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.
Public | |||||||||
Traded as | NYSE: NIO (American Depository Receipts) | ||||||||
ISIN | US62914V1061 | ||||||||
Industry | Automotive | ||||||||
Founded | November 2014 | ||||||||
Founder | William Li (Li Bin) | ||||||||
Headquarters | , China | ||||||||
Number of locations | 4 | ||||||||
Area served |
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Key people | |||||||||
Revenue | |||||||||
Total assets | |||||||||
Total equity | |||||||||
Number of employees | Approx. 4,000 (2018) | ||||||||
Divisions | NIO 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 | ||||||||
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Business name | |||||||||
Simplified Chinese | 蔚来汽车 | ||||||||
Traditional Chinese | 蔚來汽車 | ||||||||
Literal meaning | Sky-Blue Coming Motor Vehicles | ||||||||
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Website | nio.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 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 Doors: 4 Seats: 4 Battery: Lithium-ion battery Production: 2020 (to commence) | ||
ET7 |
Body style: Sedan Doors: 4 Seats: 4 Battery: Lithium-ion battery Production: 2020 (to commence) |
Concept models
Model name | Photo | Specifications |
---|---|---|
ET Preview |
Body style: Sedan 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
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* | 1,493* | 105* | 1,598* | Sales drop in early 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic *As of January 2020 |
Total | 16* | 21,697* | 17,078* | 38,791* | *As of January 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 first joined the Formula E championship series in its inaugural 2014–2015 season with their counterpart formerly known as China Racing Formula E Team. For the season, the team had Ho-Pin Tung and Charles Pic drive the #88 car, and Brazilian driver Nelson Piquet Jr. drive the #99 car. They team went on to win the inaugural FIA Formula E Drivers' Championship in July 2015 with Nelson Piquet Jr., and also winning two races, the 2015 Long Beach ePrix and the 2015 Moscow ePrix.
The second season in the Formula E, allowed teams to be able to develop new powertrains for the season. The team used its own NextEV chassis and powertrains for the season.
From the inaugural season of the series to present, NextEV has not won a Constructors' Championship yet and has yet to win one, but has won a Drivers' Championship, and two races, the 2015 Long Beach ePrix and the 2015 Moscow ePrix, both races from the 2014–2015 Formula E season. NIO secured the inaugural FIA Formula E Drivers's Championship in July 2015.
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]
See also
References
- "2018 Annual Report". www.nio.io. Retrieved 2019-05-04.
- "NIO - NextEV Issued Autonomous Vehicle Testing Permit in California". www.nio.io. Retrieved 2017-05-11.
- "NIO Opens First Battery Swap Station In Shenzhen". InsideEVs. Retrieved 2018-05-29.
- 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.
- "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.
- "NIO Announces Entry into Definitive Agreements for Investments in NIO China". Nio.com. 29 April 2020. Archived from the original on 1 May 2020.
- Szymkowski, Sean (29 April 2020). "Chinese EV maker Nio nabs $1B lifeline". CNET.com. Archived from the original on 1 May 2020.
- 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.
- "NIO updates Level 2 advanced driving assistant system NIO Pilot". Green Car Congress. Retrieved 2020-02-12.
- "NIO Upgrades Autopilot System and Smart Operating System". EqualOcean. Retrieved 2020-02-12.
- "NIO Launches ES8 SUV with New User Experience". www.businesswire.com. 2017-12-18. Retrieved 2020-02-12.
- "Nio, Mobileye partner on self-driving consumer passenger cars in China". Reuters. 2019-11-05. Retrieved 2020-02-12.
- de Klee, Katie. "Nio and Hussein Chalayan launch clothing collection inspired by world's fastest electric car". De Zeen. Retrieved 2019-04-24.
- Lambert, Fred. "NIO opens its first electric car service center right next to Tesla's". Electrek. Retrieved 2019-04-24.
- Lambert, Fred. "Nio deploys 18 battery swap stations covering 2,000+ km expressway". Electrek. Retrieved 2019-04-24.
- "NIO Debuts New EV: NIO EC6 Is a Coupe SUV Based on ES6". ChinaPEV.com. 29 December 2019. Retrieved 29 December 2019.
- Hanley, Steve (31 May 2020). "NIO Completes More Than 500,000 Battery Swaps". CleanTechnica.
- World Bank Report Provides New Data to Help Ensure Urban Growth Benefits the Poor, The World Bank Group, 26 Jan 2015
- https://twitter.com/NIOGlobal/status/1085431718679592960
- "NIO ES6 China Auto Sales Figures". CarSalesBase.com. Retrieved 29 August 2019.
- "NIO ES8 China Auto Sales Figures". CarSalesBase.com. Retrieved 29 August 2019.
- Hyatt, Kyle. "This Chinese car's AI assistant can reincarnate your dead cat and order you sympathy gifts". Roadshow. Retrieved 2020-06-25.
- "Video: watch the Nio EP9's 6:45 'Ring record". www.topgear.com. Retrieved 2018-03-24.
External links
- Business data for NIO Inc.: