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Nio Inc. (; stylised as NIO) is a Chinese multinational automobile manufacturer headquartered in
Shanghai Shanghai (; , , Standard Mandarin pronunciation: ) is one of the four direct-administered municipalities of the People's Republic of China (PRC). The city is located on the southern estuary of the Yangtze River, with the Huangpu River flowin ...
, specializing in designing and developing
electric vehicles An electric vehicle (EV) is a vehicle that uses one or more electric motors for propulsion. It can be powered by a collector system, with electricity from extravehicular sources, or it can be powered autonomously by a battery (sometimes ch ...
. The company is known for its development of battery-swapping stations for its vehicles as an alternative to conventional charging stations. In 2021, the founder, William Li (or Li, Bin), announced that Nio plans to expand to 25 different countries and regions by 2025.


Overview

After the brand launch in the Saatchi Gallery in London in 2016, several companies invested in Nio, including
Tencent Tencent Holdings Ltd. () is a Chinese multinational technology and entertainment conglomerate and holding company headquartered in Shenzhen. It is one of the highest grossing multimedia companies in the world based on revenue. It is also the w ...
, Temasek, Sequoia,
Lenovo Lenovo Group Limited, often shortened to Lenovo ( , ), is a Chinese multinational technology company specializing in designing, manufacturing, and marketing consumer electronics, personal computers, software, business solutions, and related ser ...
and TPG. Its first model, the Nio EP9
sports car A sports car is a car designed with an emphasis on dynamic performance, such as handling, acceleration, top speed, the thrill of driving and racing capability. Sports cars originated in Europe in the early 1900s and are currently produced by ...
, debuted the same day the brand was established. In October 2016, Nio announced that it had been given an "Autonomous Vehicle Testing Permit" by the
California California is a state in the Western United States, located along the Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the most populous U.S. state and the 3rd largest by area. It is also the mo ...
DMV and it would begin testing on public roads under the "Autonomous Vehicle Tester Program" guidelines as part of its
autonomous vehicle Vehicular automation involves the use of mechatronics, artificial intelligence, and multi-agent systems to assist the operator of a vehicle (car, aircraft, watercraft, or otherwise).Hu, J.; Bhowmick, P.; Lanzon, A.,Group Coordinated Control ...
program. According to the company, it planned to launch vehicles with level-three and level-four autonomy. In May 2018, Nio opened its first battery swap station in the Nanshan District of
Shenzhen Shenzhen (; ; ; ), also historically known as Sham Chun, is a major sub-provincial city and one of the special economic zones of China. The city is located on the east bank of the Pearl River estuary on the central coast of southern provin ...
,
Guangdong Guangdong (, ), alternatively romanized as Canton or Kwangtung, is a coastal province in South China on the north shore of the South China Sea. The capital of the province is Guangzhou. With a population of 126.01 million (as of 2020) ...
, China, dubbed the "Power Swap Station". Only batteries for ES8 cars would be available from this station. In September 2018, the company filed for a US$1.8 billion
initial public offering An initial public offering (IPO) or stock launch is a public offering in which shares of a company are sold to institutional investors and usually also to retail (individual) investors. An IPO is typically underwritten by one or more investm ...
on the
New York Stock Exchange The New York Stock Exchange (NYSE, nicknamed "The Big Board") is an American stock exchange in the Financial District of Lower Manhattan in New York City. It is by far the world's largest stock exchange by market capitalization of its listed ...
. In late April 2020, Nio announced approximately US$1 billion in new funding from a group of Chinese investors, which was needed due to the company's struggles to sell its vehicles. As part of the deal, Nio would transfer assets to a new subsidiary called Nio China, which will be headquartered in
Hefei Hefei (; ) is the capital and largest city of Anhui Province, People's Republic of China. A prefecture-level city, it is the political, economic, and cultural center of Anhui. Its population was 9,369,881 as of the 2020 census and its built-up ( ...
. In August 2020, Nio launched Battery as a Service (BaaS) and formed a battery asset management company in collaboration with Contemporary Amperex Technology Co., Limited ("CATL"), Hubei Science Technology Investment Group Co., Ltd. and a subsidiary of Guotai Junan International Holdings Limited. Each contributing roughly US$31.6 million (CN¥200 million) into the venture, for 25% equity. BaaS helps lower the purchase price of Nio electric vehicles by about 25%. In May 2021, Nio announced a Norway expansion plan, saying it would begin delivering cars to Norway by September 2021. In the third quarter of 2021, Nio delivered 24,439 ES8, ES6, and EC6, a new quarterly record representing a growth of 100.2% year over year. At Nio Day in December 2021, Nio announced it would bring its User Enterprise to Germany, Denmark, Netherlands and Sweden in 202

