EV-Maker Nio Eyes Self-Sufficiency With New Battery Plant

The plant will be located next to its main manufacturing hub in Hefei city. Photo: Reuters

Chinese EV-maker Nio is planning to build its first battery plant making the large cylindrical cells similar to those used by Tesla, sources have revealed.

The new plant will have an annual capacity to produce 40-gigawatt hours (GWh) of batteries, which can power about 400,000 units of long-range electric vehicles (EVs), as Nio looks to cut its reliance on suppliers like CATL.

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The plant will be located next to its main manufacturing hub in Hefei city, in eastern China’s Anhui province, the sources said.

The company’s founder and chairman William Li said last June that Nio would start making 800-volt lithium-ion battery packs, which recharge faster, in the second half of 2024, as part of a plan similar to Tesla’s to use a combination of self-produced and externally sourced batteries in the long run.

Reuters with additional editing by Sean O’Meara

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Sean O'Meara

Sean O'Meara is an Editor at Asia Financial. He has been a newspaper man for more than 30 years, working at local, regional and national titles in the UK as a writer, sub-editor, page designer and print editor. A football, cricket and rugby fan, he has a particular interest in sports finance.