Niu Technologies

Good day ladies and gentlemen, thank you for standing by and welcome to the New Technologies second quarter 2026 earnings conference call. At this time all participants are in listen only mode. Later we will conduct a question and answer session and instructions will follow at that time. As a reminder we are recording today's call. If you have any objections you may disconnect at this time. Now I will turn the call over to Ms. Kristal Li, Investor Relations Manager of New Technologies. Ms. Li, please go ahead.

Thank you, operator. Hello, everyone. Welcome to today's conference call to discuss new technologies results for the second quarter of 2026. The earnings press release, corporate presentation, and financial spreadsheets has been posted on our Investor Relations website. This call is being webcast from company's IR site as well, and a replay of the call will be available soon. Please note, today's discussion will contain forward-looking statements made under the safe, proper provision of the U.S. Privates Security Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Forward-looking statements involve risks, uncertainties, assumptions, and other factors. The company's actual results may be materially different from those expressed today. Further information regarding the risk factors is included in company's public feelings with the Security and Exchange Commission. The company does not assume any obligation to update any forward-looking statement except as required by law. Our earnings press release and this call include discussion of certain non-GAAP financial measures and the press release contains a definition of non-GAAP financial measures and the reconciliation of GAAP to non-GAAP financial results. On the call with me today are our CEO Dr. Yan Li and CFO Ms. Fionn Zhou. Now let me turn the call over to CEO Yan.

