Nio deliveries in January quadruple from a year ago signaling a strong start to 2021

BEIJING — Chinese electric car start-up Nio is off to a solid start for the year, even if it has a long way to go to catch up with market leader Tesla.

The company said Monday it delivered 7,225 vehicles in January, more than four times the 1,598 cars delivered during the same month last year. 

Last month’s figures also mark Nio’s sixth-straight month of record high deliveries, bringing the start-up’s cumulative deliveries to 82,866. 

It’s taken Nio about six years to reach this point, while Tesla delivered 180,570 cars in the last three months of 2020 alone. 

Nio’s New York-listed shares have climbed 17% for the year so far, just shy of Tesla’s 19% gain. Both stocks are outperforming the S&P 500’s roughly half-percent rise. 

Shares of Xpeng, another U.S.-listed Chinese electric car company, are up 15% for the year so far.

Xpeng said Monday it delivered 6,015 electric cars in January, a third-straight record month of deliveries. The company’s P7 sedan accounted for more than half of last month’s deliveries for a total of 18,772 since its mass rollout began in late June.