Chinese electric vehicle manufacturer Li Auto (LI) reported an unexpected profit for Q4 of 2020 on Thursday, sending the auto manufacturing company’s stock up by 1% to 28.98 in premarket trading. This movement is in stark contrast to the stock slump that Li was expected to incur.
While analysts expected a loss of 4 cents per share on revenue of $565.5 million, the Chinese EV firm earned a profit of 2 cents per share, with revenue surging by a massive 39% margin to $635.5 million. Currently, the EV producer has just one vehicle in production at present—the Li One SUV; a hybrid considering its small gas engine.
Li reported 14,464 vehicle deliveries for the fourth quarter, up from Q3’s 8,660 deliveries. The company made a total of 32,624 deliveries throughout 2020.
Li’s performance is expected to only continue improving in 2021. The EV maker is projecting a Q1 profit of $450.6 million to $493.5 million, which will be an increase of 263%-297% vs Q1 of last year. Li Auto also revealed that its deliveries for January 2021 hit 5,379; a 356% year-on-year increase.
Li Auto is one of the strongest performing EV manufacturers at present. While Li’s shares rose by 1% on Thursday, local rivals Nio and Xpeng suffered declines of 1.1% and 2.4% respectively.
