China’s EV startup NIO on track to sell 10,000 vehicles in 2018

According to an Automotive News China report, Electric-vehicle startup NIO is on target to sell 10,000 vehicles in 2018. The company launched its first product the seven-seat ES8 crossover, in June.

The company said that in November, it delivered 3,089 ES8s to the market, registering a 96 per cent increase from October 2018. The ES8 comes with a starting price of RMB 448,000 ($65,211). The November sales number brought total sales volume of the ES8 to 8,030 from June to November. 

From Dec. 1, Nio has started booking orders for its second EV model, the ES6, a five-seat crossover with a tentative starting price of RMB 370,000.  Both ES8 and ES6 are assembled at Jianghuai Automobile Co., a state-owned automaker in the east China city of Hefei. Nio signed a manufacturing contact with Jianghuai Automobile in 2015.

According to Nio, the 10,000th ES8 rolled off the production line at Jianghuai Automobile on November 27. Nio, was incorporated in 2014 backed by Chinese entrepreneur William Li and technology giant Tencent Holdings.

It is to be noted that Novelis, the world leader in aluminium rolling and recycling signed an agreement with NIO in March 2017 to provide innovative aluminium solutions for its upcoming premium electric vehicles. NIO would be using Novelis Advanz™ aluminum alloys to create a wide range of structural components and parts for its aluminium-intensive NIO electric SUV models to be launched in next five years. Supply for NIO would be coming from Novelis' Changzhou plant, China's first facility dedicated to manufacturing heat-treated automotive sheet.