On 22 February 2022, it was announced that Nio is planning to venture into China's smartphone market and preparing to make its own handsets. The company has formed a smartphone division in Shenzhen, and is hiring staff to expand the team. The move is preceded by similar plans to manufacture smartphones by automakers
Geely Zhejiang Geely Holding Group Co., Ltd (ZGH), commonly known as Geely (吉利 "auspicious"), is a Chinese multinational automotive company headquartered in Hangzhou, Zhejiang. The company is privately held by Chinese billionaire entrepreneur ...
and
Volvo The Volvo Group ( sv, Volvokoncernen; legally Aktiebolaget Volvo, shortened to AB Volvo, stylized as VOLVO) is a Swedish multinational manufacturing corporation headquartered in Gothenburg. While its core activity is the production, distributi ...
.


Vehicles

Nio's first car was the EP9 electric hypercar, presented the same day the brand was launched. Nio revealed the ES8, a seven-seater electric SUV in December 2017 and began deliveries of the ES8 in June 2018. Nio launched the ES6, a five-seater electric SUV, in December 2018, and began deliveries in June 2019. In December 2019, Nio launched the EC6, a five-seater electric coupe SUV with deliveries beginning in September 2020. Nio launched ET7, its electric sedan, in January 2021 and revealed ET5, its most compact sedan at Nio Day in December 2021. To date, Nio has revealed two concept cars;
EVE Eve (; ; ar, حَوَّاء, Ḥawwāʾ; el, Εὕα, Heúa; la, Eva, Heva; Syriac: romanized: ) is a figure in the Book of Genesis in the Hebrew Bible. According to the origin story, "Creation myths are symbolic stories describing how the ...
at SXSW 2017 and ET Preview at Auto Shanghai 2019.


