Nio's reported 'Marco Polo Project' and Xpeng's move to export to Europe means that, for Chinese EV makers, they are already targeting overseas markets, even though the domestic market is only just emerging.
Chinese media reported on November 1 that Nio is preparing to build an overseas division, internally codenamed "Marco Polo Project", to sell its models in Europe.
The report quoted people close to Nio as saying that the first overseas Nio House may be located in Copenhagen, Denmark.
Another person close to Nio said that Nio already has an export business team, which has recently deployed a lot of staff and plans to sell 7,000 ES8 and ES6 models in the region in two years. The person said that the core of Nio's export business is service-oriented, including hassle-free service and one-key power-up.
In September, Xpeng shipped the G3i model to Europe, with the first stop also being Norway.
A total of 100 Xpeng G3i SUVs were assembled on September 24 at Xinsha Port in Guangzhou and shipped to European customers. This is the first order of Xpeng's G3i SUV to be shipped to the European market.
For Nio, the company had already expressed its intention to enter the overseas market.
In January 2018, when Nio's first production car, the ES8, went on sale and had not yet been delivered, then Nio CFO Tony Hsieh said that Nio would be sold to the U.S. in 2020. In September 2018, Nio went public on the New York Stock Exchange.
In an interview at this year's Chengdu Auto Show, Nio founder and chairman William Li Bin defined the overseas direction as "Europe and the U.S." In August, Li said Nio plans to go public in the U.S. and Europe.
In August, Li said that Nio plans to start sailing in the second half of 2021, with the first stop being the European market, though he did not disclose any specific countries. In addition, Nio will enter major global markets by 2023 or 2024.
In addition, the same month of the announcement to enter the European market, Nio announced that it intends to issue 75 million additional American depositary shares (ADSs), the net proceeds of the offering between $1.497 billion and $1.722 billion, the purpose of the fundraising is to expand sales and service network.
Despite the postponement of the launch and the move from the U.S. to Europe, Nio's intention to enter the mainstream electric vehicle market remains unchanged, and the recovery of the domestic market has increased its confidence in the launch.
Since April this year, Nio sales have been maintained at 3,000-4,000 units. On October 29, Nio announced that this month the 5000th vehicle in Hefei advanced manufacturing base mass production off the line, this is the Nio mass-produced vehicles a single month off the line for the first time more than 5000 units.
On the other hand, Germany and France have stepped up their support policies for new energy vehicles, which provides a wider market space for Nio.
In September, Europe's mainstream 10 countries sold a total of 141,000 new energy vehicles, an increase of 165% year-on-year and 70% from the previous month, with the penetration rate of new energy vehicles reaching 12.8%.
Europe's annual sales are expected to exceed 1.1 million units, becoming the main support for global sales growth.
Nio's competitive advantage may be in its long-running battery swap model. The EV battery swap model refers to the centralized storage, charging, and distribution of large numbers of batteries through centralized charging stations, and battery replacement services for EVs at battery distribution stations.
In May 2018, Nio's first battery swap station was officially put into operation, taking the lead in commercializing it for ordinary consumers.
On August 20, Nio officially released its BaaS battery swap service solution to promote the development of the new business model of "vehicle-electricity separation" in the new energy vehicle industry.
Some analysts said the current charging station layout is not perfect, the battery swap model is a good try. Nio has a first-mover advantage in this model, or will become its main service to expand the European market.
