer eingeführt. Unter den Nutzern der Plattform der dritten Generation, die mit dem NX-931-Chip ausgestattet sind, nutzten etwa 58 % bei mehr als der Hälfte ihrer Fahrten intelligente Fahrfunktionen. Gebrauchtwagenkunden zahlen 380 RMB pro Monat für Smart-Driving-Abonnements, bei einer Penetrationsrate von etwa 20 % in dieser Nutzergruppe.

Das Unternehmen verfügte weltweit über 4.123 Akku-Wechselstationen sowie 30.294 Ladesäulen und Destination Charger. Die Wechselstation der fünften Generation unterstützt Modelle von NIO, ONVO und FIREFLY. Ohne Batterien, Hochspannungsstromversorgung und Energieaufbereitungskosten belaufen sich die Kosten pro Station auf etwa 1,4 Millionen RMB – rund 100.000 RMB weniger als bei der Version der vierten Generation.

Prognose des Managements

• Auslieferungen Q3: Das Management erwartet 108.000 bis 111.000 Fahrzeuge.
• Absatzvolumen Q4: Das Unternehmen strebt durchschnittliche monatliche Auslieferungen von über 40.000 Einheiten an, basierend auf der Erwartung des Managements, dass sich der Pkw-Markt im Laufe des Quartals erholen wird.
• Mittel- bis langfristiges Volumen: Das Management strebt ein jährliches Auslieferungswachstum von etwa 40 % bis 50 % an.
• Fahrzeugmarge: NIO strebt an, die Fahrzeugmarge in Q3 und Q4 trotz weiterer Rohstoff- und Bauteilpreissteigerungen weitgehend stabil zu halten.
• Cashflow: Das Management erwartet sowohl in Q3 als auch in Q4 einen positiven operativen Cashflow und freien Cashflow, was eine gestärkte Liquiditätsposition in der zweiten Jahreshälfte unterstützt.
• Investitionsausgaben: Die Investitionsausgaben für das Gesamtjahr werden mit 6 bis 7 Milliarden RMB im Jahresvergleich voraussichtlich weitgehend unverändert bleiben, hauptsächlich für Produkt-F&E sowie den Ausbau des Vertriebs- und Servicenetzes.
• F&E-Ausgaben: Das Management stellte Non-GAAP-F&E-Investitionen von rund 2,5 Milliarden RMB pro Quartal in Aussicht, abhängig vom Zeitplan der Projekte und den Rahmenbedingungen.
• SG&A: Die Non-GAAP-SG&A-Kosten werden in der zweiten Jahreshälfte voraussichtlich etwa 10 % bis 11 % des Umsatzes entsprechen. Das Management erwartet keine Wiederholung der im Wesentlichen in Q2 angefallenen einmaligen Vertriebskosten für Produkteinführungen in Höhe von rund 500 Millionen RMB.
• Wechselstationen-Netzwerk: NIO plant für 2026 den Bau von 1.000 weiteren Akku-Wechselstationen, wobei die neu errichtete Infrastruktur voraussichtlich von Power-Up-Partnern finanziert wird.

Risiken und zu beobachtende Faktoren

Die Inflation bei Rohstoffen und Bauteilen bleibt das deutlichste Margenrisiko. Das Management verwies auf höhere Kosten für Speicherchips, Batterien und andere Massengüter. Die durchschnittlichen Auswirkungen beliefen sich im zweiten Quartal auf etwa 14.000 RMB pro Fahrzeug im Vergleich zu Ende Q4 2025, wobei für die zweite Jahreshälfte ein weiterer Anstieg um 2.000 bis 3.000 RMB erwartet wird.

ONVO sieht sich aufgrund der größeren Anzahl an Marken und Modellen in seinem Markt einem intensiveren Wettbewerb gegenüber. Das Management identifizierte eine begrenzte Markenbekanntheit als Haupthindernis und erklärte, dass man einen aggressiven Vorstoß in Einstiegssegmente vermeiden werde.

Die SG&A-Kosten stiegen im zweiten Quartal aufgrund des Marketings für neue Modelle und personeller Aufwendungen kräftig an. Obwohl das Management in der zweiten Jahreshälfte mit einem Rückgang der Quote rechnet, hängt die Umsetzung vom Umsatzwachstum und dem Ausbleiben ähnlicher einführungsbedingter Ausgaben ab.

Das Absatzziel von NIO für das vierte Quartal setzt eine Erholung des chinesischen Pkw-Marktes voraus. Die Dauerhaftigkeit der Nachfrage nach dem ES8 und ES9, die Expansion der Marke ONVO und die Abfederung von Lieferkettenkosten bleiben wichtige operative Variablen.

Highlights der Analysten-Fragerunde

Nachfrage nach Premium-SUVs: Das Management gab an, dass die Nachfrage nach dem ES8 und ES9 weiterhin stark sei. Es führte die Positionierung der Modelle auf Technologie, Produktdesign, Lade- und Wechselinfrastruktur, Kundendienst und die Bekanntheit der Premiummarke NIO zurück.

