Making Norway its first stop has allowed Nio to make adequate preparations for entering overseas markets. With its vehicle deliveries in Norway expected to begin in two months, speculation has begun as to where its next stop overseas might be, and Germany has come into sight.
The company is hiring a general manager for its German operations to lead its business development there. A job ad posted on LinkedIn five days ago shows that 173 people have submitted applications.
Twitter user @NioNenad first spotted the ad, writing "Next stop: Germany!"
.@NioGlobal @NioDeutschland $Nio
Next stop: Germany!
?? ?? ?? pic.twitter.com/mRVA1hYrUN
— Nenad Markovic (@NioNenad) July 7, 2021
Nio says the position is key to developing its organization and business, and the company relies heavily on the candidate's current expertise and knowledge to ensure its success.
Nio is known as a user-centric company in China, and it appears to be hoping to maintain that character as it expands overseas.
"Nio is extremely user centric since our users are the only thing that makes us successful and motivates us to invent new products," the job ad reads.
The fact that Nio is going to enter the German market comes as no surprise.
On May 6, the day the company officially announced its entry into the Norwegian market, German magazine Der Spiegel quoted William Li, Nio's founder, chairman, and CEO, as saying that the company plans to start selling its electric cars in Germany in 2022.
Nio has been preparing for overseas expansion for quite some time, and making Norway its first stop allows it to complete the necessary procedures to enter the European market.
On June 11, Nio announced that it had received European Whole Vehicle Type Approval (EWVTA) for the ES8, the company's first model to be delivered in Norway, marking an essential foundation for Nio's entry into Norway and the European market at large.
The Nio ES8 for Europe is officially approved for mass production and license plate registration in all EU countries, Nio said.
The EWVTA is the European Commission's mandatory certification for complete vehicles, safety components and systems used by its member states, and only certified vehicles can be sold in the EU market.
On July 7, Nio said its first batch of battery swap stations and superchargers had begun shipping to Norway and were expected to arrive in early August.
Before they are shipped, they have already received the certification necessary to enter the local market.
Lutz Frankhol, executive director of TÜV Rheinland Shanghai, presented the TÜV Rheinland EU certification to Shen Fei, vice president of Nio Power, at the CPSE International Charging Pile Exhibition in Shanghai on July 7.
This means that both Nio's charging equipment and the first model to be exported to Europe have completed the necessary procedures to adapt to local regulations and are ready for local sales.
Nio's flagship SUV, the ES8, will be the first model to be exported to Norway, with deliveries starting in September. The ET7, the company's flagship sedan that has not yet started deliveries in China, will be exported to Norway in 2022.
The Nio ES6 and EC6, the company's less expensive SUVs, are not on the first available list, though the company said they will also be exported to Norway in the future.
Unlike other Chinese companies, including Xpeng, which sell their vehicles through local dealers, Nio will take its entire business model directly to overseas markets.
The company will establish its sales and service network directly in Norway, with the first Nio House outside of China opening in the third quarter at Karl Johans Gate, a business and cultural center in Oslo, and Nio Norway's first service and delivery center in Oslo opening in September.
To support this business expansion, Nio had to build its own team locally. In Norway, Nio has hired Marius Hayler, a former executive at Jaguar Land Rover, as Nio Norway's General Manager.
At the Nio Norway strategy launch on May 6, Hayler said one of the reasons he joined Nio was that he shared Nio's vision of creating an enjoyable lifestyle for its users.
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