NIO’s founder and chief executive Li Bin has set an ambitious two‑pronged agenda for the company: achieve annual non‑GAAP profitability in 2026 and sustain 40–50% year‑on‑year sales growth en route to a 2035 target of 5 million cars a year. The goals were unveiled at an internal all‑hands meeting in which Li framed 2026 as a test of the company’s operational discipline and strategic focus after a strong 2025 delivery performance.
NIO delivered 326,000 vehicles in 2025 and, at a projected 40–50% growth rate, expects to sell roughly 456,000–489,000 cars next year. To make the leap from heavy investment and growth to recurring profits, Li prescribed three core priorities: sharpen R&D spending so money goes where it yields the highest return; expand battery‑swap infrastructure and the sales/service network; and complete a company‑wide reorganisation around Customer Based Units (CBUs) to improve resource allocation and accountability.
On infrastructure, NIO said it currently operates 3,729 battery‑swap stations and plans to add about 1,000 this year, taking the network above 4,600. The company sees battery swapping and a denser retail and service footprint as a competitive moat that differentiates its proposition from rivals chiefly focused on ownership economics and software‑led differentiation.
Li emphasised efficiency as a new operating ethos: spend on the projects that demonstrably move the needle, and cut expenditures that do not. He argued that higher spending is not always better and that disciplined prioritisation—what he calls “doing the biggest things with the smallest amount of money”—must underpin NIO’s third phase of growth, launched in the second half of 2025 after earlier periods of rapid expansion and then steady growth.
The organisational push centers on CBU, a customer‑centric operating model intended to map resources directly to user value and speed decision‑making. Management believes that running the company as a portfolio of user‑oriented units will tighten accountability, reduce wasteful duplication and help the firm scale profits while preserving product quality and customer satisfaction.
These ambitions come amid a tougher backdrop for China’s electric‑vehicle industry. The market is maturing, price competition has intensified and growth rates have slowed compared with the explosive early years. NIO’s simultaneous pursuit of steep growth and near‑term profitability will require careful balancing of capital expenditure—especially for battery‑swap roll‑out—research and development, and the continuing need to defend product and service quality.
The coming year will test whether NIO can convert improved unit economics and operational rigour into durable profitability without sacrificing the customer experience that has been central to its brand. Hitting non‑GAAP profitability in 2026 would be a signal to investors that NIO can transition from a high‑growth, cash‑intensive startup to a sustainably managed automaker; missing the target would raise questions about the cost of NIO’s chosen strategic path.