China-based electric vehicle (EV) manufacturer NIO could be preparing to launch in U.S. markets mid-decade, as noted in a rumor surfacing this week.
NIO may enter the U.S. market by 2025 and establish a battery swap station as soon as November, according to two people familiar with the matter in a report from Eletric Vehicles shared on Sunday.
While the validity of the claims is not yet clear, the report says NIO will build its first swap station behind its San Jose, California headquarters as a testing unit for the technology. At the present time, NIO has four ES8 models testing on roads in San Jose.
NIO CEO William Li visited the company’s U.S. headquarters and autonomous driving R&D center over the weekend, as shown in a photo shared by an employee.
NIO’s First Battery Swap Station Built with Shell Goes Live https://t.co/n4K8RjZxHV
— TeslaNorth.com (@RealTeslaNorth) August 1, 2022
A report in May showed that NIO was hiring employees for an upcoming U.S. plant with several job listings that were seemingly related to the rumored facility surfacing on the Chinese company’s website.
NIO hit 10 million battery swaps in July, and the company said that it was averaging roughly one swap every 28 seconds at the time.
In June, NIO announced plans to launch a mass-market EV company as a Tesla rival. NIO said the future company will target annual production of 500,000 units per year.
