NIO Gets Approval to Build Third Plant in China

TapTechNews June 5th, according to Reuters, three people familiar with the matter revealed that NIO has been approved to build its third plant in China. The approved production capacity of this plant is 600,000 units, and the total production capacity of the three plants will increase to 1 million units, almost on par with the scale of Tesla's Shanghai plant (1.1 million units).

Anonymous sources said that NIO, which is the eighth-largest electric vehicle manufacturer in China by sales, has started building the third plant, namely the F3 plant, but it is not clear when this plant will start large-scale production.

People familiar with the matter added that the F3 plant is located in Huainan City, Anhui Province, and will mainly produce vehicles for NIO's sub-brand "ONVO Ledao".

NIO told Reuters that the company has started building its third plant and the initial production capacity will reach 100,000 units. The expansion plan is aimed at meeting the growing demand for NIO and Ledao brand vehicles. "The production capacity of our existing plants is not enough to meet the market demand. There is no situation of excess production capacity in NIO."

When asked whether the F3 plant will later increase the production capacity to 600,000 units, NIO did not respond.

The first vehicle of NIO's sub-brand Ledao, the L60, has started pre-sale in May this year. It is positioned as a family intelligent electric medium-sized SUV, with a starting price of $31,990 (219,900 yuan).

TapTechNews also found that the third manufacturing base branch of NIO Automobile Technology (Anhui) Co., Ltd. was established on May 14th, and the person in charge is Qin Lihong, the co-founder and president of NIO.