Nio will begin construction of a dedicated battery research and development (R&D) base in Shanghai in the second half of 2026, according to a government-affiliated publication made public on Tuesday.
The disclosure appeared in an article published by a WeChat account linked to the Jiading district government.
Several automotive bloggers shared a screenshot of the piece on Weibo, drawing attention to a passage that outlined the scope and timeline of the project.
“Xingang and multiple other testing centers have established a comprehensive R&D and testing infrastructure,” the article read.
According to the post, “Nio‘s newly planned battery R&D base in Jiading will officially begin operations, with a focus on next-generation power battery development.”
“Construction is scheduled to start in the second half of this year,” it added, including that “once completed, the facility will include 31 lithium battery testing labs, one lithium-ion cell pilot line, and one battery pack assembly line.”
The account described the project as cementing what it called Nio‘s “dual-platform strategy combining ‘Anhui Manufacturing + Shanghai R&D.'”
In a separate caption at the bottom of the article, it added that Nio has delivered over 1,000 units of its ES9 SUV in Shanghai.
Shanghai Roots, Anhui Assembly
The company’s global headquarters are located in Shanghai, where its R&D operations have been concentrated since the early years.
However, Nio has since expanded its footprint well beyond the city.
Across China, the EV maker maintains R&D and production centers in Beijing, Hefei, Nanjing, Hangzhou, Wuhan and Shenzhen — in addition to Shanghai.
Hefei serves as the manufacturing hub, while Wuhan became the headquarters of Nio Power, the company’s energy division overseeing its charging and battery swap network.
The unit relocated there in mid-2025 following a 1.5 billion yuan ($209 million) strategic investment from the city government.
Internationally, Nio operates R&D and production centers in Oxford, Berlin, Munich, Budapest, Abu Dhabi, Singapore and San Jose.
Jiading, in northwest Shanghai, houses Nio‘s vehicle R&D headquarters, with multiple testing centers spanning a combined floor area of more than 60,000 square meters.
Manufacturing, however, sits roughly 231 miles (373 km) west in Hefei, the capital of Anhui province.
Nio operates three vehicle assembly plants in the city.
F1, the original factory in the Hefei Economic and Technological Development Zone, has been operational since 2018 and was initially run under a contract manufacturing partnership with state-owned Jianghuai Automobile Group.
In late 2023, after obtaining its own manufacturing qualification, Nio acquired key assets from JAC and transitioned to fully independent production.
The F2 plant, located in the Xinqiao NeoPark industrial zone, began production in September 2022.
F3, also situated in NeoPark, started operations in September 2025 with a single-shift capacity of 100,000 units per year.
Collectively, the three factories share a designed annual capacity of roughly 300,000 vehicles.
Nio set up its China headquarters in Hefei in 2020 after signing a framework agreement with the municipal government.
The arrangement provided funding support in exchange for deeper operational roots in the city.
A new 72,000-square-meter China headquarters building was approved for construction last year.
Battery Strategy and Road to Solid-State
The Jiading battery R&D base builds on groundwork laid earlier this year.
In March, the government of Jiading’s Anting town signed a cooperation agreement with Nio to locate the project in the district.
Around the same time, Nio registered a new wholly-owned subsidiary — Nio Battery Technology (Shanghai) Co Ltd — with a registered capital of 100 million yuan ($14.5 million).
The entity’s business scope covers battery sales, electronic specialty materials R&D, graphite and carbon products, and AI application software development.
Citing a person familiar with the matter, Chinese media outlet China Times reported in March that the subsidiary would focus on next-generation battery technologies, including solid-state cells that Nio expects to deploy at scale after 2027.
Nio has been working with multiple companies and research institutions on several technology paths, including oxide and sulfide chemistries.
The in-house push runs alongside a deepening supply relationship with CATL, the world’s largest battery manufacturer.
In January, Nio founder and CEO William Li and CATL chairman Robin Zeng met in Hefei and signed a five-year strategic cooperation agreement covering technology, ecosystem and market development.
CATL has supplied batteries for Nio since the original ES8 launched in 2018.
The battery maker also invested up to 2.5 billion yuan ($346 million) directly into Nio Power — the energy and battery-swap division — in March 2025.
At a CATL earnings briefing in April, a senior executive called Nio “an irreplaceable and important strategic partner.”
ES9 Ramp
The Jiading government article’s reference to the ES9 surpassing 1,000 deliveries in Shanghai aligns with the broader trajectory of the flagship SUV’s launch.
Nio launched the ES9 on May 27 at a starting price of 498,000 yuan ($73,500) with the battery included — 30,000 yuan below the pre-sale level.
Under Battery as a Service, the entry trim drops to 390,000 yuan ($57,500).
The model reached 10,000 cumulative deliveries in 30 days — a record for premium battery-electric vehicles priced above 500,000 yuan in China.
Nio delivered 40,597 vehicles in June, its strongest month of 2026, up 62.9% year-over-year.
