What happened
In a trading chart that could mirror much of the past year, shares of Chinese electric-vehicle (EV) maker NIO (NIO 0.34%) dropped about 5% early Friday then bounced to a gain of almost 3% before paring that gain as of 3 p.m. EDT.
So what
With anticipation of high growth for EVs in the largest global auto market, it doesn't take much news to move the Chinese EV stocks on U.S. exchanges. The only actual news today from NIO was setting the date for its first-quarter financial results. The company will report those results on Thursday, April 29 after the market closes. This report comes after NIO has announced production of its 100,000th vehicle earlier this month, which brought a congratulatory tweet from Elon Musk.
NIO battery swap station and charging station. Image source: NIO.
Another recent news item came from a rather surprising source. Ford (F +1.27%) said preorders are open in 20 cities in China for the locally made electric Mustang Mach-E. The surprise was that it is coordinating with NIO to allow Mach-E owners to use the NIO charging network, which would become a new source of revenue for the Chinese EV maker.
In a statement reported by CleanTechnica, Ford said:
Mustang Mach-E users can access over 300,000 high-quality public charging piles, of which 160,000 are fast charging, in more than 340 cities across the country through an exclusive APP. NIO's nationwide fast-charging network will also be accessible to Mustang Mach-E users.
NIO shares have soared more than 1,000% in the past 12 months, but a more than 25% retrenchment since the start of 2021 has more investors interested in the name. Considering the potential market, it's not surprising that any bit of news with NIO garners much attention.
