The Chinese group inaugurated its commercial space on one of Berlin’s most prestigious avenues, the Kurfürstendamm, with great fanfare.
The country of Volkswagen, Mercedes and BMW is the second European market where Nio is established, following Norway last year.
“By 2025, we will be present in 25 countries and regions”, said the general manager William Li in the German capital.
The group does not have a car manufacturing plant in Europe. Part of his concept is to develop a network of automated battery swapping stations. Instead of recharging vehicles, these stations allow empty batteries to be exchanged for new ones, saving charging time.
A first station has just opened in southern Germany, on the motorway between Munich and Stuttgart.
After a year of presence in Norway, Nio has sold only 750 vehicles.
Most “they will become, like Tesla, very big competitors of the German car manufacturers”, recently said Ferdinand Dudenhoefferan expert from the German Automotive Research Center (CAR) on the Chinese company.
The ET7 sedan marketed in Germany is sold for 448,000 yuan on the Chinese market (64,400 euros). Its price in Europe has not been communicated.
A sign that the German brands are taking the threat seriously, Audi, one of the Volkswagen group’s subsidiaries, filed a lawsuit once morest Nio in June, accusing it that the names of its ES6 and ES8 models are too similar to the names of its Audi S6 and S8.
Unlike the production of thermal cars, the Chinese manufacturers (BYD, Polestar, or even Wuling) have taken a step ahead in the electric market since the 2010s. They are now able to offer the European market mid-range models at attractive prices.
However, the approximately 80,000 Chinese cars sold in Europe in 2021 represent only a marginal share of the market on the old continent.
This year, Nio also plans to enter the Dutch, Swedish and Danish markets.
