Nio Formula E race car, EP9, ES8 and Eve concept car
Chinese electric car startup Nio on Monday filed for a $1.8 billion initial public offering with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The company plans to list its shares on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker symbol NIO, and at $1.8B it would make the listing the biggest for a Chinese automaker in the United States.
Nio has just introduced its first volume vehicle on the Chinese market in the form of the Tesla Model X-rivaling ES8, but the long-term plan is to offer a full portfolio and this will require serious funding. The next model will be a small SUV called the ES6. It will launch in China by the end of the year, Reuters reported Tuesday.
Nio has so far delivered less than 500 examples of its ES8 which retails for about $65,000, but the company has orders for 17,000 on its books, it said in the filing. Nio also said that it incurred a net loss of $502.6 million in the first six months of 2018 on revenues of $6.95 million in revenues.
2018 Nio ES8
Nio was founded in 2014 by entrepreneur William Li, originally as NextEV. In its last round of funding it managed to raise $1 billion from several sources including Chinese investment giant Tencent. While Nio is currently focused on the Chinese market, it plans to expand elsewhere, including in the United States where it has already established a local division.
The company is also working on self-driving technology, which it hopes to have ready at Level 4 capability by around 2020.
Nio is among a growing number of electric car startups either based in China or backed by Chinese interests that have sprung up in recent years. Others with serious backing include names like Byton, Detroit Electric, Faraday Future, Hybrid Kinetic, Lucid, WM Motor Technology and Xpeng.
