This year, the young brand NIO has doubled its sales in China, its home market. Even though the brand suffered a series of economic difficulties in the past that put its viability in question, today, the startup’s health is good, which has led its leaders to consider its international expansion.
NIO has confirmed that one of the first markets it will enter will be Europe and the US, as the company does not want to lag behind other compatriots such as Aiways, BYD, SAIC (MG, Maxus …), or Xpeng. Initially, the landing of the company will take place during the second half of next year.
The NIO expansion roadmap, called “Marco Polo,” sets the goal of having achieved annual sales of 7,000 electric cars in foreign markets by 2022. The first models of the brand to arrive will be the well-known ES6 and ES8 (an E-SUV and an F-SUV, respectively), although we can not lose sight of the attractive EC6, the “coupe” variant of the first of them.
The first foreign country where NIO will sell its cars will be Denmark; Specifically, the firm wants to settle in Copenhagen, taking advantage of the fact that the local government wants to ban the sale of gasoline and diesel cars from 2023. Also, the commercial port of the city will facilitate imports to the company.
NIO is unlikely to export its network of battery exchange stations to the European market, a solution that has met with impressive success in China. To date, NIO has already completed more than half a million operations of this type in China.
However, NIO’s great asset in the US and Europe will be the use of a new battery with a capacity of 150 kWh that will allow the manufacturer to offer a range much higher than that achieved with its current packs of 70 kWh, 84 kWh, and 100 kWh. According to the company’s estimates, its models will exceed 550 miles of range with these batteries.