A supplier said it has won a bid for Nio's F3-1 project for assembly mainline delivery, deepening their collaboration following a project for F4.
A supplier statement hinted that Nio (NYSE: NIO) is building two additional vehicle assembly plants, F3 and F4.
Miracle Automation Engineering won the bid for Nio's F3-1 final assembly mainline conveyor project, the Wuxi, Jiangsu-based automated logistics systems provider said today.
This is a deepening of the partnership after the F4 assembly conveyor line project, Miracle Automation said in a post on its official WeChat account.
The latest project will take the form of a fusion of AGVs + automated workstations on an island assembly line, building on the traditional final assembly equipment conveyor line to further enhance logistics automation, Miracle Automation said.
The project introduces a new conveyor concept to accommodate automated assembly of components, the company said.
It will bring a more flexible means of arrangement while meeting production beats and is the result of a joint effort between the company and Nio, Miracle Automation said.
Nio currently has two vehicle assembly plants in Hefei, Anhui province, which the company refers to as its F1 and F2 plants, respectively.
In a June 5 report, Reuters said Nio had begun construction of a third plant, F3, to produce vehicles primarily for its newly launched affordable car brand, Onvo.
Nio co-founder and president Qin Lihong confirmed the report later in the day and told local media that construction had begun on Nio's third factory, located at NeoPark in Hefei, Anhui province.
The new plant, which has a single-shift capacity of 100,000 units per year, will be used for both Nio-branded and Onvo-branded products, Qin said at the time.
Last year, there were multiple reports that Nio was also building an F4 plant for the production of models under another sub-brand codenamed Firefly. None of those reports were confirmed by Nio, however.
Nio officially launched the Onvo brand on May 15 and began taking pre-orders for the L60, the first model under the new brand.
The L60 will go on sale in late September and deliveries will begin in late September, Onvo president Ai Tiecheng said on July 25.
The Firefly sub-brand has yet to be officially announced and William Li, founder, chairman and CEO of Nio, said in his first live broadcast on short-video platform Douyin on March 14, adding that Firefly is to Nio what Mini is to BMW.
Nio president confirms construction of F3 plant has begun, says F1, F2 can no longer meet demand
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