Nachhaltigkeit der Profitabilität: Das Management verwies auf die Fahrzeugmargen von über 20 % bei ES8 und ES9, die fortlaufende Optimierung der Lieferkette und ein strikteres Kostenmanagement. Das Fahrzeugvolumen im ersten Halbjahr stieg im Jahresvergleich um 67 %, der Umsatz nahm um 86 % zu und der Bruttogewinn weitete sich laut Unternehmensangaben um 282 % aus.

Zukünftige Produkte: NIO plant, im Jahr 2027 Produkte aus seinen 5er- und 6er-Baureihen einzuführen. Von ONVO wird die Einführung eines wichtigen strategischen Produkts erwartet, während FIREFLY seinen Ein-Modell-Ansatz mit Sondereditionen und Technologie-Upgrades beibehalten wird.

Kapitalallokation: Die jährlichen Investitionsausgaben werden auf 6 bis 7 Milliarden RMB geschätzt, bei begrenzten Ausgaben für Produktionskapazitäten oder Fabrikstandorte. Die Finanzierung durch Partner soll die direkte Kapitalbelastung von NIO für neue Lade- und Wechselinfrastruktur verringern.

Wirtschaftlichkeit des Akku-Wechsels: Die Station der fünften Generation weist geringere Ausrüstungskosten auf als die vorherige Generation und ist für die Bedienung aller drei Marken ausgelegt. NIO prüft zudem Netzwerkzugangsgebühren für externe Automobilhersteller sowie potenzielle Infrastrukturdienstleistungen für Robotaxi-Betreiber, wobei kommerzielle Details noch diskutiert werden.

Vollständiges Transkript der Telefonkonferenz

Vollständiges Transkript der Telefonkonferenz

Ausführungen des Managements

Operator

Hello, ladies and gentlemen. Thank you for standing by for NIO Inc. Second Quarter 2026 Earnings Conference Call. please note this call is being recorded.

I will now turn the call over to your host, Mr. Rui Chen, AVP and Head of IR corporate finance and strategic investments of the company. Please go ahead, Rui.

Rui Chen

Good morning and good evening, everyone. Welcome to NIO's Second Quarter 2026 Earnings Conference Call. The company's financial and operating results were published in the press release earlier today and are posted on the company's IR website. On today's call, we have Mr. William Li, Founder, Chairman of the Board and Chief Executive Officer; and Ms. Stanley Qu, Chief Financial Officer.

Before we continue, please be kindly reminded that today's discussion will contain forward-looking statements made under the safe harbor provisions of the U.S. Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Forward-looking statements involve inherent risks and uncertainties. As such, the company's actual results may be materially different from views expressed today. Further information regarding risks and uncertainties is included in certain filings of the company with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, the Stock Exchange of Hong Kong Limited and the Singapore Exchange Securities Trading Limited. The company does not assume any obligation to update any forward-looking statements, except as required under applicable law.

Please also note that NIO's earnings press release and this conference call include discussions of unaudited GAAP financial information as well as unaudited non-GAAP financial measures. Please refer to NIO's press release, which contains a reconciliation of the unaudited non-GAAP measures to comparable GAAP measures.

With that, I will now turn the call over to our CEO, Mr. William Li. William, please go ahead.

Bin Li

[Interpreted]

Hello, everyone, and thank you for joining NIO Inc.'s 2026 Q2 earnings call. In Q2, the company delivered a total of 107,658 smart EVs, achieving year-over-year growth of 49.4%. In Q2, the NIO ONVO and FIREFLY brands all achieved year-over-year and quarter-over-quarter growth in both sales volume and average transaction price. More specifically, the NIO brand delivered 60,945 vehicles, leading China's passenger vehicle market with transaction prices above RMB 350,000 across all powertrain types. The ONVO brand delivered 29,124 vehicles, demonstrating strong growth momentum, and the FIREFLY brand delivered 17,589 vehicles, maintaining its leadership in the high-end compact car market.

In July and August, the company delivered 35,534 and 35,836 vehicles, respectively. In Q3, the total deliveries are expected to range between 108,000 and 111,000 units.

On the financial side, in Q2, the company's gross margin stood at 18.4%, driven by continued strong performance from the higher-margin products and ongoing cost optimization despite pressure from sharply rising raw material and chip costs. The vehicle gross margin remained solid at 18.5%. The gross margin of other sales was 17%, with services and community-related businesses continuing to contribute to profitability.

In Q2, the company continued to generate non-GAAP operating profit as well as positive operating cash flow and free cash flow, further increasing its cash reserves to RMB 56.7 billion. This helped strengthen the company's business fundamentals while laying solid groundwork for its long-term sustainable development.

