Nio, China’s answer to Tesla, has reported a 37.5% month-on-month delivery drop in July, delivering less than 900 electric vehicles (EV), the Shanghai-based EV startup announced in a press release on Monday.
Nio only delivered 837 vehicles in the past month, including 673 5-seater ES6s and 164 7-seater ES8s.
Nio’s founder and CEO William Li said the drop in the delivery was due to the company’s mass vehicle recall scheme. In late June, Nio announced a recall plan of nearly 5000 EVs due to safety concerns related to its battery packs.
“During the month, we prioritized battery manufacturing capacity for this effort, which significantly affected our production and delivery results,” Li said, adding that a slowing Chinese economy and a decline in passenger vehicle sales were also among the factors influencing Nio’s delivery.
Nio, which went public in the United States last September, has delivered 8,379 vehicles this year as of the end of July. Last year, the company delivered about 11,000 units.
The Chinese EV company has recorded losses in three consecutive quarters since its initial public offering last year.
A Nio executive has recently admitted that the company had laid off about 1,000 employees since the beginning of 2019.
Nio’s president Qin Lihong said the layoff was due to the company’s call to optimize its structure and improve its efficiency. “It’s also what we need to do at this stage,” he told 36Kr earlier this month.