Written by Cláudio Afonso | LinkedIn | X
As the provisional extra tariffs on China-made electric vehicles prepare to be confirmed, EV makers have been adjusting their European expansion plans.
The Shanghai-based EV maker Nio will face tariffs of 21.3 per cent after the European Commission raised them last month from 20.8 per cent for cooperating companies. So far, Nio has not increased its prices in Europe, although it is evaluating its decision.
Nio expanded to Norway in 2021 and to four other European markets in late 2022. If in late May, amid a visit to Europe, Nio Founder and CEO William Li stated that the brand would “probably” expand to the UK in 2025, the current European plan is now to “focus on the existing” markets.
“So we will focus on the existing five European markets that we have already started. We also know that to establish Nio, such a premium brand in the European market, will also take a longer time and we are very patient with that,” Li stated on the earnings conference call.
In mid-June, the former Nio country manager for the UK market Matt Galvin announced he would join the Geely-backed brand Polestar as the Managing Director for the UK and Ireland.
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Until now, it was not announced a new lead for the UK market to replace the executive. Galvin initially joined Nio in September 2022, where he was responsible for establishing and launching the brand’s UK operations, according to his LinkedIn profile.
In March 2023, Galvin had expanded his responsibilities to include Head of European Sales, overseeing business operations across Norway, Sweden, Denmark, the Netherlands, and Germany.
Nio’s chief executive guaranteed that Nio is still investing in Europe mentioning the opening of a new showroom in Amsterdam last June and the continued deployment of new battery swap stations over the last months.
“But in the meantime, it doesn’t mean that we have stopped our activities there. Earlier this year, we have just opened our Nio House in Amsterdam, and we are still installing and deploying our power swap stations in Europe. So we will still keep the same plan,” Li stated o
As of today, Nio has 54 stations throughout its European markets with most of them (36) being located in Germany and Norway. The Netherlands has ten while Sweden has seven and Denmark only one.
Written by Cláudio Afonso | LinkedIn | X
