Nio is attracting young investors in search of the next Tesla, says Cramer

Published Mon, Jan 11 202111:05 AM EST

(This story is for CNBC PRO subscribers only.) Shares of Nio are jumping as young investors pile into the stock, believing that the Shanghai-based electric vehicle company will be the next Tesla , according to CNBC's Jim Cramer. He called the company a hot Chinese stock on the heels of Nio unveiling its first sedan model over the weekend as the company seeks to expand its vehicle offerings. "This has really captured the younger person: they trade this thing like a banshee," Cramer said Monday on CNBC's "Squawk on the Street." "People think Nio ... is the next Tesla, and the next Tesla has been probably something that's the greatest search younger people have embarked on, and they think they've found it in Nio," he added. On Saturday the company unveiled its first sedan , called the et7, which includes self-driving technology features that the automaker claims will surpass that of Tesla. Deliveries are set to begin in the first quarter of 2022, company founder and chairman William Li said at a launch event in Chengdu, China. Nio's et7 sedan can work with the company's new autonomous driving system that's built on Nvidia processing chips. The new vehicle announcement prompted a number of Wall Street firms to raise their forecast on shares of Nio, including JPMorgan, which took its forecast to a Street high of $75. "We saw an electric car battery that people like, we saw the idea that what's going to happen is a real challenge to Tesla," Cramer said of the company's event over the weekend. However, he was quick to note that given forecasts of the electric vehicle market growing from between 2% and 3% to 10%, there's plenty of room for both companies. While Nio has ramped up production, its deliveries still significantly lag that of Tesla. For 2020, Nio said deliveries more than doubled from a year ago to 43,728 vehicles. Tesla, on the other hand, delivered 499,550 vehicles in 2020. Shares of Nio gained as much as 13% on Monday to hit a new all-time high, before giving back some of those gains. The stock last traded about 8% higher. Over the last year shares are up more than 1,700%. - CNBC's Evelyn Cheng contributed reporting.

Nio

(This story is for CNBC PRO subscribers only.)

Shares of Nio are jumping as young investors pile into the stock, believing that the Shanghai-based electric vehicle company will be the next Tesla, according to CNBC's Jim Cramer.

He called the company a hot Chinese stock on the heels of Nio unveiling its first sedan model over the weekend as the company seeks to expand its vehicle offerings.