NIO vs XPeng vs Li Auto — is NIO actually undervalued at ~0.84x sales?

I was looking at the current price-to-sales multiples of the three Chinese EV names that have traditionally been compared with each other:

NIO — ~0.84x P/S
Li Auto — ~0.80x P/S
XPeng — ~1.18x P/S

XPeng really sticks out. The market is currently paying roughly 40% more for each dollar of XPeng revenue than each dollar of NIO revenue.

So I went back and compared their latest Q1 2026 results.

NIO — Q1 2026
Revenue: RMB25.53B (~US$3.70B)
Revenue growth: +112.2% YoY
Gross margin: 19.0%
Vehicle margin: 18.8%
GAAP net loss: RMB332M (~US$48M)
Deliveries: 83,465

XPeng — Q1 2026
Revenue: RMB13.03B (~US$1.89B)
Revenue growth: -17.6% YoY
Gross margin: 20.6%
Vehicle margin: 12.1%
GAAP net loss: RMB1.78B (~US$258M)
Deliveries: 62,682

I’m not knocking XPeng. I owned it myself, and its autonomous driving, robotics, ARIDGE/eVTOL and Volkswagen relationships give it legitimate technology optionality. But those numbers make the valuation difference interesting.

NIO generated almost 2x XPeng’s Q1 revenue, grew revenue 112% YoY versus XPeng declining 18%, had a substantially higher vehicle margin, and lost about US$48M versus XPeng’s ~US$258M.

NIO’s profitability trajectory has also changed dramatically:

Q1 2025 — lost ~US$930M
Q2 2025 — lost ~US$697M
Q3 2025 — lost ~US$489M
Q4 2025 — made ~US$40M
Q1 2026 — lost ~US$48M

So NIO isn’t consistently profitable yet. It has only produced one actual GAAP-profitable quarter.
But going from a ~$930M quarterly loss to roughly breakeven one year later while vehicle margin increased from 10.2% to 18.8% is a significant change.

Which brings me back to the valuation:
NIO — ~0.84x sales
XPeng — ~1.18x sales

What exactly justifies XPeng receiving roughly a 40% higher multiple on revenue today?
Maybe XPeng deserves a premium for its AI/robotics/technology pipeline.
Maybe NIO deserves a discount until it proves profitability is sustainable.
But NIO also has GeniTech/Shenji, proprietary silicon, WorldModel, BaaS, its Power/swap infrastructure, ONVO and Firefly alongside the premium NIO brand.

I’m not arguing NIO deserves some crazy 2021 valuation again.

!I’m asking a much simpler question:!<
!If NIO sustains ~18–20% vehicle margins and turns!< NIO trades around 0.84x sales versus roughly 1.18x for XPeng. Given NIO’s recent margin improvement and near-breakeven results, I’m curious how people view that discount today.