Nio vs Li Auto: Two Chinese EV Giants at a Crossroads

Nio (NYSE: NIO) and Li Auto (NASDAQ: LI) some conscionable reported Q3 2025 earnings, and the results could not look much different. Nio is accelerating with a multi-brand propulsion driving measurement up sharply. Li Auto is shrinking done a deliberate modulation distant from the extended-range vehicles that made it famous. Same market, other trajectories.

Nio delivered 87,071 vehicles successful Q3, up 40.8% twelvemonth implicit year, powered by 3 brands. The premium NIO badge moved 36,928 units, mass-market ONVO contributed 37,656, and the recently launched FIREFLY added 12,487. CEO William Bin Li called retired the ONVO L90 arsenic the top-selling ample BEV SUV for 3 consecutive months.

Li Auto delivered 93,211 units, down 39% twelvemonth implicit year. A callback connected the Li MEGA MPV dragged gross borderline down by astir 4.3 percent points, turning what would person been a 20%-plus borderline 4th into a 16.3% reported gross margin. Revenue fell 36.2% to $3.96 billion. The numbers look bad, but discourse matters.

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Nio's strategy is horizontal expansion: 3 brands, 3 terms tiers, 1 battery-swap infrastructure underneath each of it. The hazard is execution complexity. Running 3 brands portion burning astir $489 cardinal successful a azygous 4th demands superior discipline. Nio's Q4 guidance calls for 120,000 to 125,000 deliveries, up 65% to 72% twelvemonth implicit year, which would beryllium a caller quarterly record. The ambition is real. So is the currency burn.

Li Auto is going vertical connected technology. The VLA Driver autonomous driving exemplary deed a 91% monthly usage complaint successful October, a beardown adoption fig for immoderate in-car AI system. Combined orders for the Li i8 and Li i6 BEV SUVs exceeded 100,000. Li Auto is betting that erstwhile this BEV modulation completes, it emerges with amended exertion and stronger margins than rivals who ne'er had the EREV instauration to money the pivot.