NIO (NIO, Financials) reported a 40.1% year-over-year increase in first-quarter deliveries on Tuesday, sending its U.S.-listed shares up 4.5% to $3.97 as of 11:27 a.m. Eastern Daylight Time.

In the three months ending March 31, the company that makes electric cars delivered 42,094 units, with 15,039 delivered in March alone. This is a 26.7% increase from the same month last year. Out of the total units sold in March, 10,219 were from its top-of-the-line NIO brand and 4,820 were from its family-friendly ONVO line.As of the end of March, a total of 713,658 vehicles had been delivered.Late in the month, the Shanghai-based company started sending out the NIO ET9 executive sedan. The car is NIO's newest technological platform and is meant to be its high-end flagship model.NIO has three EV brands: the high-end NIO, the mid-range ONVO, and the small, high-end FIREFLY. The company has to deal with more competition from rivals like BYD Co. (BYDDF, Financials) and international companies like Tesla (TSLA, Financials). This is happening at a time when global demand for electric vehicles is slowing down and prices are rising in China.