Key insights
- NIU Technologies' Q4 2025 results show domestic strength offsetting overseas decline. Despite a revenue drop and net loss, premarket stock surged, indicating investor confidence. China sales decreased by 13%, while overseas plummeted 68%. Gross margin improved, but net margin deteriorated. Full-year revenue showed growth. Overall, the report suggests mixed performance with potential headwinds for US-listed Chinese equities.
Niu Technologies (NASDAQ:NIU) presented its fourth quarter 2025 results on March 16, 2026, revealing a tale of two markets as the Chinese electric scooter manufacturer navigated divergent regional performance. Despite posting a quarterly net loss and a 17% year-over-year revenue decline to RMB 676 million, the company’s stock surged 6.43% in premarket trading to $3.97, suggesting investor confidence in the company’s long-term trajectory and improving operational metrics.
The presentation highlighted significant challenges in overseas markets while demonstrating continued momentum in NIU’s core domestic business, where the company has built a formidable presence with 4,540 retail stores across 320 Chinese cities since its 2014 founding.
The fourth quarter of 2025 presented mixed results for NIU, with total sales volume reaching 173,000 units across both markets. As shown in the following breakdown of sales volume and revenue performance, the company experienced a 13% decline in China sales to 159,000 units, while overseas volumes plummeted 68% year-over-year to just 14,000 units.
Despite the volume challenges, NIU demonstrated improving unit economics with gross margin expanding to 15.3% from 12.4% in the prior-year quarter. This 290 basis point improvement reflects better cost management and a more favorable product mix, even as the company absorbed higher operating expenses that reached RMB 206 million.
The company’s net margin for the quarter stood at -13.0%, representing a deterioration from the -8.9% recorded in Q4 2024, as the revenue decline outpaced margin improvements. Adjusted net margin, which excludes share-based compensation, came in at -12.2%.
Looking beyond the quarterly volatility, NIU’s full-year 2025 performance painted a more encouraging picture. The following chart illustrates the company’s sales volume and revenue breakdown across its key markets throughout the year.
Total revenue for 2025 reached RMB 4,308 million, representing a robust 31% increase year-over-year. This growth was driven almost entirely by the domestic market, where sales volume surged 47% to 1.112 million units. The China business demonstrated NIU’s strong competitive positioning in its home market, where the company has accumulated 37 billion kilometers of riding data from its 6.4 million scooters sold globally.
However, the overseas segment contracted sharply, with sales volume declining 52% to 80,000 units for the full year, highlighting the challenges NIU faces in international expansion amid macroeconomic headwinds and market saturation in key regions.
The company’s annual revenue trends show the recovery trajectory following earlier challenges.
NIU’s presentation emphasized its comprehensive product lineup and technology differentiation as key competitive advantages. The company showcased its smart technology platform, which integrates cloud-based vehicle management, a mobile application for real-time monitoring, and its seventh-generation smart lithium-ion battery technology.
The company’s product matrix spans eight models for the China market and six series for overseas markets, including e-mopeds, e-motorcycles, kick-scooters, and e-bikes. NIU has garnered international recognition for its industrial design, earning awards including the Red Dot Award, iF Design Award, and Good Design Award.
The company’s scale is supported by production capacity of 2 million units annually, providing ample headroom for growth as the electric two-wheeler market expands.
NIU’s balance sheet remained solid through the challenging quarter, with the company actually strengthening its cash position. The following snapshot shows the company’s financial position at year-end 2025.
Total assets increased to RMB 2,950 million from RMB 2,612 million at the end of 2024, while cash, restricted cash, deposits, and short-term investments rose to RMB 1,326 million from RMB 1,121 million. This improved liquidity position provides NIU with financial flexibility to navigate market challenges and invest in growth initiatives.
Total equity declined modestly to RMB 905 million from RMB 931 million, reflecting the accumulated losses during the year. However, the company’s debt-free balance sheet and strong cash position mitigate near-term financial risks.
The company’s key statistics underscore its established market presence and operational scale.
Operating expenses as a percentage of revenue totaled 30.4% in Q4 2025, with sales and marketing representing the largest component at 21.3%, followed by research and development at 7.3% and general and administrative expenses at 1.8%. While these percentages remain elevated relative to the company’s current profitability, management highlighted ongoing efforts to improve operational efficiency.
NIU’s omnichannel retail strategy combines extensive offline presence with growing online capabilities. The company operates through 623 city partners in China managing the 4,540 retail stores, while also maintaining integration with third-party platforms including JD.com, Tmall, Amazon, and Shopify, as well as its direct NIU Store.
The company’s multi-year sales volume growth demonstrates its ability to scale despite market fluctuations.
For overseas markets, NIU identified Europe and North America as key focus areas, though the significant volume declines in these regions indicate the need for strategic recalibration. Management emphasized plans to enhance product offerings and streamline operations to address inventory management challenges, particularly concerning aged kick scooter inventory.
The presentation and accompanying results highlighted several headwinds facing NIU. The 68% year-over-year decline in overseas sales volume in Q4 poses significant challenges to the company’s revenue diversification strategy, concentrating risk in the domestic Chinese market. Macroeconomic factors, including consumer spending pressures and market saturation in key regions, continue to affect demand.
Inventory management remains a concern, particularly for kick scooters in overseas markets, which could pressure margins if aggressive discounting becomes necessary. The company’s negative net margins, while improving on a full-year basis, indicate that the path to sustainable profitability requires continued execution on both revenue growth and cost management.
Despite these challenges, the 6.43% premarket stock gain following the earnings release suggests investors are focusing on the improving margin trends, strong domestic performance, and the company’s strategic positioning in the growing electric mobility market rather than the near-term quarterly headwinds.
Full presentation:
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