SHANGHAI (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 KrolickiEditing by Tomasz Janowski and Sriraj Kalluvila)