Employee counts at the end of 2020, 2021, 2022:
Their R&D expenses combined is likely to be similar as Tesla’s R&D expenses in 2023, or ~$4bn.
CapEx (rmb, mn) in 1H 2022, 2H 2022, 1H 2023:
Despite a macro downturn, Nio is spending more in capex.
Nio’s capex is now 26% of its revenue in 23H1; XPEV capex has come down a bit to 16% of revenue; Li Auto had the best ratio at 5.4% of revenue in 23H1.
The trio has spent 18bn rmb in capex from H2 2022 to H1 2023, or ~$2.5bn in usd.
To compare, Tesla has spent $7.8bn in capex during the same period; Rivian spent $1.1bn and Lucid spent $1bn.
While Tesla and Li Auto’s gross profits are higher than their capex number, the other 4 companies were burning their own cash.
Middle-east (CYVN, Abu Dhabi based) is backing Nio in 2023, providing ~$3bn net new funding to Nio.
EU (Volkswagen) is backing Xpev in 2023, providing ~$700mn financing to Xpev.