Chinese electric vehicle maker Nio is stepping up hiring as it prepares to bring its new factory in Hefei, Anhui province, online in September.
The third factory comes as the company aims to expand its production footprint to support rising volumes across its three brands.
Nio‘s new factory is located in Changfeng County, Hefei, and spans about 1,600 acres, equivalent to nearly 6.5 square kilometers.
For comparison, the company’s first plant — previously operated in partnership with JAC — is situated in the Hefei Economic and Technological Development Zone and covers roughly 1,095 acres.
The NeoPark Factory (F2), located in Xinqiao, extends across about 1,130 acres.
The EV maker has launched a recruitment drive for more than 200 manufacturing-related positions,as first reported by local media. The positions cover all three factories.
The roles include 100 production technicians, 100 logistics technicians, and 20 quality inspectors, covering stamping, body, painting and final assembly workshops, as well as warehouse management and inspection systems.
“All positions require acceptance of rotating night shifts and provide a standardized promotion pathway,” the job advertisement reads.
“During the internship, the comprehensive monthly salary reaches 4,000–5,500 yuan, and after conversion to full-time employment, the annual salary exceeds 80,000 yuan.”
Benefits listed include free meals, uniforms, accommodation in partner apartments, shuttle bus transport, pre-employment health checks and employer liability insurance.
The postings also noted that interns would be responsible for operating production equipment, conducting component inspections, and managing warehouse materials.
The recruitment push comes just weeks before Nio’s F3 factory begins operations.
Founder and CEO William Li first said last December that production at the site would start in the third quarter of 2025, and in early July confirmed that output would begin in September.
At the previous earnings call held in early June, he added that some of the production lines would operate on a two-shift schedule “when needed.”
Nio currently manufactures vehicles for its main brand and its two sub-brands, Onvo and Firefly, at two plants in Hefei.
Last year, Reuters reported, citing internal sources, that Nio had received approval for a third factory with a potential annual capacity of 600,000 units once fully built.
Nio later clarified that F3’s initial capacity would be about 100,000 units based on a single-shift schedule.
Li said late last year that Nio aims to deliver 440,000 vehicles in 2025 across its three brands, roughly double its 2024 total of 221,970 deliveries, which was up 38.7% year-on-year.
While acknowledging the goal as “challenging,” he described it as “reasonable.”
However, Nio delivered 135,167 vehicles in the first seven months of 2025 — only up 25.2% year over year.
Nio has been seeing strong early demand for new models.
Onvo’s L90 SUV is on track to surpass 10,000 units in August after deliveries started on the first day of the month.
Nio’s newly revamped ES8 has also seen strong demand, with presale prices starting at 418,800 yuan, or 308,800 yuan under the battery-as-a-service plan.
The company’s co-founder and president Lihong Qin said last Friday that the model recorded even higher pre-sales figures in the first hours after the event — without disclosing concrete numbers.
On Monday, Morgan Stanley said that pre-orders for Nio’s new ES8 SUV — which was unveiled last Thursday — may have already exceeded 30,000 units.
In a research note obtained by PriceTarget, analyst Tim Hsiao wrote that the firm’s checks suggested pre-orders “may have surpassed 30,000” by the weekend and were continuing to climb.
With the previous model launch — the six/seven-seat SUV L90 — the bank estimated in early July that Onvo’s L90 SUV had secured between 30,000 and 35,000 pre-orders within its first four days on sale.
US-listed shares of Nio closed 3.94% lower on Monday at $6.09, snapping a four-day winning streak. The stock has still doubled since touching a five-year low of $3.02 in April, when its mass-market brand Onvo sharply missed early sales targets.
