NBA star and Boston Celtics forward Jaylen Brown visited Chinese electric vehicle maker Nio during his Asia Tour, as he promotes his new sneaker brand ‘741.’
Brown, who was named 2024 NBA Finals MVP, was welcomed at the company’s Hangzhou showroom — Nio House, as they are known — as part of his promotional trip across Asia, which also includes stops in Seoul, Shanghai, and Philippines.
After arriving by plane in Hangzhou, the 28-year-old was picked up at the airport in a Nio ET9 , the brand’s four-seat flagship executive sedan that began deliveries in March and is so far only available in the Chinese market.
At the showroom, Brown was photographed sitting in a Nio ES8 as staff introduced him to the new sport utility vehicle.
“NBA Superstar and former NBA Finals MVP, Jalen [Jaylen] Brown visited Hangzhou NIO House yesterday and test drove the all new flagship ES8,” Nio’s head of the US market Ganesh Iyer wrote on LinkedIn on Tuesday.
“He praised the towering 2 meters long ES8. JB visited one of the power swap stations as well and experienced Nio’s proprietary and innovative power swap! He wanted to bring the power swap station and the ES8 to the US!”
In a video shared on Chinese social media, Brown said: “China has some amazing technology […] it would be great to take one of these vehicles to trial in the US.”
He added: “[…] stream, Apple TV… I stream now so I can stream live in the vehicle […] never have to go the gas station.”
Below is the video shared on Chinese social media.
Brown’s visit coincides with the ramp-up of Nio’s ES8 sport utility vehicle (SUV), which the company has begun shipping to more than 300 showrooms across China.
The model is following the same staged launch strategy used last month for its Onvo L90.
A pre-launch event is scheduled for Thursday, August 21, with pre-orders opening ahead of the vehicle’s official unveiling at Nio’s annual event in the second half of September.
