Chinese EV maker Li Auto shares soar on revenue beat, while Citron 'pulls the plug' on NIO

Ines Ferré
·Senior Business Reporter
Updated ·2 min read

Chinese electric car startup Li Auto (LI) soared as much as 25% during Friday’s morning session after reporting a top line beat for its first quarterly results since going public. Gains were paired back by mid-session.

Li Auto’s revenue for the third quarter jumped 28.4% from the previous quarter. Deliveries increased 31% quarter-over-quarter and gross margins also rose.

Li went public in July pricing its IPO at $11.50 per American Depositary Share (ADS). Over the last 30 days, shares have rallied about 100%.

The company’s results initially sent shares of Chinese EV rivals higher, until short-seller Citron released a note via a tweet on why NIO (NIO), which has soared 1000% year-to-date, will go down to $25 a share. “NIO has found itself in unchartered territory that can never be justified by its current standing in the China EV market or its near-term prospects,” said the Citron note.

The short-seller went on to say, “It is time for investors to rotate out of NIO, enjoy your profits and look for the next disruptive technology.”

On Friday morning shares of NIO were up as much as 11%, touching intraday highs prior to Citron’s tweet.

Chinese EV startup XPeng Motors (XPEV) also opened Friday’s session higher. Yesterday the company reported a better-than-expected quarter. Revenue jumped 342% year over year, and deliveries spiked 266%.The stock soared 33% on Thursday.

“We're very happy with both the delivery results as well as our financial revenue growth, but more importantly this quarter we also achieved our first ever positive gross margin for the company so I think all very exciting,“ Xpeng Vice Chairman and President Brian Gu said during an interview with told Yahoo Finance Live.

He noted American rival Tesla’s (TSLA) popularity in China along with government incentives to buy EVs and reduce pollution is helping Xpeng.

Tesla is still a massive player in China compared to the smaller EV startups. Li Auto’s delivery forecast for the current is anywhere between 11,000 to 12,000 vehicles. By comparison, Tesla delivered over 11,000 vehicles in China in the month of July alone.

Its competitors ,though growing, are still not at the same scale as Tesla. NIO doubled its deliveries in October to 5,055, sending the stock to all-time highs.

Ines covers the U.S. stock market. Follow her on Twitter at @ines_ferre

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