The Chinese one Electric carAccording to insiders, manufacturer Nio is considering distribution through dealers to expand its European business. The company wants to boost sales, even if electric cars are out China could be subject to market hurdles such as tariffs, three people familiar with the matter told Reuters on Wednesday.
Nio is one of the Chinese car manufacturers that is already present in Europe. Nio currently operates six branches in Germany, Norway, Sweden, Denmark and the Netherlands. There are 137 “Nio Houses” worldwide, as the branches in central urban locations are called. The manufacturer operates everything on its own.
Nio has so far relied primarily on car subscriptions, leasing and direct sales in the European market. The brand originally wanted to only offer its vehicles in Europe by subscription. After numerous interested parties expressed their displeasure about this, Nio decided at the end of November last year to also offering its models for sale in Germany, Denmark and Sweden
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Cheap electric car “Firefly” is scheduled to come to Europe in 2025
Now the next, even more fundamental change in course could be coming. According to the Reuters report, Nio is exploring which retailers in the most important European markets could be considered as partners. The focus would be on sales networks for vehicles from the Nio brand and the “Firefly” project, an affordable electric car brand that the Chinese car manufacturer plans to export to Europe from 2025.
With the change in strategy, Nio is obviously reacting to disappointing sales figures, writes Reuters. The European market has its “peculiarities,” noted one of the insiders. In Germany, according to the Federal Motor Transport Authority, the brand put just 885 new cars on the road in the first nine months of the year.
Nio currently loses $35,000 on every car sold
The “New York Times”
Most recently reported that Nio only sold an average of 8,000 vehicles worldwide in the second quarter. According to the report, the company accumulated a loss of $835 million between April and June alone – which equates to a loss of $35,000 per car sold.
Nio puts a lot of money into its “houses” in prime inner-city locations. The ramp-up of highly automated production is also likely to be expensive. Nio has invested large sums in robots, so that only 30 technicians are employed per factory, but they can produce up to 300,000 motors for electric cars there every year.
The fact that Nio can continue to research and produce despite the high losses – 11,000 employees are employed in the R&D area alone – is thanks not least to high government subsidies that other Chinese electric car manufacturers also receive, according to the “New York Times”. . Competitors BYD That’s why it’s over in less than 20 years World market leader for electric cars
brought and has become a real danger to European manufacturers.
Government subsidies for Chinese manufacturers have now become a political issue. The European Union is examining whether China may be violating European competition law with its subsidies. “The price of these cars is artificially depressed by huge government subsidies – this distorts our market,” said EUCommission President Ursula von der Leyen recently. That is not acceptable. World markets would be flooded with cheaper Chinese electric cars. It is still unclear whether the investigation will result in punitive tariffs for Chinese cars.