Gov. Officials and leaders of Anhui Province and Hefei City attended the signing ceremony of a major industrial project concentration (cloud) contract and the launching of JAC-NIO EC6 mass production project on February 25 in Hefei. According to agreement, NIO’s China headquarter will be moved to Hefei China where it is also the HQ of JAC Motors. According to informed sources, NIO Automobile may also participate in the mixed-ownership reform of JAC Motors.
The NIO Automobile China headquarters project will include moving its headquarters to Hefei from Shanghai International Automobile City; the creation of R & D, sales, and production bases; and the establishment of a headquarters operating system in Hefei as the center. Project planned financing of 14.5 billion yuan (~US$2 billion) which will be allocated for the company’s R & D, market system and operations; among them, 1 billion yuan (~US$142 million) will go towards the building of the headquarters and R & D base while 1.5 billion yuan(~US$213 million) is earmarked for a second production base.
NIO China expects revenue of 14.8 billion yuan in 2020 (total lists 3 models), 120 billion yuan in 2024 (lists 6-8 models), total revenue of 420 billion yuan from 2020 to 2025, and NIO plan to list in China’s Sci-Tech innovation board (STAR Market) before 2025.
NIO China have bold plans for the future with plans of setting up a leading enterprise with a production value of 100 billion yuan in Hefei in the next five years. Also included in its plans are the hastening of development of Hefei new energy vehicle clusters as well as taking the lead in the Anhui new energy vehicle industry.
However, NIO Automobile is also troubled by the lack of independent automobile production qualifications, it can only rely on JAC automobile OEM production. According to the statistics of trams, as of January this year, there were 33,728 vehicles produced and delivered from JAC NIO Hefei plant. ranked first in Chinese EV startups
On its own, JAC Motors has solid credentials, having accumulated 11,678 authorized patents by 2019, including 1,437 invention patents, to become the first domestic automobile company to surpass the 10,000 marks in patents. For a decade, JAC has also made breakthroughs in battery thermal management and intrinsic safety management technologies in the field of future-oriented new energy.
However, the momentum of JAC New Energy slowed down in mid-2019 with sales of its passenger cars in the second half of 2019 at only 1,200 units.
The transfer of NIO Automobile China to Hefei bodes well not just for the city but also to the local automobile industry. The new headquarters will be located next door to JAC Motors, a move that is sure to further spur competitiveness on both NIO and JAC.
