Why Nio Shares Tumbled Today

American depositary shares of Chinese electric-vehicle (EV) maker Nio (NYSE: NIO) plunged Thursday after the company announced its July monthly delivery results. Those results weren't bad, but investors wanted more.

Nio delivered about 20,500 EVs last month, marking the third straight month the company has surpassed the 20,000 unit delivery threshold. But it was still only about 2% higher than the year-ago period. Nio closed today's trading session with a drop of 8.3%.

Investors want more from Nio

The July delivery results also represented a slight drop from the 21,209 vehicles shipped in June. Investors are getting impatient waiting for Nio to achieve profitability. They expected to see a continued ramp-up of vehicle sales, but as can be seen in the chart below, results have leveled off over the past several months.

Data source: Nio. Chart by author.

Nio still has delivered about 44% more EVs in 2024 year to date, compared to 2023. But investors expected 2024 to be a year of sharp increases in production and sales. After all, that's what will be required to achieve profitability. This helps explain why the stock is down by 55% so far this year.

The other thing investors likely noticed was that Chinese EV peer Li Auto reported July deliveries that soared by about 50%, compared to July 2023. It also showed an increase month over month from June.

Nio stock likely won't gain any traction without a catalyst that pushes it meaningfully toward profitability. While July delivery results weren't bad, they didn't provide a noticeable boost toward that goal.

Howard Smith has positions in Nio. The Motley Fool has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy .