"My goal, and my commitment to this company, is I want all of us to buy a Nio car from our personal paycheck one day," Nio US CEO Ganesh Iyer said.
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Nio (NYSE: NIO) plans to sell its first car in the US by 2025 as part of its goal to expand to 25 countries and regions, an executive said.
"My goal, and my commitment to this company, is I want all of us to buy a Nio car from our personal paycheck one day," Nikkei Asia said in a report earlier today, citing comments made by Nio's US CEO Ganesh Iyer at a conference in New York.
"I hope that 'one day' will be sooner, which means we need help from everyone -- government, policymakers, supply ecosystem [and] infrastructure readiness," Iyer said.
Nio will import its China-built electric vehicles (EVs) into the US rather than trying to get tax breaks by manufacturing them locally. That means, however, that pricing could become an issue for it in the US market, as US rivals such as Tesla benefit from tax incentives.
The US government passed the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) last year, which includes a $7,500 tax credit for consumers purchasing qualifying EVs. This requires EVs to be built in North America and use locally produced batteries, which puts automakers that import the cars at a disadvantage, the Nikkei Asia report noted.
Nio will still build its EVs in China for the US market because it would be too costly to build factories in the US, Iyer said, adding that Nio had considered local production and had even shortlisted three states for factories.
"For our products, there are a lot of local suppliers in China who exclusively provide to us. They don't do business in the US," Iyer said of the decision not to build a US factory.
"If I were to set up a factory, I need to look for the right location where plenty of other suppliers exist so I can tap into that. I also want to bring in some of our suppliers, because they're strategic and particular to Nio, so that's the main reason," he said.
Nio's high-end models are too expensive to qualify for incentives regardless of where they are produced, Iyer said.
Nikkei Asia's report noted that when asked if the Nio would launch in 2025 for certain, Iyer only said, " That's what we said two years ago, but things are changing."
Nio unveiled its plans to expand globally at its Nio Day 2021 event on December 18, 2021, saying the company would enter Germany, the Netherlands, Sweden and Denmark. It currently sells cars in these European countries.
Nio aims to serve users in more than 25 countries and regions around the world by 2025, William Li, the company's founder, chairman and CEO, said at the time.
Li didn't announce at the time which of those 25 countries and regions would be included, but subsequent local media reports said it would include core global automotive markets including the US, Western Europe, Australia, and New Zealand.
In an interview with German media outlet Heise Autos in October 2022, Li said Nio planned to enter the US market by the end of 2025, but US policy complicated matters.
"We only become active in a market when we have the right product and the right services for this region and we planned to also become active in the USA at the end of 2025," he said.
Li said the US government passed the IRA, making it more difficult for foreign automakers to enter the market.
"We will therefore monitor developments closely," Li said.
In July, Li called on the US government to provide Chinese EVs with equal access to the US market in an interview with the Financial Times, arguing that automakers should not get caught up in political tensions between superpowers.
Nio's William Li questions US protectionism, demands equal access to US market
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