Now turning to our product R&D and operations. For the NIO brand on July 9, the flagship SUV ES9 launched and began deliveries of the 5-seat version, catering to more diverse user needs and scenarios with its 5-seat layout and spacious interior. The ES8 has maintained strong momentum since launch and achieved the 140,000 units delivery milestone in just 335 days, leading China's passenger vehicle segment in the RMB 400,000 price range and the large SUV segment.

In the Net Promoter Score survey by land roads, the new ES8 achieved the highest NPS among BEVs, ranking first in both sales volume and product reputation. In the meantime, the flagship executive SUV ES9, which began deliveries in late May, has started winning over users from traditional luxury fuel-powered SUVs, leading in sale volume among passenger vehicles with transactional prices above RMB 500,000 in June and July. The continued strong performance of NIO brands' flagship models has further strengthened its leading position in the premium BEV market.

For the ONVO brand, the L90 surpassed 60,000 deliveries within its first year since launch, ranking #1 among the large battery electric SUVs priced around RMB 300,000. The L80 continued to see steady deliveries, winning broad [indiscernible] with its exceptional cargo space and the scenario-based functionality.

In Q2, leveraging the outstanding product strength of the L90 and L80 the Ammo brand became the sole leader among large SUVs priced below RMB 300,000. In addition, the upgraded L60 better meets the needs of its target users, further strengthening ONVO's sales momentum.

The FIREFLY brand has been #1 in market share among high-end compact cars for 15 consecutive months, maintaining its leadership in the segment. Its precise product positioning and unique brand identity continue to win the hearts of target users.

In terms of Smart Driving, on June 18, the latest version of NIO World model was rolled out to over 700,000 NIO and ONVO users. As the second major release this year, the new version further leveraged the word model architecture and closed-loop reinforcement learning, delivering significant enhancements in functionality and user experience.

User adoption has continued to grow. Since the upgrade, NIO users mileage with urban NOP has increased by 9.8%. The upgrade also covered all ONVO users whose knowledge with urban NOA increased by 127.8% following the upgrade. However, by leading model algorithms, systematic architecture and strong engineering capabilities, NIO is the industry's first car company to develop and roll out smart driving systems in parallel across general purpose and proprietary chip platforms with a common software branch and synchronized releases. Users across different technology platforms and brands can enjoy a continuously evolving industry-leading smart driving experience throughout the vehicle life cycle.

On the sales and service front, so far, the company has 165 new houses, 376 new spaces, 441 ONVO stores as well as 420 service centers and 93 delivery centers. In J.D. Power's 2026 Customer Service Index study for NEVs, the new brand ranked #1 among both premium brands and Chinese brands, maintaining its top position since the rankings were first introduced. Our high-quality services have earned a widespread recognition from both the industry and users. In terms of the power network, at present, the company has 4,123 power swap stations and 30,294 power chargers and destination chargers worldwide. On August 7, NIO's 4,000th power swap station went by, marking the launch of its first fifth generation station. The fifth generation can support battery swaps for all models of NIO, ONVO and FIREFLY, covering a wide range of vehicle sizes from compact cars to full-size SUVs. With significantly enhanced operational and service efficiency, the fifth generation station is able to provide enhanced external services and support open operations. Leveraging standardized power operations at scale, the company is also exploring value-added businesses such as electricity trading, further unlocking the commercial value of battery swapping.

On July 23, NIO was named by Time Magazine as one of the world's most sustainable companies of 2026, becoming the only Chinese automaker on the list. We will continue to advance our BEV road map, shaping a more sustainable and brighter future with our users.

As china's automotive market enters a new phase of competition, the landscape is undergoing several important changes. First, with the rapid growth of BEV penetration, BEVs have become a mainstream powertrain in the market. Second, the industry is moving from a period of brand ambiguity towards greater brand clarity with brand becoming an increasingly important factor in consumers' purchasing decisions. Third, the final round of competition is shifting from product level competition to competition in comprehensive system capabilities. For years, we have remained committed to the premium BEV strategy and have been building our system capabilities. This puts us well aligned with the industry's evolution, and positions us for a new phase of high-quality growth. We are confident in achieving our operating targets.

Thank you for your support. With that, I will now turn the call over to Stanley for Q2's financial details. Over to you, Stanley.

Stanley Qu

Thank you, William. Let's now review our key financial results for the second quarter of 2026. Our total revenues reached RMB 32.1 billion, up 69.1% year-over-year at 25.9% quarter-over-quarter. Vehicle sales were RMB 29.1 billion, up 80.1% year-over-year and 27.5% quarter-over-quarter. The year-over-year growth was mainly due to the increased delivery and a higher average selling price, driven by a more favorable product mix. The quarter-over-quarter increase was driven by higher deliveries.

Other sales were RMB 3.1 billion, up 7.2% year-over-year and 12% quarter-over-quarter. The year-over-year growth was driven by increased sales of parts, accessories and aftersales vehicle services, partially offset by decreased sales of used cars and technical research and development services. The quarter-over-quarter increase was due to increase in revenues from used car sales and parts accessories and after sales vehicle services sales.