Upcoming models


Concept models


Battery swapping

Unlike Tesla, which has tried battery swapping but has never deployed it on a large scale and relies instead on its
Supercharger In an internal combustion engine, a supercharger compresses the intake gas, forcing more air into the engine in order to produce more power for a given displacement. The current categorisation is that a supercharger is a form of forced ind ...
network, Nio has built a functioning network of 700 battery-swap stations that covers several thousand kilometres of Chinese expressways. The first phase was installing 18 battery-swap stations in 14 different locations along the G4 expressway, a road connecting
Beijing } Beijing ( ; ; ), alternatively romanized as Peking ( ), is the capital of the People's Republic of China. It is the center of power and development of the country. Beijing is the world's most populous national capital city, with over 2 ...
(the national capital) with the
Pearl River Delta The Pearl River Delta Metropolitan Region (PRD; ; pt, Delta do Rio das Pérolas (DRP)) is the low-lying area surrounding the Pearl River estuary, where the Pearl River flows into the South China Sea. Referred to as the Guangdong-Hong Kong-M ...
(world's largest urban area where
Hong Kong Hong Kong ( (US) or (UK); , ), officially the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China (abbr. Hong Kong SAR or HKSAR), is a city and special administrative region of China on the eastern Pearl River Delt ...
and
Shenzhen Shenzhen (; ; ; ), also historically known as Sham Chun, is a major sub-provincial city and one of the special economic zones of China. The city is located on the east bank of the Pearl River estuary on the central coast of southern provin ...
are located). This was completed in November 2018. The second phase consisted of installing battery-swap stations in 8 locations along the G2 expressway, a road connecting Beijing with
Shanghai Shanghai (; , , Standard Mandarin pronunciation: ) is one of the four direct-administered municipalities of the People's Republic of China (PRC). The city is located on the southern estuary of the Yangtze River, with the Huangpu River flowin ...
. This phase was completed in January 2019. As of August 2020, Nio had built 143 battery swap stations across 64 cities in China, and completed over 800,000 battery swaps for its customers. These battery swapping stations have a reported swapping time of five minutes. On 24 March 2021, Nio completed its 2 millionth battery swap in the city of
Suzhou Suzhou (; ; Suzhounese: ''sou¹ tseu¹'' , Mandarin: ), alternately romanized as Soochow, is a major city in southern Jiangsu province, East China. Suzhou is the largest city in Jiangsu, and a major economic center and focal point of trade ...
. It has also deployed 193 battery swapping stations, 134 supercharging stations, and 327 destination stations across
China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by population, most populous country, with a Population of China, population exceeding 1.4 billion, slig ...
. On 10 December 2021, Nio installed its 700th battery swap station in China, hitting its annual target ahead of schedule, Nio's second-generation battery swap station allows the vehicle to automatically park into the station, with which users can experience a three-minute battery swap while staying inside the vehicle. So far, Nio has provided over 5.3 million swaps to users in China. Battery swapping has become one of the favourite power solutions among Nio users. As of May 2022, Nio has 917 battery swap stations in China, and had opened its first swap station in Europe, located in Norway, with plans to expand in other cities.


Technologies


NOMI AI

NOMI is Nio's digital assistant for the car dashboard to provide a closer engagement with its drivers and passengers and Nio claims is the world's first in-car AI system for production vehicles. The NOMI Mate 2.0 features a circular
AMOLED AMOLED (active-matrix organic light-emitting diode, ) is a type of OLED display device technology. OLED describes a specific type of thin-film-display technology in which organic compounds form the electroluminescent material, and active matri ...
display and incorporates artificial intelligence with a human face-like interface that swivels and blinks its oval ‘eyes’ to address each vehicle occupant directly, depending on their location. NOMI learns user preferences over time to understand the specific context of the car in relation to its owner. For example, NOMI can set the personal seating and steering wheel positions whenever it senses a driver approaching the vehicle. Users can also give NOMI verbal commands to adjust the cabin temperature, open or close windows, or snap an in-car selfie and have it displayed on the radio screen.


NIO Pilot

Nio Pilot is the company's SAE level 2 semi-autonomous system that offers ADAS features. It launched with the introduction of Nio's ES8 model. Several over the air updates throughout 2018 and 2019 has enhanced Nio Pilot with features such as lane keeping,
adaptive cruise control Adaptive cruise control (ACC) is an available cruise control advanced driver-assistance system for road vehicles that automatically adjusts the vehicle speed to maintain a safe distance from vehicles ahead. As of 2019, it is also called by 20 un ...
,
lane departure warning In road-transport terminology, a lane departure warning system (LDWS) is a mechanism designed to warn the driver when the vehicle begins to move out of its lane (unless a turn signal is on in that direction) on freeways and arterial roads. Thes ...
,
automatic emergency braking A collision avoidance system (CAS), also known as a pre-crash system, forward collision warning system, or collision mitigation system, is an advanced driver-assistance system designed to prevent or reduce the severity of a collision. In its ...
, highway pilot (Nio Navigate on Pilot, NNOP), traffic Jam assistance, auto lane change and more. Nio Pilot sensor suite consists of 23 sensors, including a trifocal forward camera, 5 radars, 12 ultrasonic sensors and a driver monitor camera. Nio was the first automaker to launch a car model utilizing Mobileye's EyeQ4 vision chip. In August 2021, Lin Wenqin, a 31-year-old Chinese man, was killed after his Nio ES8 collided with a construction vehicle. Nio's self-driving feature was still in
beta Beta (, ; uppercase , lowercase , or cursive ; grc, βῆτα, bē̂ta or ell, βήτα, víta) is the second letter of the Greek alphabet. In the system of Greek numerals, it has a value of 2. In Modern Greek, it represents the voiced labi ...
, and could not deal with static obstacles. Though the vehicle's manual at the time clearly stated that the driver must take over when nearing construction sites, there was an issue regarding whether the feature was improperly marketed and unsafe. Lawyers of the family of the person killed called into question Nio's private access to the vehicle, which they argue could lead to the data being falsified.


