EV Firm NIO Signs Deal for Phase II of Hefei Factory, Production to Start in 2024
Local Chinese authorities have announced that the Hefei Economic and Technological Development Area (Hefei ETDA) and domestic EV maker NIO have signed a new cooperation agreement on Tuesday. The partnership involves the second phase of a whole vehicle and key core components production project in “NeoPark,” an industrial site in Xinqiao, Hefei.
The project covers an area of 1,860 mu (306 acres). According to the agreement, NIO‘s new middle-to-high-end intelligent electric vehicles will be produced at the base, which is planned to be completed and put into production in 2024. At present, the core team of new products has been built up, and the first batch of products have entered the critical R&D stage.
NIO was established in November 2014. According to delivery data released by the company, in April, it delivered 5,074 intelligent electric vehicles, of which 693 units were ET7 models. By the end of April 2022, the car company had delivered a total of 197,912 intelligent electric vehicles.
On April 26, with a blue ET7 driving out of the inspection area, NIO’s 200,000th vehicle rolled off the assembly line at the Hefei manufacturing base. From May 2018 to April 2021, NIO achieved a leap from 10,000 to 100,000 units in three years. Now, it has achieved the second production of 100,000 units in just one year.
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In China, NIO plans to open no less than 100 more sales stores and more than 50 NIO service centers in 2022. NIO has increased its investment in independently developed whole stack technologies. In 2022, the firm’s R&D investment is estimated to double from that of last year, and the number of R&D personnel will reportedly increase to 9,000 by the end of the year.
In addition, NIO‘s global layout has accelerated. The company’s products and systematic services will be made available in Germany, the Netherlands, Sweden and Denmark this year.