Looking at margins, vehicle margin was 18.5% compared with 10.3% in Q2 last year and 18.8% last quarter. The year-over-year improvement was driven by a more favorable product mix, while quarter-over-quarter vehicle margin remained stable. Overall gross margin was 18.4% versus 10% in Q2 last year and 19% last quarter. The year-over-year increase was mainly due to the increased vehicle margin and the quarter-over-quarter slight decrease was mainly due to gross margins from weaker sales, provision of power solutions and sales of parts, accessories and aftersales vehicle services.

Turning to OpEx. R&D expenses were RMB 2.1 billion, decreased 28.7% year-over-year and increased 13.8% quarter-over-quarter. The year-over-year decrease was mainly driven by lower personnel costs in R&D functions due to organizational optimization, reduced design and development costs from different development stages and improved operational efficiency. The quarter-over-quarter increase was mainly due to the incremental design and development costs for new products and technologies as well as the increased personnel costs in research and development functions.

SG&A expenses were RMB 4.4 billion, increased 11.6% year-over-year and 22.5% quarter-over-quarter. The year-over-year increase was mainly driven by increase in sales and marketing activities associated with new product launches while the quarter-over-quarter increase also reflected increased sales and marketing activities associated with new product launches as well as higher personnel and related costs for marketing functions and share-based compensation for general corporate functions.

Loss from operations was RMB 0.3 billion, down 92.9% year-over-year and up 12.4% quarter-over-quarter.

Excluding share-based compensation expenses, adjusted profit from operations was RMB 0.2 billion. Net loss was RMB 0.5 billion, showing a decrease of 89.4% year-over-year and increased 59% quarter-over-quarter.

Excluding share-based compensation expenses, adjusted net profit was RMB 26.1 million.

Furthermore, our positive operating cash flow grew substantially, and we achieved positive free cash flow. Our cash position strengthened further with RMB 56.7 billion in total cash as cash equivalents, restricted cash, short-term investments and long-term time deposits.

That wraps up our prepared remarks. For more information and the details of our unaudited second quarter financial results, please refer to our earnings press release. Now I will turn the call over to the operator to start our Q&A session. Operator?

Operator

[Operator Instructions] Your first question comes from Bin Wang with Deutsche Bank.

Fragen und Antworten

Bin Wang

My question is about the order flow sustainability about your ES8 and ES9 SUV. We will cite in the premium SUV market some of your peers, competitors, although [indiscernible] on a several months. So can you expand why is that, and how NIO differentiates facing the completion in the high-end premium SUV market?

Bin Li

[Interpreted]

Thank you for the question. Regarding NIO flagship models, including the ES8 and ES9, they will continue to see strong demand. For the ES8 in August, we delivered around 10,099 units. And in 11 months, we have delivered more than 140,000 ES8, and in September, it's going to witness its next milestone of 150,000 deliveries, which means that in less than 1 year since its launch, it has already surpassed 150,000 unit delivery. So the demand for the models are pretty strong. And as previously we've talked about how the products are quickly iterated and introduced in the Chinese automotive market where for a new model in the market, it's not more difficult, we're having difficulty to lost its popularity and attention by the market. But for the ES8, it may be the first model that is breaking away from this market trend.

And regarding our flagship executive SUV ES9, it also sees strong demand since its launch, especially for the Horizon Edition and the Signature Edition. Right now, for users placing an order, they will need to wait for 3 months or nearly 4 months to pick up a new car. And if we look at the sales number of the ES9 in August and July, I think in July, we were still consuming some preorders. But if we are making a comparison between the incremental orders in July and August, we actually have seen a growth from July to August. So we are also confident in the continuous popularity and also demand for the ES9.

And also, one thing worth noting is that around 3/4 of the ES9 users are actually from nonexisting NIO users from users outside of the new user community. This also shows that ES9 has successfully reached out to a broader user base. And there are several reasons for the popularity and the demand for the ES9. The first is the technology innovation. On the ES9, we have introduced or debuted several thousands of industry first or industry-leading technologies and tech innovation is still so far a very important competitiveness and also differentiation of our products. And secondly, the product designation has precisely catered to the needs of the users in the premium segment, especially users find the car for their business needs and also for their family occasions, where our cars have catered to both their emotional as well as functional needs. And our users also speak highly of the product experience.

And the third is the holistic and one-of-a-kind experience enabled by our charging and swapping network as well as our after sale services, which are actually a systematic capability difficult to replicate by the competitors. According to the Land Road recent study on the aftermarket satisfaction on the new energy vehicles, we've been tapping the least for 3 times conservatively. And also in J.D. Power's research in terms of the post-market satisfaction on the new energy vehicles, we are also ranking the first for several years in a row. So for the premium segment, such experience centering on the services and post market services are also very important.

And the fourth one is, as also previously talked about, the entire automotive market is now shifting from a period of brand ambiguity to a period of brand clarity where users' purchasing decisions was previously largely based on the specifications of a product, and now their decision is mostly driven by the brand. And in that case, NIO has also established a pretty solid foothold and clear brand awareness in the premium battery electric vehicle market. Among many users, they naturally believe that if they are going to choose a car to replace their existing Mercedes, BMW and Audi and the NIO will be their natural choice. And if they're looking for a premium BEV model, then NIO is also their go-to car.

Among our existing new users, we've also studied their purchasing decision, where we find that the brand reputation and awareness is already accounted for more than 30% of their purchasing decision. This has further proven our solid foothold in the premium BEV market.

And if we further look at the numbers by the insurance association, in Q2, the average selling price of the NIO brand was RMB 406,000, far higher than the prices of Mercedes, BMW and Audi, and ranking the first among all the mainstream premium brands. And in July, the average selling price of the NIO brand was over RMB 430,000. And we believe that the scarcity of such premiumness of our brands as well as the competitiveness of our brands across all 3 brands will also become a long-term foundation for our competitiveness going into the future.

Operator

Your next question comes from Tim Sao with Morgan Stanley.

Tim Hsiao

This is Tim Hsiao from Morgan Stanley. Congress on the third consecutive profitable quarter. I have 2 questions. The first one is about ONVO. Because compared to the robust growth of the NIO and the FIREFLY brands, we notice ONVO's customer conversion and auto momentum have been routinely moderated to ramp since launch. So just want to know that how is the progress in recent adjustment to customer incentives and selling strategies?

And looking forward, what rate of changes with management plan to effectively improve on those older momentums? That's my first question.

Bin Li

[Interpreted]

Thank you for the question. It's true that ONVO is actually in a more competitive market than NIO and FIREFLY where the level of competition -- the intensity level of competition in terms of the number of brands and also the number of models are also much more intense than that is NIO and FIREFLY. But If we look at the ONVO's overarching performance since its launch, especially from specific segment and market, it has actually done some good progress and achievements.

In terms of the -- if we look at the average selling price of the ONVO products, as we all know that the passenger vehicle market in the first half of this year was a bit challenging. And even amid these challenges, almost still achieved an average selling price of RMB 240,000 achieving also significant growth year-over-year. And in the first half of this year, in the Chinese automotive market, only 8 brands managed to achieve increase both in their sales volume as well as the average selling price where ONVO is 1 of these 8 brands. So in terms of the average selling price, ONVO is even outperforming from traditional luxury brands.

So if we perceive ONVO as a premium family-oriented brand, it is actually achieving a pretty good baseline as a -- from this brand definition perspective.

And in terms of the overall product competitiveness, we also see some good progress and also foundation, especially a good conversion rate from sales leads and opportunities all the way to orders, which means that when users get to know about the brand and products, it's also more possible and likely for them to place an order on the ONVO product. So right now, for the ONVO brand, the challenge is more about its overall brand awareness, where its current brand awareness is maybe comparable with NIO's awareness around 5 to 6 years ago. So right now, our focus is also to enlarge the brand awareness and also the popularity through also different collaborations, off-line activities and also engagement with more targeted communities.

And the second action we are taking is to keep rolling out our Sky stores where we can host NIO and FIREFLY brands under the same roof. With that, we are able to further expand our sales network and also to really introduce our ONVO brand to more users in the lower-tier cities.

And the third action is to also introducing new ONVO products so that we can also reach out to broader family user base. But in the meantime, we will still maintain ONVO's positioning as a premium high-quality family-oriented brand. So we will not be very aggressive in entering into the entry-level segment. We will still strike a balance between the sales volume and also the vehicle gross margin. Right now in the Chinese automotive market, we actually see a vacancy where there is no such brand that is comparable with the upscale product lines of Toyota or Volkswagen that can serve the needs of the family users. This is where we see the opportunity for ONVO to develop its awareness in that specific segment.

Tim Hsiao

My second question is a quick one. Just what you know that if management can share next year's new model refresh and the key launch milestones for the NIO, ONVO and FIREFLY, the 3 brands under the group?

Bin Li

[Interpreted]

Thank you for the question. For the NIO brand, for next year, we will be introducing NIO products coming from the 5 and the 6 Series product lines. I believe that the market is also aware of some of our latest plans, where for the ONVO brand next year, we're going to introduce a major strategic new product that will also help to enrich our existing product lineup. And for the FIREFLY brand, we will keep this single model strategy, but keep rolling out special additions and also technology upgrade. So for FIREFLY, it's a bit like taking the iPhone approach, where it will stay in the same product, but with new additions.

Operator

Your next question comes from Paul Gong with UBS.

Paul Gong

My first question is regarding your vehicle gross margin outlook for the next 2 quarters? [indiscernible] it's ongoing cost inflation, well aware that the memory costs continue to go up. And I just want to listen to your thoughts, how does that impact the vehicle gross margin?

