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Citi analyst Jeff Chung upgraded Nio (NIO) to Buy from Neutral with a price target of $58.30, up from $57.60.

The analyst lifted his 2021 China new energy vehicles sales forecast to 2.52M units from 1.79M units and 2025 sales forecast to 7.84M units from 6.86M units.

For Nio, Chung expects acceleration in Q2 order backlogs to "substantially increase" its second half of 2021 revenue visibility and market share, followed by a 2022 new model cycle.

Chung expects accelerating orders and says Nio is the new energy vehicles sector's "Beta proxy."