NIO Could Enter Battery Build Race, Sources Claim

Paul Myles

TU-Editor

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24th February 2023

BEV maker NIO is said to be planning to build its first automotive battery plant to supply cylindrical cells similar to those used by BMW and Tesla.

Two sources have told Reuters that the move is designed to reduce the automaker’s reliance of its current supplier CATL. The pant could be seen in line with NIO’s expansion plans both in China and abroad with the company already planning a factory in the neighboring city of Chuzhou to make budget BEVs to sell into the European market.

The new battery plant could have an annual capacity to produce 40 GWh of batteries, which can power about 400,000 units of long-range BEVs. Possible location could be next to its main manufacturing hub in Hefei city, in eastern China’s Anhui province.

NIO’s founder and chairman, William Li, had in June said that the company would start making 800-volt lithium-ion battery packs, which recharge faster, in the second half of 2024, as part of a plan similar to Tesla’s to use a combination of self-produced and externally sourced batteries in the long run.

— Paul Myles is a seasoned automotive journalist based in Europe. Follow him on Twitter @Paulmyles_