Stanley Qu

[Interpreted]

Thank you for the question. It's true that since this year, the cost structure of the automotive industry has been under pressure. And for the company, we've been facing pressure coming from the rising material costs, including memory chips, batteries and also other bulk materials. And if we look at the cost in Q2 as well as the cost in late Q4 last year, the average cost impact or cost increase is around RMB 14,000 per car. And also in Q2, we've taken a series of efforts to stabilize our vehicle margin under the rising cost pressure. And as previously mentioned, we've been actually using -- taking a very stable pricing strategies for our products. We didn't really lower the price in exchange for the sales volume. And secondly, on the supply side, we've been working with the supply chain to take a series of optimization measures, BEV efforts as well as commercial negotiations. With all these efforts combined, we managed to stabilize our vehicle margin at 18.5% in Q2.

And going into the second quarter, we expect the material cost to continue to increase by another RMB 2,000 to RMB 3,000, but we will also take a series of long-term measures to mitigate these risks. In Q3 and Q4, we hope to still stabilize our deep growth margin to at the same level as [indiscernible].

Paul Gong

So my second question is, yes, despite of all this cost pressure, you have done significant improvement in terms of profitability over the past 1 year. My question is, what gives you, management, confidence that these improvement are sustainable rather than [indiscernible]?

Stanley Qu

[Interpreted]

Thank you for the question. To that we need to take a comprehensive measure towards that. The first is that, as also mentioned by William, the automotive competition in China is now shifting to more brand-driven. And for the NIO brand, our ES9 and ES8 are still seeing a pretty stable demand and also with significant market share in their respective segment. These 2 models, they are also making major contribution in our product mix as well as vehicle margin as both of them has over 20% vehicle margin. And this will be our foundation for the overall performance.

And the second is to keep rolling out optimizations towards our cost structure by making more accurate product definition and also by working on the cost reduction opportunities together with our supply chain partners. These are the efforts that we've been working on in the past several quarters. And internally, we've been doing other decoupling and analysis of our R&D and also supply chain capabilities, putting them into the automatic granularity, identifying also opportunities for continuous cost reduction, and we will keep up this good work.

And as mentioned, the Chinese automotive industry has been under cost pressure. But even amidst all these challenges, the company has still managed to achieve high-quality growth as shared by [indiscernible] some of the efforts we've been taking to secure the long-term and sustainable growth of our business. And I would like to also share some numbers. In the first half of this year, our sales volume increased by 67% year-over-year, where our total revenue increased by 86% year-over-year. That is faster than our volume increase. And in terms of our gross profit, it increased by 282% year-over-year, much faster than the growth of our revenue. And this is amid all the challenges coming from the supply side, the rising raw material costs on the chips and on everything.

And as mentioned also in Q2, the impact on the vehicle is around RMB 14,000 on average, where -- compared from late last year, where in the second half of this year, such impact will continue to enlarge by an RMB 2,000 to RMB 3,000, which means that in the second half of this year, compared with Q4 last year, our cost structure will be burdened by another RMB 16,000 to RMB 17,000. But even against this backdrop, we still aim to achieve a steady growth in our gross profit. This is also a demonstration of our system capabilities and also competitiveness in terms of our technology, products, supply chain, sales and also brand management.

Operator

Your next question comes from Nick Lai with JPMorgan.

Y.C. Lai

My first question is financial related. With very strong operating cash flow and free cash flow generation by first half, can you remind us our cash burn, including CapEx and R&D? And what the level of free cash flow can we anticipate by year end? And with a very strong position right now, can you remind us where do we plan to invest or spend our cash in terms of CapEx and R&D. That's my first question.

Stanley Qu

[Interpreted]

Thank you for the questions. I will answer to your question through several major aspects. The first is regarding CapEx. For this year, we expect our full year CapEx to be relatively flat from last year, roughly RMB 6 billion to RMB 7 billion per year. And such investment is mainly used for basically product, research and development as well as the rollout of our sales and service network, not much investment going into the capacity and also factory site.

And the second is that we will continue to roll out and expand our charging and also swapping network. For this year, we still plan to build 1,000 new power swap stations, but different from previous years, where in 2024, we've introduced the power partner plan where through the plan, we would like to collaborate with different partners for the construction of our charging and swapping infrastructure. And this year, we've made major progress in this plan. We've been partnered with over 40 state-owned enterprises, platforms and also financial institutions across 25 provinces and cities in China in constructing our charging and swapping infrastructure. And for this year, we expect all the newly built infrastructure will be sponsored or founded by our Power Up partners.

