EV Firm NIO Manufactures 200,000th Car
Chinese new energy vehicle company NIO announced Tuesday that its 200,000th vehicle has rolled off the production line at its Hefei manufacturing base. From May 2018 to April 2021, it took NIO three years to bring the total mass production of high-end smart electric vehicles from 10,000 to 100,000 units. The second 100,000 units took the company only one year.
NIO expects its R&D investment to more than double in 2022 compared to that of 2021, and the number of R&D personnel will increase to 9,000 by the end of the year. The firm’s second production base, located in the Hefei Xinqiao Smart Electric Vehicle Industrial Park, is progressing smoothly and is planned to be officially put into production in the third quarter of this year.
In addition, NIO‘s global layout has accelerated. The company’s products and system-wide services will officially arrive in Germany, the Netherlands, Sweden and Denmark this year.
On Monday, about 25% of the employees of NIO’s Auto Tech Research Center in Shanghai returned to work following citywide pandemic-induced lockdowns. Those staff members that have returned will be managed in a closed on-site loop to prevent potential infections. The town of Anting in Shanghai, where the plant is located, set up a team to provide them with regular nucleic acid COVID detection services.
On April 9, NIO announced the suspension of vehicle production. Because of the pandemic, NIO‘s supply chain partners in Jilin, Shanghai and Jiangsu stopped production one after another. The parts inventory was exhausted and it had to stop production.
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According to data released by the company, in March 2022, NIO delivered 9,985 new cars, a year-on-year increase of 37.6%. In the first quarter of 2022, it delivered a total of 25,768 new cars, an increase of 28.5% year-on-year, and maintained positive growth for eight consecutive quarters. In addition, the firm’s electric flagship sedan ET7 started delivery, and 163 units had been delivered by the end of March.
However, in the first three months of this year, NIO‘s monthly sales volume ranked below the top three leading new car-making companies. In addition, compared with these companies, which include Li Auto and XPeng, NIO‘s sales growth is obviously weaker.
