NIO’s Hong Kong-listed shares (09866.HK) saw strong gains, rising nearly 7% to close at HK$52(~$6.6) at noon, hitting a new high for the year. As of 3:10 p.m., NIO’s Hong Kong-traded shares were up more than 7% during the session, pushing its total market capitalization to HK$130.8 billion(~$16.7 Billion), surpassing Xpeng Motors (09869.HK). Xpeng’s market cap stood at HK$128.65 billion(~$16.4 Billion) over the same period. NIO’s Hong Kong-listed shares at 3:10 p.m. local time Looking back over the past year, the market capitalization ranking of China’s new electric vehicle startups has undergone a dramatic reshuffling. At the end of 2025, Xpeng Motors, fueled by the strong sales of models such as the MONA M03 and Xpeng P7+, briefly reached a market cap of HK$160.2 billion, overtaking Li Auto and NIO to become the most valuable among the EV startups. At that time, NIO’s market cap was below HK$100 billion, placing it in a relatively weak position. However, since the start of 2026, driven by continued strong sales of models like the all-new ES8 and a significant improvement in the company’s profitability, NIO’s market cap has begun a strong rebound. On March 11, NIO’s stock price jumped 14.05%, pushing its market cap back above HK$100 billion. Data shows that in the fourth quarter of 2025, NIO achieved its first quarterly profit since its founding, with operating profit reaching RMB 1.25 billion and vehicle gross margin climbing to 18.1%. The release of these key financial results acted as a major catalyst for the stock, helping NIO’s market cap re-enter the “hundred-billion club.” NIO’s Q4 2025 earnings guidance The core driver supporting NIO’s market cap recovery is the market performance of its flagship model, the all-new ES8. Just today, NIO officially announced that the all-new ES8 has ranked first in the large SUV market for four consecutive months, as well as first among models priced above RMB 400,000. Data shows that NIO’s all-new ES8 achieved retail sales of 16,255 units in March, and reached the milestone of 90,000 deliveries just 195 days after the start of deliveries. This means an average of 462 new vehicles were delivered per day, with weekly deliveries consistently exceeding 3,000 units. NIO’s ES8 tops large SUV sales for fourth consecutive month From a financial perspective, starting from the fourth quarter of 2025, the gross margin of the all-new ES8 has already exceeded 20%, making it the core profit pillar of the brand. Striking while the iron is hot, alongside the strong sales of the ES8, NIO officially held the technology launch event for the NIO ES9 on April 9. As the highest-positioned model in NIO’s SUV lineup, the ES9 has a pre-sale starting price of RMB 528,000($77266), or RMB 420,000($61461) under the BaaS (Battery as a Service) plan. After the launch, NIO CEO William Li revealed that pre-sale orders for the ES9 are in line with expectations, and that the number of orders from new customers outside the NIO community ecosystem is more than 1.5 times that of the same period following the ES8 launch last year. This also suggests that the ES9 could become a new growth engine for sustained profitability.