NIO (car company)

NIO (Chinese: 蔚来; pinyin: Wèilái) is a Chinese automobile manufacturer headquartered in Shanghai, specializing in designing and developing electric autonomous vehicles. The company is also involved in the FIA Formula E Championship, the first single-seater, all-electric racing series.

This article is about the electric vehicles company. For other uses, see NIO (disambiguation).
NIO Inc.
Public
Traded asNYSE: NIO
(American Depository Receipts)
ISINUS62914V1061 
IndustryAutomotive
FoundedNovember 2014 (2014-11)
FounderWilliam Li (Li Bin)
Headquarters
Shanghai
,
China
Number of locations
4
Area served
  • China
  • Germany
  • Hong Kong
  • United Kingdom
  • United States
Key people
Revenue US$720.1 million (2018)[1]
US$-1,395.6 million. (2018)[1]
US$-1,401.9 million (2018)[1]
Total assets US$2,740.5 million (2018)[1]
Total equity US$992 million (2018)[1]
Number of employees
Approx. 4,000 (2018)
DivisionsNIO Formula E Team
Chinese name
Simplified Chinese上海蔚来汽车有限公司
Traditional Chinese上海蔚來汽車有限公司
Business name
Simplified Chinese蔚来汽车
Traditional Chinese蔚來汽車
Literal meaningSky-Blue Coming Motor Vehicles
Websitenio.io

Overview

NIO was founded in November 2014 by William Li (Chinese: 李斌; pinyin: Lǐ Bīn), the Chairman of Bitauto and NextEV. After launch, several companies invested in NIO, including Tencent, Temasek, Baidu, Sequoia, Lenovo and TPG. Its first model, the NIO EP9 sports car, 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 DMV and it would begin testing on public roads under the "Autonomous Vehicle Tester Program" guidelines as part of its autonomous vehicle program. According to the company, it planned to launch vehicles with level-three and level-four autonomy.[2]

In May 2018, NIO opened its first battery swap station in the Nanshan District of Shenzhen, Guangdong, China, dubbed the "Power Swap Station".[3] Only batteries for ES8 cars would be available from this station.[4]

In September 2018, the company filed for a US$1.8 billion initial public offering on the New York Stock Exchange.[5]

In late April 2020, Nio announced ~$1B in new funding from a group of Chinese investors,[6] which was needed due to the company's struggles to sell its vehicles.[7] As part of the deal, Nio would transfer assets to a new subsidiary called Nio China, which will be headquartered in Hefei.[8]

Technology

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 updates throughout 2018 and 2019 has enhanced NIO Pilot with features such as lane keeping, adaptive cruise control, lane departure warning, automatic emergency braking, highway pilot, traffic Jam pilot, auto lane change and more.[9]

NIO Pilot sensor suite consists of a trifocal forward camera, 5 radars, 12 ultrasonic sensors and a driver monitor camera.[10] NIO was the first automaker to launch a car model utilizing Mobileye's EyeQ4 vision chip.[11]

In November 2019, NIO announced a partnership with Mobileye to develop a consumer car equipped with Mobileye's complete Level 4 self driving system that could be sold to consumers by 2022.[12]

Divisions

NIO Life

NIO Life is the company's clothing collection, made in collaboration with Hussein Chalayan.[13]

NIO Service

NIO Service is the company's network of service centers.[14]

NIO Power

NIO Power is the company's network of battery swap stations, power mobile, power home and super chargers. NIO has 122 Swap Stations around China, including 18 battery swap stations along the G4 Expressway in China.[15]

Vehicles

Current models
Model name Photo Specifications
EP9

Body style: Coupe

Class: Sports car

Doors: 2

Seats: 2

Motor: Indirectly water-cooled electric motors

Production: 2016–present

ES6

Body style: SUV

Class: (J) Mid-size

Doors: 5

Seats: 5

Battery: Lithium-ion battery

Production: 2019–present

ES8

Body style: SUV

Class: (J) Full-size

Doors: 5

Seats: 7

Battery: Lithium-ion battery

Production: 2018–present

Upcoming models
Model name Photo Specifications
EC6 [16]

Body style: SUV

Class: (J) Mid-size SUV

Doors: 5

Seats: 5

Battery: Lithium-ion battery

Production: 2020 (to commence)

EF9

Body style: Minivan

Class: (M) Minivan

Doors: 5

Seats: 7/8

Battery: Lithium-ion battery

Production: 2021 (to commence)

ES3

Body style: SUV

Class: (J) Subcompact

Doors: 5

Seats: 5

Battery: Lithium-ion battery

Production: 2021 (to commence)

ET5

Body style: Sedan

Class: (C) Compact

Doors: 4

Seats: 4

Battery: Lithium-ion battery

Production: 2020 (to commence)

ET7

Body style: Sedan

Class: (D) Mid-size

Doors: 4

Seats: 4

Battery: Lithium-ion battery

Production: 2020 (to commence)

Concept models
Model name Photo Specifications
ET Preview

Body style: Sedan

Class: (D) Mid-size

Doors: 4

Seats: 4

Battery: Lithium-ion battery

Production: 2019 (previewing upcoming model)

Eve

Body style: Station wagon

Class: (C) Compact autonomous vehicle

Doors: 2

Seats: 4

Battery: Lithium-ion battery

Production: 2017 (previewing a possible upcoming model)


