Written by Cláudio Afonso | info@claudio-afonso.com | LinkedIn | Twitter
The EV maker NIO signed Friday an agreement with the Hungarian Government in order to set up its 10,000 square meters plant in the country, the first one outside China. The plant will serve as the “manufacturing, service and R&D center for the brand’s Power products and services in Europe with the main activities being production and after-sales service for battery switching stations, training of NIO employees and R&D in energy applications”, NIO said.
The plant will be located at Biatorbágy and is planned to produce 240 battery swap stations in this facility per year aiming to have 4,000 in operation worldwide by 2025, according to local media. NIO was represented by Europe VP Hui Zhang and NIO Communications Director in Europe, Florian Otto.
“Budapest-Shanghai online. Agreement finalised [with] NIO to set up its first European plant in Biatorbágy! The HUF 5.5 billion investment by the Chinese vehicle manufacturer will create hundreds of new jobs in the region, with a government grant of HUF 1.7 billion,” said Péter Szijjártó, Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade in Hungary.
“The NIO Power Europe Plant will play an important role in this with the construction of NIO Power Swap stations that will provide a solid base for innovative battery swapping and charging services,” NIO said in a statement.
Efforts are also being made to further accelerate the rollout of NIO Power in Europe and achieve even higher efficiency for the best ownership experience for European NIO users, the company added.
The project will cost around HUF 5.5 billion and will receive a government grant of HUF 1.7 billion to help create hundreds of new jobs. The hall could also be expanded with a research and development and training centre.
On July 21, NIO posted two job vacancies on LinkedIn for its Purchasing team in Hungary namely a Senior Buyer and a Indirect Spend Buyer. Both of them will have the responsibility of driving “procurement activities primarily in areas of plant related services as well as production material”.
As initially reported by EV on April 15, NIO opened a job vacancy for a Plant manager where it said, “With NIO Power products (Power Swap Station / Charging Pile) going to EU market, we are looking for an EU Plant Manager to work with NIO China team to establish a plant in EU”.
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Earlier today, the company’s senior vice president Zeng Shuxiang unveiled that NIO rolled out the first electric drive system C sample for the upcoming ET5 model at NEO Park. NIO VP also stated that the EV maker “is one of the very few companies in the world with a full-stack self-developed and manufactured electric drive system and the only automaker with independent forward R&D capabilities”.
At an event with NIO users held in Fuzhou, China, the CEO William Li said the company is making progress with the NIO phone business. According to the blogger 德卤爱开车, Li said the company aims to launch a new phone every year like Apple while assuming the biggest challenge is to create a mobile phone easy to use.
According to the several NPORT-P forms filed on Wednesday, Blackrock — the world’s largest investment manager — has been adding NIO shares over the last weeks/ months via iShares ETFs.
Written by Cláudio Afonso | info@claudio-afonso.com | LinkedIn | Twitter