Tesla deal saved Nio

A deal with Tesla saved Chinese competitor Nio in 2019, as the Nio CEO has revealed in an interview. And the deal came in handy for both sides.

The deal involved a press line for production: Nio had ordered the expensive equipment for a whole plant with a delivery time of 18 months at the beginning of 2018 – at that time, the automaker was still planning its own factory in Shanghai. In March 2019, however, the company abandoned these plans – when the plant was to be delivered in mid-2019, Nio no longer needed it. When it was already waiting at customs to be picked up, Nio was short of money.

Tesla, on the other hand, had overcome its crisis after the Model 3 ramp-up in Fremont and wanted to expand quickly in China. The capital was there to build Gigafactory 3, and Tesla was in a hurry. So Nio sold the plant material to Tesla, which, according to Li, got the machines about six months earlier as a result than if it had ordered it itself. So the MiC Model 3s are being built in part with equipment that was intended for Nio.

According to Li, Nio benefited twice from the deal: First, in the short term, through the cash injection. In the long term, the rapid Tesla launch in China has boosted the stock market’s confidence in electric cars, which has helped the entire industry and Nio.

weixin.qq (original source in Chinese)