And the third is that our battery-as-a-service business model is also earning more recognition from also more users. This is also helping our battery asset management and the battery asset management company getting stronger support from the financial institutions and also different partners. In the first half of this year, for the battery asset management company, we know as we also see some good progress regarding the fundraising across different channels. And in terms of the amount due from the battery asset management company, it is also reduced from over RMB 16 billion earlier this year to less than RMB 15 billion in end of Q2. Considering that we are also enlarging the user base and also the business size of the battery asset management, the increase in the absolute term is also relatively proportionally. So this is also a good sign.

With increase in sales volume as well as ongoing efforts in improving our operating performance, we expect that in Q3 and Q4, we can maintain the positive free cash flow as well as operating cash flow. With that, we also believe that in the second half of this year, our cash position will continue to enhance.

Y.C. Lai

My second question is ADAS related. The market is indeed very, very competitive. Every peers offer autopilot function or features. So I'm wondering from a user standpoint, how do we differentiate ourselves from peers across our product offering from high to entry level? And at the same time, given high adoption or penetration right now, will we consider a different payment options such as pay-as-you-go or also subscription option in the future?

Bin Li

[Interpreted]

Thank you for the question. This year, people actually start to see the benefits and also the advantage of our overall architecture featuring the NIO world model plus the reinforcement -- close-loop reinforcement learning and also collective intelligence. Especially considering that the actual investment -- computing investment and the computing power we use for the cat training for the autonomous driving and smart driving functionalities relatively small achieving such good experience with our latest release, this has also proven the advantages of our technology road map.

And also, as mentioned earlier today, on June 18, we actually have pushed our latest NIO word model version to over 700,000 users across different brands and also technology platform simultaneously. This has also proven the advances of our technology and architecture.

And also, I would like to share some numbers with you. For the Cedar users, that's our third-generation platform equipped with NX-931, a smart driving chip, where among this group of users, around 58% of them have been engaging smart driving functionalities for more than half of their trips.

And regarding the business model for the smart driving service, well, right now for the new NIO users and ONVO users, we offer them a 5-year complementary subscription to our smart driving capabilities and systems. But for the used car users or when they expire on this 5-year complementary service, they will have to definitely pay for the subscription. For the used car users, they are paying RMB 380 per month for the smart driving subscription, where we now see a penetration rate of around 20% among this used car users. This is also a pretty sizable amount showing also the competitiveness of our product and experiences. And of course, right now, this is just a small user base. But for the longer term, we believe that this will also be a quite sizable source of revenues for our business.

Right now, every year, the revenue from that part of the business is around several thousands of millions of RMB.

Operator

Your next question comes from Ming-Hsun Lee with BofA.

Ming-Hsun Lee

This is Ming. So I also have 2 questions. So first question is related to your fifth-generation battery substation. With more expansion of your new substation and this can accommodate all of your 3 brands, could you give us more details regarding the CapEx per station and also maintenance cost compared to your previous generation swap station? Besides that, right now, you also opened to some other auto OEMs for your battery service. Could you elaborate your pricing strategy and also your unit economy model Yes. That's my first question.

Stanley Qu

[Interpreted]

Thank you for the question. Regarding the fifth generation power substation, we have adopted a flexible design where the station can accommodate all models from NIO, ONVO and FIREFLY, so basically can be compatible with cars of different dimensions and sizes. And in terms of the cost, we've also achieved continuous improvements on top of the Gen 4, where the -- in terms of the material costs, we've achieved also optimization and reduction in cost. And for per station cost, if we excluding batteries in the station as well as all the costs related to the high-voltage power supply and the energy preparation, if you only look at the station itself, it's around RMB 1.4 million per station. That is around RMB 100,000 cheaper than the fourth generation.

And in terms of the operations of the swap stations, we've been also making continuous improvements in terms of the actual people efficiency supporting the operations of all stations. We've also made improvements in terms of the first time the of the power swaps as well as the software features. Between current performance as well as the performance earlier last year, it's already improved by of 50%. Of course, for the fifth generation, as they are new to the field, so we are still ramping up its first time through. But comparing with the previous generations around the same time frame, we already see quite significant improvement in terms of the success rate of our power swaps among the fifth generation station. Overall speaking, we also believe that the efficiency of fifth generation will be much better than the previous ones.

And the third is regarding the partnership and also alliance with other OEMs regarding power swap, as several years ago, we signed up with several OEMs regarding this power swap alliance and we still have this ongoing communications and also collaborations on some project. And in the meantime, as robotaxi is becoming a very popular area where we see power swap station and power soft service in general can be a good infrastructure support for the robotaxi business. So we are also exploring opportunities with our partners from that perspective.

In terms of the cooperation framework and also how we charge them on such services, we basically will charge them for the admission fee for the use of our -- for the use and access to our power swap network. But more details are still being discussed and are to be closed when we have the actual project in the implementation.

And also for the entire new energy vehicle industry has been entering into this new stage where when more people start to realize the benefits of a power swap and more OEMs are also embracing the idea of a swappable vehicles, where for the NIO power, the advantages with more partners joining this effort, it can help us to optimize and amortize our operating costs. And by standardizing the battery packs, we can also improve the efficiency as well as optimize the cost structure.