Aquila

In November 2019, Nio announced a partnership with Mobileye to develop a consumer car equipped with Mobileye's complete Level 4 self-driving system called Aquila that could be sold to consumers by 2022. Aquila features 33 sensors, including 11 high-resolution cameras,
LiDAR Lidar (, also LIDAR, or LiDAR; sometimes LADAR) is a method for determining ranges (variable distance) by targeting an object or a surface with a laser and measuring the time for the reflected light to return to the receiver. It can also be ...
, 5 radars, 12 ultrasonic sensors, and two high-precision positioning units: V2X and ADMS. The system is on board of the Nio ET7. The company begun deliveries of the model in Q1 of 2022.


Production

On April 7, 2021, the company produced its 100,000th electric vehicle. On April 26, 2022, Nio announced its 200,000th electric car rolling off the production line.


Divisions


Nio Life

Nio Life is the company's design lifestyle brand. The brand launched in 2018 with a capsule collection made in collaboration with Hussein Chalayan. In 2021 Nio Life launched its sustainable fashion label "Blue Sky Lab". The label collaborated with the
Parsons School of Design Parsons School of Design, known colloquially as Parsons, is a private art and design college located in the Greenwich Village neighborhood of New York City. Founded in 1896 after a group of progressive artists broke away from established Manhat ...
challenging students to create new products made of leftover car manufacturer materials and, thereby, providing opportunities for young designers.


Nio Service

Nio Service is the company's network of service centers. Nio Users can request a "pick-up-and-delivery" service for their car to the service center. Additionally, mobile service vehicles can carry out simple maintenance work on demand.


Nio Power

Nio Power is the company's network of battery swap stations, power mobile, power home and super chargers. Nio has 900 Swap Stations around China as of April 18, 2022, including 237 battery swap stations along highways.


Management


William Li

William Li is a Chinese business executive and entrepreneur who is the founder and
CEO A chief executive officer (CEO), also known as a central executive officer (CEO), chief administrator officer (CAO) or just chief executive (CE), is one of a number of corporate executives charged with the management of an organization especiall ...
of the
electric car An electric car, battery electric car, or all-electric car is an automobile that is propelled by one or more electric motors, using only energy stored in batteries. Compared to internal combustion engine (ICE) vehicles, electric cars are quie ...
manufacturer Nio. In June 2021, '' Bloomberg Billionaires Index'' estimated Li's
net worth Net worth is the value of all the non-financial and financial assets owned by an individual or institution minus the value of all its outstanding liabilities. Since financial assets minus outstanding liabilities equal net financial assets, net ...
to be US$7.11 billion. Li co-founded and invested in over 40 companies in the internet and automotive industries.


Awards and honours

* GQ China Entrepreneur of the Year – 2017 * China Automobile Dealers Association Person of the Year – 2017 * 2017 Top 10 Economic Personages of China *
Forbes ''Forbes'' () is an American business magazine owned by Integrated Whale Media Investments and the Forbes family. Published eight times a year, it features articles on finance, industry, investing, and marketing topics. ''Forbes'' also r ...
Most Intriguing Newcomer in the Transportation Awards – 2020


Lihong Qin

Lihong Qin is a Chinese business executive. He is a co-founder and CEO of the electric car manufacturer Nio.


Kris Tomasson

Kris Tomasson is an American industrial designer and vice president of Design a
NIO
Early life and education Kris Tomasson was born in
New York New York most commonly refers to: * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States New York may also refer to: Film and television * ...
to Marlene and Helgi Tómasson. He studied transportation design at the Art Center College of Design in Pasadena, California, and graduated with honours as a Bachelor of Science (BS). Career After graduation, he worked as a designer in various companies, from 1992 to 1998 for the first time for BMW, then as ''design director, Innovation'' of the Arnell Group, for
The Coca-Cola Company The Coca-Cola Company is an American multinational beverage corporation founded in 1892, best known as the producer of Coca-Cola. The Coca-Cola Company also manufactures, sells, and markets other non-alcoholic beverage concentrates and syrups ...
(''Global Design Director''),
Gulfstream Aerospace Gulfstream Aerospace Corporation is an American aircraft company and a wholly owned subsidiary of General Dynamics. Gulfstream designs, develops, manufactures, markets, and services business jet aircraft. Gulfstream has produced more than 2,000 ...
, Ford and from April 2014 to May 2015 again for BMW, where he worked for the body design of the i-models was responsible. In June 2015, he moved from BMW to the Chinese start-up company Next EV. Nio has focused on the development and production of electric cars. The design studio where Tomasson is based is located in Munich/Bogenhausen. Kris has a number of patents for his designs.


Hui Zhang

Hui Zhang is vice president Nio Europe. He manages both the German and UK locations of the electric car manufacturer. Career After studying in Beijing and Utah, Hui Zhang completed his MBA in International Management at Pforzheim University of Applied Sciences in 2002. Initially, he worked in purchasing and supply chain management at VOITH AG in China and Germany. After positions a
KIEKERT AG
as Vice general manager and at Lotus as general manager from 2011, he was responsible for the Business Group Industry and Healthcare China a
Leoni AG
as a China Board Member from 2014 . Hui Zhang is Deputy Chairman of the Chinese Chamber of Commerce in Germany.


Motorsport


Formula E

The Nio team is one of the original
Formula E Formula E, officially the ABB FIA Formula E World Championship, is a Open-wheel car, single-seater auto racing, motorsport championship for electric cars. The series was conceived in 2011 in Paris by Fédération Internationale de l'Automobil ...
teams, originally competing under the name Team China Racing. Before the first season was completed, they rebranded as NEXTEV TCR. In this inaugural season, their main driver Nelson Piquet Jr. became the FIA Formula E Driver's Champion, after winning two races in
Long Beach Long Beach is a city in Los Angeles County, California. It is the 42nd-most populous city in the United States, with a population of 466,742 as of 2020. A charter city, Long Beach is the seventh-most populous city in California. Incorporated ...
and
Moscow Moscow ( , US chiefly ; rus, links=no, Москва, r=Moskva, p=mɐskˈva, a=Москва.ogg) is the capital and largest city of Russia. The city stands on the Moskva River in Central Russia, with a population estimated at 13.0 millio ...
. The team was only able to achieve fourth in the constructor's championship though, in part due to a rotating line-up of second drivers that didn't achieve as consistent level of success as Piquet. From season 2 onwards, Formula E opened up car development, with teams creating their own powertrains. Nio used their own design NEXTEV powertrain, but it saw a downturn in the team's performance for the constructor's championship, as they finished only 9th in season 2, 6th in season 3 and 8th in season 4. By this point, the team had morphed through NEXTEV, NEXTEV Nio until renamed simply Nio. Season 5 would see the team's meagre successes diminish further, as they languished 11th and last in the championship. For season 6 (2019–20) the team was sold on to Lisheng Racing and renamed Nio 333 Racing. For the first time since season 1, Nio did not provide their own powertrain for the car, instead using the previous year's Dragon powertrain. It was rebranded under Nio's name and they remained classified as a manufacturer. This didn't change the team's fortunes, as they would go on to have their worst ever season, with neither
Oliver Turvey Oliver Jonathan Turvey (born 1 April 1987) is a British professional racing driver, who most recently competed in Formula E, and is currently signed to McLaren as a test driver. He was a notable kart racer, with two national titles, and was the ...
nor Ma Qinghua being able to score any points in 2020. In season seven Nio improved marginally, as whilst Turvey and new arrival
Tom Blomqvist Tom Leonard Blomqvist (born 30 November 1993) is a New Zealand-based, Britain-born Swedish professional racing driver, and BMW Motorsport works driver, currently racing in the 2022 IMSA SportsCar Championship with Meyer Shank Racing. Blomqvi ...
amassed a total of 19 points throughout the campaign, the squad still remained in last place. Nio once again changed their driver line-up for the 2021–22 Formula E season, as Blomqvist made way for former
Red Bull Red Bull is a brand of energy drinks of Austrian company Red Bull GmbH. With 38% market share, it is the most popular energy drink brand as of 2019. Since its launch in 1987, more than 100 billion cans of Red Bull have been sold worldwide, incl ...
and Williams junior
Dan Ticktum Daniel Charles Anthony Ticktum (born 8 June 1999) is a British racing driver currently racing with the NIO 333 FE Team in the Formula E World Championship. Ticktum became a member of the Red Bull Junior Team in 2017. During his time with Red ...
.


