Chinese language electrical automotive model Nio has acquired an funding of US$2.2 billion (A$3.25bn) in money from an Abu Dhabi-based funding agency that can assist it broaden globally.
CYVN Holdings has obtained 294 million Class A unusual shares within the firm. This deal follows a US$738.5 million (A$1.09bn) strategic fairness funding from CYVN again in July, when it additionally acquired US$350 million (A$517 million) in Class A shares within the Chinese language firm.
All up, CYVN now has roughly 20.1 per cent of Nio’s complete issued and excellent shares, and might nominate two administrators to its board – offered it retains no less than 15 per cent of the corporate’s excellent share capital.
As soon as this newest deal is finalised, Reuters experiences CYVN will develop into the biggest single shareholder of Nio, though founder and CEO William Li has essentially the most voting energy because of his possession of Class C unusual shares.
Nio says that by way of this deal, it can work with CYVN and its associates “to pursue strategic and expertise collaborations in worldwide markets”.
“With the improved steadiness sheet, Nio is effectively ready to sharpen model positioning, bolster gross sales and repair capabilities, and make long-term funding in core applied sciences to navigate the intensifying aggressive panorama, whereas frequently bettering execution effectivity and system capabilities,” mentioned William Li.
The corporate just lately confirmed it was chopping a tenth of its workforce and deferring some initiatives as profitability took a success from a worth battle began by Tesla in China.
Nio was based in 2014 and provides a variety of electrical autos, plus a community of battery-swapping stations throughout China and a rising quantity in Europe.
This enables the corporate to supply what it calls Battery as a Service (BaaS), whereby patrons pays much less for the automotive and pay a month-to-month price to be used of the battery and the swapping service.
Whereas it has but to announce a launch into Australia, it has submitted trademark purposes – a few of which fell afoul of Audi, which is objecting to them as a few of Nio’s mannequin names are fairly near Audi’s.
Whereas Nio simply has its namesake model, it’s reportedly planning on launching a extra inexpensive model codenamed Firefly, with autos focused at EVs by Renault and Volkswagen, in addition to one other model codenamed Alps.
Along with China, Nio at the moment sells vehicles in Norway, Germany, the Netherlands, Sweden and Denmark.
Nio isn’t the one EV producer to see main funding from the Center East. US-based Lucid is majority-owned by Saudi Arabia’s Public Funding Fund, which can also be reportedly set to spend money on China’s HiPhi.
MORE: Model overview: Nio