Battery swapping
Battery swapping was first available on the NIO ES8

Unlike Tesla, which has tried battery swapping but has never deployed it on a large scale and relies instead on its Supercharger network, Nio has built a functioning network of 131 battery-swap stations that covers a few thousand kilometers of Chinese expressways.[17]

The first phase was installing 18 battery-swap stations in 14 different places along the G4 expressway. It is a 2,273-kilometre-long (1,412 mi) road connecting Beijing (the national capital) with the Pearl River Delta (world's largest urban area[18] where Hong Kong and Shenzhen are located). This was completed in November 2018.[15]

The second phase consisted of installing battery-swap stations in 8 locations along the G2 expressway, a 1,212-kilometre-long (753 mi) road connecting Beijing with Shanghai. This phase was completed in January 2019.[19]

Sales
Calendar year EP9 ES6[20] ES8[21] Total Notes
2016 0 0 0 0
2017 6 0 0 6
2018 10* 0 8,101 8,111* *Number not confirmed
2019 0 20,204 8,872 29,076
2020 0* 11,711* 2,458* 14,169* Sales drop in early 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic
*As of June 2020
Total 16* 31,915* 19,431* 51,356* *As of June 2020

Technologies

NOMI AI

NOMI, an artificial-intelligence technology, claimed to be the first in-car AI system in production vehicles. NOMI can pull up the cars navigation, control the music, and unique to NIO cars can take a selfie of the passengers in the cabin.[22]

Motorsport

Formula E
NIO have been participating in the ABB FIA Formula E since 2014, the inaugural season.

The NIO team is one of the original Formula E 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 and Moscow. 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 (2019-2020) 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. This was rebranded under NIO's name and they remain classified as a manufacturer.

World records

NIO set five records in their track-only EP9 for the fastest lap for an electric-powered car in the Nürburgring Nordschleife, Circuit Paul Ricard, Circuit of the Americas, and Shanghai International Circuit tracks.[23]

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See also

References
  1. "2018 Annual Report". www.nio.io. Retrieved 2019-05-04.
  2. "NIO - NextEV Issued Autonomous Vehicle Testing Permit in California". www.nio.io. Retrieved 2017-05-11.
  3. "NIO Opens First Battery Swap Station In Shenzhen". InsideEVs. Retrieved 2018-05-29.
  4. Mark Kane. "NIO announced that its first battery swap station - called the Power Swap Station - is now fully operational in the Nanshan Science and Technology Park, Shenzhen, China". Insidedeevs. Retrieved 9 May 2019.
  5. "Chinese electric carmaker filed for a $1.8B IPO in the US after selling 481 cars with 15000 backlog". The Hustle. 2018-08-15. Retrieved 2018-08-22.
  6. "NIO Announces Entry into Definitive Agreements for Investments in NIO China". Nio.com. 29 April 2020. Archived from the original on 1 May 2020.
  7. Szymkowski, Sean (29 April 2020). "Chinese EV maker Nio nabs $1B lifeline". CNET.com. Archived from the original on 1 May 2020.
  8. Sun, Yilei; Goh, Brenda (28 April 2020). "Nio shares surge after it secures $1 billion investment". reuters.com. Archived from the original on 1 May 2020.
  9. "NIO updates Level 2 advanced driving assistant system NIO Pilot". Green Car Congress. Retrieved 2020-02-12.
  10. "NIO Upgrades Autopilot System and Smart Operating System". EqualOcean. Retrieved 2020-02-12.
  11. "NIO Launches ES8 SUV with New User Experience". www.businesswire.com. 2017-12-18. Retrieved 2020-02-12.
  12. "Nio, Mobileye partner on self-driving consumer passenger cars in China". Reuters. 2019-11-05. Retrieved 2020-02-12.
  13. de Klee, Katie. "Nio and Hussein Chalayan launch clothing collection inspired by world's fastest electric car". De Zeen. Retrieved 2019-04-24.
  14. Lambert, Fred. "NIO opens its first electric car service center right next to Tesla's". Electrek. Retrieved 2019-04-24.
  15. Lambert, Fred. "Nio deploys 18 battery swap stations covering 2,000+ km expressway". Electrek. Retrieved 2019-04-24.
  16. "NIO Debuts New EV: NIO EC6 Is a Coupe SUV Based on ES6". ChinaPEV.com. 29 December 2019. Retrieved 29 December 2019.
  17. Hanley, Steve (31 May 2020). "NIO Completes More Than 500,000 Battery Swaps". CleanTechnica.
  18. World Bank Report Provides New Data to Help Ensure Urban Growth Benefits the Poor, The World Bank Group, 26 Jan 2015
  19. https://twitter.com/NIOGlobal/status/1085431718679592960
  20. "NIO ES6 China Auto Sales Figures". CarSalesBase.com. Retrieved 29 August 2019.
  21. "NIO ES8 China Auto Sales Figures". CarSalesBase.com. Retrieved 29 August 2019.
  22. Hyatt, Kyle. "This Chinese car's AI assistant can reincarnate your dead cat and order you sympathy gifts". Roadshow. Retrieved 2020-06-25.
  23. "Video: watch the Nio EP9's 6:45 'Ring record". www.topgear.com. Retrieved 2018-03-24.
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