: China’s Nio halts EV production as COVID lockdowns disrupt its supply chain

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Nio Inc., the China-based electric-vehicle maker, over the weekend warned of delivery delays after suspending production due to COVID-19 restrictions that have disrupted its supply chain.

“There will be a delay in the delivery of vehicles for many customers in the near future, and we ask for your understanding,” Nio
NIO,
-1.77%

said in a statement on its mobile app Saturday.

The company explained: “Since March, due to reasons to do with the epidemic, the company’s supplier partners in several places including Jilin, Shanghai and Jiangsu suspended production one after the other and have yet to recover. Due to the impact of this Nio has had to halt car production.”

China has imposed strict lockdown measures in Shanghai and other places in attempts to stem the spread of the highly contagious omicron variant. Tesla Inc.
TSLA,
-3.00%

and Volkswagen AG
VOW,
+1.54%

have also temporarily shuttered production facilities in China due to the lockdowns.

Nio’s American depository shares have sunk 37% year to date. Last week, UBS  analyst Paul Gong upgraded the stock, but lowered its price target from $42 to $32. Nio traded at about $20 a share as of Friday’s close.

Earlier this month, Nio reported record quarterly deliveries of 25,768 vehicles.