World records

Nio set five records in their track-only EP9 for the fastest lap for an electric-powered car in the
Nürburgring Nordschleife The is a 150,000 person capacity motorsports complex located in the town of Nürburg, Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. It features a Formula One, Grand Prix race track built in 1984, and a long "North loop" track, built in the 1920s, around t ...
,
Circuit Paul Ricard The Circuit Paul Ricard () is a French motorsport race track built in 1969 at Le Castellet, Var, near Marseille, with finance from pastis magnate Paul Ricard. Ricard wanted to experience the challenge of building a racetrack. The circuit has ...
,
Circuit of the Americas Circuit of the Americas (COTA) is a Grade 1 FIA-specification motor racing track and facilities located within the extraterritorial jurisdiction of Austin, Texas, in the United States. The facility is home to the Formula One United States Gra ...
, and
Shanghai International Circuit The Shanghai International Circuit () is a motorsport race track, situated in the Jiading District, Shanghai. The circuit is best known as the venue for the annual Chinese Grand Prix which was hosted from 2004 to 2019 and was scheduled again fr ...
tracks.


Public listing

In Sep 2018, Nio listed on NYSE after raising about $1 billion selling American depositary shares at $6.26 apiece. The shares started trading under the symbol NIO. In 2018, while Nio was preparing for an IPO, the company told investors that they were building a new factory in Shanghai. Then in March 2019, Nio disclosed that the factory would never be built. According to former employees, construction had never started. Investors sued and accused Nio's promoters, which included Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs, of negligence in examining Nio's financial statements.


See also

* New energy vehicles in China * Byton *
Polestar Polestar is a Swedish automotive brand established in 1996 by Volvo Cars' partner Flash/Polestar Racing and acquired in 2015 by Volvo, which itself was acquired by Geely in 2010. It is headquartered in Torslanda outside Gothenburg, Sweden with ...
* Tesla, Inc. * XPeng


References


External links

* {{authority control Electric vehicle manufacturers of China Battery electric vehicle manufacturers Car brands Car manufacturers of China Multinational companies headquartered in China Vehicle manufacturing companies established in 2014 Chinese companies established in 2014 2018 initial public offerings Companies listed on the New York Stock Exchange Chinese brands Luxury motor vehicle manufacturers Sports car manufacturers