Nio founders William Li, Qin Lihong and the CFO Stanley Qu are touring European operations this week, meeting with local teams and distributors as the Chinese electric-vehicle maker overhauls its expansion strategy in the region.
Daniel Jin, President of the sub-brand Firefly, was also part of the trip and delivered — together with the CEO William Li — a Firefly vehicle to a customer.
The management visited the company’s hub in Utrecht on Monday, where they met with customers and European distributors.
They’re scheduled to appear Tuesday at Nio House in Oslo, the company’s first European showroom that opened four years ago.
Both founders will hold a Q&A session with customers scheduled for 6:30 p.m. local time.
Nio Group has recently started operating in Belgium, Portugal, Greece, Hungary, and Austria.
Business Model Shift
The visit comes as the EV maker adopts a two-track European approach, maintaining its premium direct-sales model in Norway, Germany, the Netherlands and Sweden — markets it entered in 2021-2022 with flagship showrooms — while using third-party distributors for newer territories to conserve cash.
Denmark, where Nio never established a sales network, will transition to the distributor model alongside markets announced since June.
The shift aligns Nio with other Chinese EV makers entering Europe such as XPeng, BYD, Dongfeng, Voyah, and several others.
The last European visit by company leadership was in June, when President Qin hosted a Munich town hall with the European team days before announcing the new distribution approach.
Sales Performance
Nio‘s European sales remained modest in October, based on the official registration data released until Tuesday.
The main brand registered 31 vehicles in Norway in October, down from September’s 2025 high of 60 units, according to Elbilstatistikk.
In the Netherlands, Nio delivered 10 vehicles last month.
The Firefly sub-brand, positioned below $30,000 and unaffected by European Union tariffs in Norway, registered six units there and nine in the Netherlands in October.
Management Changes
CFO Stanley Qu replaced Steven Wei Feng in July 2024 after Feng resigned for personal reasons.
The executive also leads Nio Power, the company’s battery charging and swapping unit, a role he assumed in April.
EV exclusively reported that month revealed Nio Power’s European expansion had stalled, with sharp layoffs in the Power team and a marked slowdown in new station openings across all markets.
