Nio is eyeing the long-term potential for humanoid robots to adopt its battery swapping technology, though founder and Chief Executive Officer William Li said the company remains focused on executing its current EV-focused strategy.
Although the company is not among the Chinese carmakers developing a humanoid robot — like XPeng or Chery — Nio‘s founder is not ignoring the robotics industry.
“I’m more interested in whether any company wants to adopt our chips, or if one day humanoid robots design swappable-battery structures compatible with Nio‘s system,” Li said in a roundtable with local media on Wednesday.
Licensing of In-House Developed Chip
The chief executive confirmed on Tuesday’s earnings conference call that the company is working with partners to license its proprietary autonomous driving chip to external customers from different industries.
“(…) We have announced a partnership where we are going to share our chip solution and the technologies with more industry players, both from the automotive as well as from the non-automotive industry, as we do see a good potential of applying this high computing power resonant chip on different types of devices, for example, on robots,” Li stated.
The EV maker established earlier this month a chip-focused joint venture with OmniVision and Axera with a registered capital of 100 million yuan.
Later in the call, Nio‘s CEO said the company is “leveraging our partners of this joint venture to sell our chip and also our IC [integrated circuit] design capabilities to other clients and also potential users.
Focus on Short Term Targets
On Wednesday’s media roundtable, Li cautioned against pursuing robotics opportunities prematurely, saying the company must remain disciplined despite the sector’s growth potential.
“Robotics is undeniably a major future market, but that does not mean we should pursue it today,” Li said.
“All of that is premature. Our focus is execution,” the chief executive added, as the company’s main focus is reaching non-GAAP net profit in the fourth quarter of 2025.
“People should not worry about Nio lacking imagination — the concern is too much imagination. We must stay grounded,” he added.
The company reaffirmed on Tuesday its goal of reaching non-GAAP net profit in the fourth quarter and posting its first full-year profit in 2026.
Li doubled down on the target despite the EV maker announcing it was lowering its fourth quarter goal from 150,000 units to a range of 120,000-125,000.
Nio’s Battery Swap Network
The Chinese EV maker operates the world’s largest battery swap network for electric vehicles, with stations that allow drivers to exchange depleted batteries for fully charged ones in about three minutes.
As of Thursday, the company had 3,586 stations across China and 60 in Europe, down from 61 after it closed its only station in Denmark — as exclusively reported by EV.
After ending 2024 with 3,000 battery swap stations, the EV maker aimed to install another 2,000 this year alone.
As of November 27, fewer than 600 stations were opened year to date.
However, the target was then cut to a range of 1,800-2,000. In September, William Li admitted it wouldn’t be met as the company prepares to launch its fifth generation stations early next year in China.