Ming-Hsun Lee

My second question is related to your operating expense, especially, we noticed that your sales and marketing expense in the second quarter is higher. Is it because you launch more new models during the quarter? Could you give more guidance for your 2026 operating expense?

Stanley Qu

[Interpreted]

Thank you for the question. I will still share the information according to 2 types of overall expenses. The first is regarding the R&D expenses. As mentioned, we will basically be staying flat with our R&D expenses. Non-GAAP around RMB 2.5 billion and we will also make the adjustments -- dynamic adjustments according to the actual cadence and the pace of our projects and the business. But for this year, it will be roughly RMB 2.5 billion per quarter in terms of the R&D investment.

And in terms of the R&D expenses, maybe some will compare our current expenses with our previous level or with our competitors where definitely our expenses is relatively low. But we also need to really pay attention to the utilization of such expenses and also the efficiency of our R&D activities. First of all, NIO has been staying committed to the battery electric vehicle road map. With that, we can be more focused on the technologies and products related to the BEV road map without spreading our efforts across BEV [indiscernible] risk. And secondly is that as we've been rolling out this CBU mechanism internally, with the CBU mechanism, we can also better measure and improve the efficiency of our R&D systems as well as our R&D organizations. So even with a relatively moderate investment into the R&D activities, we can still maintain our leadership and advancements in the technologies and also products.

And regarding the SG&A expenses, if we look at the SG&A as a percentage to the sales revenue in the first and the second quarter, under the non-GAAP standard, it's around 13% in the first half. And also in the second half, as we see a slight increase in terms of the sales expenses, it's mainly driven by some one-off expenses as we have most of our NIO products for this year were launched in second quarter, including our ES9 and also some facelift models for ONVO. So that one-off impact is roughly RMB 500 million, majorly happened in Q2, where in the second half, we don't expect to have such one-off impact in terms of the sales expenses.

So in terms of the second half outlook, in terms of the SG&A expenses as percentage to the sales revenue, under the non-GAAP standard, we expect it to be around 10% to 11%. This is also a controllable as well as an achievable target for us.

Operator

Your next question comes from Jing Chang with CICC.

Jing Chang

I have only one question. We know that our Senior Vice President, Mr. has founded an emboded AI start-up company in which we have made a strategic investment. So what are the long-term cooperation potentials between this new company and new? And also what long-term value can it bring to ourcompany?

Bin Li

[Interpreted]

Thank you for the question. Yes, Mr. [indiscernible], the Head of our Smart Driving department is now also starting up a new business regarding physical AI and also embodied intelligence and NIO is supporting business as a strategic shareholder. But in the meantime, he will still be the Head of our Smart Driving department responsible for the overarching technology as well as the long-term tax road map for our products.

And we also think that such arrangement is necessary and also meaningful. As right now, Neo is staying focused on our core business. But in the meantime, through this start-up by Mr. Yan, we can also keep tracking of the latest developments in the physical AI and also embodied intelligence without diluting our focus, affecting our P&L. But in the meantime, such start-up can also help to make full use of our resources as well as attracting external strategic shareholders and investors. So we think this is a good arrangement.

And also, as we all know that the competition for the AI talent within the arena of physical AI is also quite intense. So through such start-up, we can also better capture the cost match talent in the industry. And that will also be beneficial to the long-term development of both the start-up as well as for our AI-related business. And for the long term, we believe that we will have a lot of strategic collaborations and projects between NIO and also on this AI start-up.

Operator

Your next question comes from Yuqian Ding with HSBC.

Yuqian Ding

So my question is, what's your volume outlook for the year [indiscernible] and also [indiscernible]?

Stanley Qu

I think your voice is breaking. Can you repeat your question?

Yuqian Ding

Yes, sure. [indiscernible].

Stanley Qu

Yuqian, we still can't hear you.

Yuqian Ding

Can you hear me now?

Stanley Qu

Yes, much better.

Yuqian Ding

Okay, yes, yes. So I'll just repeat my question is about the volume outlook in fourth quarter and '27 given maybe strong [indiscernible] and the backdrop of new model cycle next year?

Bin Li

[Interpreted]

We expect that the passenger vehicle market to be able to recover in Q4 this year, with that our target for Q4 is achieving an average volume of over 40,000 units per month. And for the mid- and long term, with our product lineup as well as our sales and service network coverage, we expect our annual volume growth to be around 40% to 50%. And we will maintain that for the mid- and long term.

Operator

As there are no further questions now, I'd like to turn the call back over to the company for closing remarks.

Rui Chen

Thank you again for joining us today. If you have further questions, please feel free to contact our IR team through the contact information on the website. This concludes the conference call. You may now disconnect your lines. Thank you.

[Portions of this transcript that are marked [Interpreted] were spoken by an interpreter present on the live call.]