NIO CEO William Li: NIO Phone Values Connection and Collaboration with Vehicles

A few days ago, William Li, CEO of Chinese automaker NIO Inc., revealed that the NIO Phone, the company’s self-developed smartphone brand, will launch new products and start delivery in the third quarter of this year. During a media communication meeting held on April 10, Li once again talked about the NIO Phone.

LI said that making smartphones is much easier than making cars, and he didn’t spend much time on the mobile business, mainly addressing the design of the phone. In addition, Li also stated that when NIO makes phones, it focuses on how to connect and interact with NIO cars. He believed that NIO‘s focus was to make a phone that matches NIO cars best in terms of design and connectivity experience.

It’s worth mentioning that during this communication meeting, Li himself used an iPhone 14 Pro or iPhone 14 Pro Max that has a Dynamic Island feature. A Shanghai subsidiary of NIO has previously applied for registration of “NIO PHONE” trademark under the category of scientific instruments, which is currently pending approval.

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William Li had already revealed last July that the company was advancing into the mobile business. At last December’s “NIO Day 2022” event, he reiterated that the company was already working on its own smartphone model and planned to release one new model every year as Apple does. However, he admitted that NIO cannot yet compare to a mobile phone company that sells 100 million units annually, but added: “Making a phone is not difficult,” the challenge is “making a good phone”.

Li mentioned how important the synergy between cars and phones has become. He added that he would be happy if half of NIO users buy NIO Phones. Car users feel less pressure when switching to the same brand of mobile phone, while for mobile phone users who want to switch to the same brand of car, Li thought only Apple could achieve this.

In March 2023, NIO delivered 10,378 new vehicles, an increase of 3.9% year-on-year. Among them were 3,203 high-end smart electric SUVs and 7,175 high-end smart electric sedans. In the first quarter of 2023, NIO delivered a total of 31,041 new vehicles with a year-on-year growth rate of 20.5%. As of now, NIO has delivered a total of 320,597 new cars.