Nio’s soft-sell to shake up Europe’s premium EV market

Aim for top quality products and a great customer experience, and the sales will follow. That’s the thinking of Nio’s founders. The Chinese electric vehicle (EV) start-up has been slowly building its presence at home over the past few years and in Q2 2022 led the sales charts among domestic EV start-ups in its home market. But China is just the beginning as Nio has its eye on a global footprint. The team draws on individuals from more than 40 different countries and regions across the world, and by 2025 it wants to have a presence in 25 countries.

At the same time,  China and its notorious air quality issues were central to William Li’s initial vision. Founder and Chief Executive Li is often referred to as China’s Elon Musk, and has a similar background as an internet entrepreneur. Looking out of his living room window one November day in 2014, he was dismayed to realise he couldn’t see the building across the way due to China’s thick smog. Nine months later, Nio was founded and work to flesh out an eco-friendly, customer centric business plan had begun. “That was the beginning of our story,” Li told media at the Nio Berlin ‘A New Horizon’ launch event.

The horizon is highly symbolic for the company and is a central feature in the brand logo. Here, the arch represents the horizon and an upside down ‘v’ beneath it the road leading there. “The horizon always symbolises hope and a new beginning,” explained Li.