Hello everyone. Thank you for joining our second quarter 2026 results call. In the second quarter of 2026, we continue to execute our core mandate of high-quality, resilient growth while navigating a profound structural adjustment in the domestic two-wheeler market and accelerating the strategic realignment of our international business. For Q2 2026, we achieved a total sales volume of 434,000 units, representing a robust year-over-year increase of 24%. So this expansion was propelled by the China sales reaching 400,000 units up 26% year-over-year and overseas shipments scaled to 32,000 units up 3.6% year-over-year signaling a steady operation recovery in the international business. Total revenue for the quarter reached RMB 1.44 billion representing a year-over-year growth of 14.7%. Growth margins stood at 16%. This primary trajectory was driven by three main factors. First, the active promotional sales clearance and inventory write-off of our international micro mobility business. Second, the structural product makes shift towards a higher volume electric motorcycles in China, which carries a relatively lower margins compared to our historical premium e-bicycle segment. And third, ongoing cost pressure from elevated raw material prices. Crucially, those collective headwinds were partially offset by our ongoing components platformization and the commercial cost reduction initiatives. Now, I would now like to provide more details on our performance and strategic executions course, both China and the international market. First, let's talk about China market. In Q2, 2026, the China sales volume grew 26% year-on-year to 400,000 units. This strong volume growth was achieved against the challenging regulatory and the macroeconomic backdrop. Now with the full enforcement of new national standard for electric bicycles, coupled with broader consumer demand decline in the top tier cities, the domestic two-wheeler markets undergoing a significant structural transformations. Specifically the premium e-bicycle segment, historically our strongest category experienced a meaningful industry-wide contraction with the first half decline estimate between 25 to 30%. Concurrently, consumer demand has decisively expanded towards electric motorcycles, especially in lower tier cities where the motorcycles are not banned, a category with lower average selling prices and a margin than the premium e-bicycles. We proactively reallocate our R&D and the product resources in advance, aggressively pivoting towards a high-growth electric motorcycle segment. The structural momentum of the electric motorcycle business is now directly offsetting the pressure in the premium e-bicycles, establishing a strong foundation for our next growth phase. I'll first talk about the product portfolios. During the second quarter, our execution focused on decisive structural engineering of our product portfolios. In terms of electric motorcycles, the electric motorcycle category contributes approximately 60% of our China sales volume in Q2, serving as the primary growth engine of our domestic business. We continue to strategically concentrate resources here, building our comprehensive product matrix across key consumer user cases. First, following the strong reception of the Windstorm series, we spent aggressively with the M-Funture series, a high-performance model purposely built for delivery professionals and high-frequency cargo use. Delivering 0 to 50 km per hour acceleration in just 5.4 seconds and top speed of 70 km per hour and support for mainstream battery swapping. They priced at an accessible RMB 3,399, achieved a record-breaking online pre-order of 32,000 units on its very first day. In April, we also launched the MX Marathon series to directly eliminate range anxiety and the charging constraint. Equipped with a high-capacity 72-volt 50mAh battery, it delivers a verified full throttle range of 146 kilometers. Q2 alone, the NX Marathon contributed 11% of our total domestic sales volume. Now, building on this momentum, we further expand the lineup in July with the NX100 and NX70, extending our price point coverage and solidifying our leadership in the family commuting segments. Now, in terms of eBicycle segments, We maintain a long-term commitment to a market where we'll systematically strengthen our product matrix under the new national standard. First, we enhance our entry-level offerings led by the Y-Series to effectively broaden the consumer access. Second, we're actively in the process of reintroducing key models in the RMB 5,000 to 7,000 price range, re-establishing our technological leadership in the premium e-bicycle space. Now, while maintaining a prudent discipline during the current market condition, we're fully prepared to capitalize on market recovery when demand returns, leveraging our complete and diversified compliance portfolio. Now, second, let me talk about R&D and technology. The technology and continuous innovation remains core to new long-term strategy. Following our March vision announcement to redefine mobility and enter the era of AI-powered two-wheel electric vehicles, move decisively in Q2 alongside leading technology partners to convert hardcore AI capabilities into tangible mass market user experience. Core features including the new AIOS, screen navigations, integrated triple cam recorder system, AI pets, and AI voice interaction are now fully integrated across multiple mass production models. Our user data confirms those features have been frequently used. For example, in terms of our suite screen navigations, they reach approximately 190,000 monthly active users. Now, adding to those technology momentum, our new official award for interface and user experience design. This marks the first time two-wheeler operating system has received international recognition, serving as a powerful global validation of our design and technological leadership. Now let me talk about the brand and marketing. On the brand front, we continue to execute our strategy of brand driven growth, deliberately expanding news position from a niche top tier urban geek brand towards a broader mass premium market. We're driving a full funnel brand awareness and mainstream consumer acquisitions through a multi-touchpoint approaches. First, support of our global celebrity ambassador, large scale brand campaigns, influencer content, and user engagement programs. We're actively shifting brand perception from single brand recognition to a deeper consumer understanding and engagement. Second, sustain a target brand of visibility investment across 37 key cities, occupying high traffic touchpoint, including outdoor digital screens, major transit pubs, cinemas, and the central commercial district, generating over 5.9 billion total impressions. And last, we successfully launched a targeted offline community event, such as Earth Day campaign that generated 250,000 explorers, and also Shanghai outdoor exhibitions, which generated 3.25 million impressions. Now on the retail channel side, in light of broader market uncertainties, we focus on same store sales increase and prioritize the operation of health and the profitability of the retail ecosystem. In terms of network footprint, by end of Q2, our store network stood at 4,570 stores nationwide, with lower tier cities account for 36% of our total footprint. Now by concentrating our resources on empowering existing retailers, the same store sales surge by 24% year-to-year, driving a consecutive operation efficiency gains across our store network. And we'll focus on online channels. The online channels deliver a standout performance. The Q2 online sales grow by 50% year-to-year and count for 64% of our total domestic retail sales. Besides the traditional team on JD.com, We also opened on Douyin, powered by nine official flagship accounts and 1,600 dealer-operated accounts. We executed 57,000 live streams and produced 90,000 short-form video clips in Q2 and generated over 720 million impressions. Now let me talk about the international business. In Q2, 2026, the overseas sales reached 32,485 units representing a 3.6% Euro year growth. And this demonstrate our international business has steadily exit its structural adjustment phase to re-enter the growth trajectory. Now first talk about the international electric motorcycle business. Our overseas electric motorcycle business maintain powerful momentum, deliver a 4,800 units in Q2, a substantial year-over-year increase of 50%. This performance directly validates the efficacy of our direct-to-retailer strategy. In terms of networks, our dealer network successfully expanded from 307 stores at the beginning of the year to 417 active locations and LQ2. In terms of product mix, following the successful introduction of our high-performance models such as NX500, NX300, FX300, the 125cc plus category has rapidly climbed to account for approximately 50% of our total European sales volume. So this premium mix optimization structurally lifts the gross margin profiles to achieve a key milestone of Local Profitability. Now in the emerging market like Asia Pacific and other areas, we made steady progress through an asset-led profitability first approach. And we have made the first approach, for example, Algeria with sales over 1,000 units and Thailand with sales over 1,000 units. Now we'll maintain this discipline asset light expansion models. First validate the product market fit and local profitability, then selectively scale into additional high potential markets. Now in our micro mobility business internationally, Q2 markers successful completion of smooth channel transition, bringing the terminal sales velocity firmly back to an undergrowth path. While the wholesale shipment reached 27,000 units, the end-user retail activation, which truly measured the organic consumer demand, exceeded 36,000 units, representing a 21% year-over-year growth in Q2. And this activation trend accelerated month-over-month. For example, it grew 21% in May and 37% in June, proving our inventory clearance initiatives are working effectively. and our promotional strategy for legacy models yield a highly positive results in term of channel clearing as anticipated those inventory clearance program create a short-term compression on micro mobility gross margin. But we view this as necessary prudent and deliberate investment to restore a long-term operation path. Now look ahead the second quarter in 2026 serve as a pivotal period for deliberate operation adjustment. In China, our momentum was anchored by the rapid acceleration of our electric motorcycle category, which successfully offset market-wide regulatory and macroeconomic headwinds in the electric bicycle segments. Now, moving into Q3, we're continuing aggressively into the electric motorcycle course momentum. We're expanding to new consumer segments by launching a female-focused product line while systematically deepening our market penetration with our windstorm and marathon. of product families. At the same time, while the broader market-wide recovery electric bicycle depends on market conditions and consumer sentiment, we're taking proactive internal steps to structurally improve our revenue and SP in the e-bike segment today. In Q3, we're reintroducing a refreshed lineup of mid to high-end compliant e-bicycles targeting the RMB 5,000 to 7,000 price range. by upgrading our product mix with the premium features and advancing the integration of new AIOS and AI-assisted writing features. We aim to lift our ASP and define our margin profile while broader markets stabilize. On the channel front, we'll continue to amplify our online traffic generation across social commerce platform, driving public domain traffic directly into our retail store network to support itself across all categories. Now in the international market, our core electric motorcycle business will maintain steady structural growth and our direct-to-retail strategy leveraging a higher 125cc plus model penetration to lift the regional margins. Concurrently, our macro mobility segment remains firmly on track with our distribution transition largely complete. The active promotion clearance in Q3 will bring the overseas inventory back towards a healthy, normal baseline by the end of the year. So in summary, 2026 was an important year for structural transformation for new by capturing the volume growth in electric motorcycle, re-establish our premium edge e-bicycle and advancing our AI ecosystem and normalizing our overseas inventory while building a more resilient operation base. We remain disciplined and realistic about the market condition and focused entirely on execution. Now I'll turn over to our CFO, Tian Zhou, to talk about the financials.