What happened
Shares of Chinese electric-vehicle NIO (NIO 1.16%) were moving higher on Monday, after a report that its CEO confirmed plans to enter the European market later this year.
As of 10:15 a.m. EST, NIO's American depositary shares were up about 7.7% from Friday's closing price.
So what
NIO CEO William Bin Li said that NIO plans to begin selling vehicles in Europe in the second half of 2021, according to a report from Chinese media outlet Bitauto.com. The company plans to enter other global markets next year, according to the report.
That confirms a hint dropped by Li in January, when he said that the navigation map in NIO's ET7 show car gave a clue about the company's export plans. It's hard to tell, but reports have suggested that the map shows a location in Oslo, Norway.
Does that look like Oslo to you? Image source: NIO.
It won't be surprising if NIO begins its export push with Norway, as the country has the highest rate of electric vehicle adoption in the world. Slightly over half of new vehicles sold in Norway last year were EVs, up from about 42% in 2019.
NIO rival XPeng began sales of its electric G3 SUV in Norway in December.
Now what
Auto investors won't have to wait long for more details: NIO will report its fourth-quarter and full-year 2020 earnings after the U.S. markets close today. Wall Street analysts polled by Thomson Reuters expect NIO to report a fourth-quarter loss of $0.07 per share on revenue of about $1 billion, on average.
Note that NIO's earnings call will begin at 8 p.m. EST, or 9 a.m. (Tuesday) Beijing time.
