China’s Nio to launch mass-market EV brand
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Chinese premium smart EV company Nio is developing a mass-market automotive brand offering prices lower than Tesla, its ceo William Li said on Thursday.
“The relationship between Nio and our new mass-market brand will be like that of Audi-Volkswagen and Lexus-Toyota,” the executive said during the company’s Q2 earnings call. “We want to provide better product and service at prices lower than Tesla Inc’s.”
Li didn’t disclose the price range of the vehicles to be produced by the new brand. Currently, the Nio line-up sale prices stand at roughly RMB 400,000 ($61,725), which is much higher than US EV maker prices.
The company has established a “core team” as the initial step for the strategic initiative, Li says, adding that the new brand won’t compete with Wuling Hong Guang MINI EV. This micro electric car produced by the JV between GM and SAIC Motor starts at RMB 28,000.
Nio’s Q2 deliveries increased 111.9% year-on-year to 21,896 units, despite the record-high quarterly deliveries, the volume was only 9.2% higher than in Q1 2021, Kallanish notes.
“While the global supply chain still faces uncertainties, we have been working closely with out partners to improve the overall supply chain production capacity. Encouraged by the growing user demand, we remain committed to further expanding our power network, increasing our service and sales coverage, and more importantly, accelerating our production and technology development,” says the ceo.
Li reveals plans for Nio to launch three new EVs based on a new platform in 2022, including the ET7 sedan.
“As the EV adoption begins to reach a tipping point worldwide, we believe it is imperative to speed up the launch of new products to provide more premium smart EV offerings with superior holistic services to the growing user base in the global market,” he adds.
The carmaker posted a net loss attributable to shareholders of RMB 659.3 million, which is an improvement compared to a loss of RMB 4.87 billion in the previous quarter and a loss of RMB 1.20 billion in the same period last year.
Gabriela Farhangi UK