NIO to Spin Off Battery Production Unit by Year-End

According to Reuters’ report on December 6, Chinese EV maker NIO is planning to separate its battery production unit as part of its strategy to become profitable, cut expenses, and boost efficiency. 

The emerging battery unit, managed by seasoned manufacturing engineers formerly employed by Apple and Panasonic, will pursue external investors following the potential spin-off, which could occur as soon as the end of this year. The valuation will be determined at a later stage, the sources told Reuters. 

NIO‘s CEO, Li Bin, said at the earnings call on Tuesday that the company will continue to conduct research and development on batteries. NIO has declined to comment on Reuters’ report. 

On December 6, NIO announced its third-quarter financial report, with a revenue of 19.066 billion yuan, compared to 13 billion yuan in the same period last year, and lower than the market expectation – 19.373 billion yuan. The net loss reached 4.557 billion yuan, a 10.8% increase in losses year-on-year.

During the earnings call, NIO said that its charging pile business is breaking even, and some investors are interested in independent financing for NIO Power. The possibility of independent financing for NIO Power in the future is not ruled out.

As of December 6, NIO has deployed 2,200 battery swap stations across China, including 695 high-speed swap stations, 3,485 charging stations, and 20,455 charging piles, with more than 960,000 third-party piles. 

In November of this year, NIO delivered 15,959 vehicles, a year-on-year increase of 12.6%. From January to November 2023, NIO delivered a total of 142,026 new vehicles, a year-on-year increase of 33.1%. NIO has delivered a total of 431,582 new vehicles.

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