SHANGHAI, June 6 (Reuters) - Chinese electric vehicle

maker Nio said on Thursday it expected deliveries in

the second quarter to more than double from a year earlier to

between 54,000 and 56,000.

Revenue would also nearly double to about $2.3 billion in

the three-month period starting April, the company said.

The nine-year-old company, however, is still yet to turn

profitable. It reported a $718 million net loss for the first

quarter, compared with a loss of $772 million in the fourth

quarter of 2023.

The company, ranked eighth by EV sales in China, saw

deliveries of its Nio-branded EVs priced from $4,000 rebound to

more than 20,000 units in May after it lowered fees in a battery

rental scheme that encouraged sales.

Like many of its peers, Nio is broadening its customer base

and boosting sales with cheaper models amid a bruising price

competition in China. The company has also trimmed workforce and

deferred long-term projects that would not contribute to

financial performance within three years.

It has won approval to build a third factory in China that

would boost its total approved production capacity to 1 million

cars, almost at par with Tesla's massive Shanghai

plant, Reuters reported on Wednesday.

The F3 plant is located in Huainan city in eastern province

of Anhui and will primarily produce vehicles for Nio's newly

launched affordable car brand, Onvo.

Nio in May unveiled the Onvo L60 SUV with a sticker price

starting at 219,900 yuan ($30,300), while Tesla's Model Y starts

at 249,900 yuan in China.

($1 = 7.2437 Chinese yuan renminbi)

(Reporting by Zhang Yan, Kevin Krolicki

Editing by Tomasz Janowski and Sriraj Kalluvila)