Chinese premium EV maker Nio has denied that it plans to establish a factory in Europe as the company moves to expand its vehicle sales in the region beyond Norway.
Reports said Nio is planning a production base in Poland after a recruitment advert appeared on LinkedIn seeking an “EU plant operation manager.”
The ad said the manager’s key responsibilities would be to “establish EU plant, to make sure facilities, layout and capability are well designed and installed.” The manager would be based in Mazowieckie, Poland, the advert said.
The ad was posted by a Chinese recruitment consultant based in Shanghai and not by Nio directly.
In statement to Automotive News Europe, the automaker said that: “at present Nio is not planning a manufacturing site in Poland.”
Nio will begin sales in Sweden at the end of 2022, chief operating officer Lihong Qin told the Swedish Dagens Industri in a story published on Monday.
Sweden will become one of five European countries Nio will enter in 2022 following its European market debut in Norway in September.
Nio will begin sales in Germany next year, starting with its ET7 sedan. Nio currently sells the ES8 large SUV in Norway with plans to add the ET7 sedan, ES6 SUV and related coupe-styled EC6.
Nio is building four battery swap stations around the Norwegian capital of Oslo this year, with 12 more planned in other cities next year. The swaps are done in three minutes as a quicker alternative to charging.
Nio follows Tesla’s direct sales model in which customers buy the car online. It is also building multi-use showrooms in city centers called Nio House, with the first already open in Oslo. The 2,150 square-meter space has a cafe, lounge seating, children’s play area and conference rooms.
Success in Europe could prompt the company to produce locally, Qin told Automotive News Europe in 2020. “If we achieve very good sales in other regions then maybe we could consider local production in the future, but it’s still too early to say,” he said.
Nio currently builds cars in Hefei, China in partnership with automaker JAC.
Source: https://www.autonews.com/china/nio-denies-it-plans-open-factory-europe