Who Owns Nio Cars And Where Are They Built?

Nio Cars was founded by Li Bin (also known as William Li), one of the more notable entrepreneurs to have entered the Chinese auto industry during the 21st Century's New Energy Vehicle era of electric vehicle (EV) production. Before Nio Cars, Li Bin founded BitAuto Holdings, an internet platform for automotive marketing, news, services, and advertising, which he sold off in 2013. His next venture was NextEV Inc., the Cayman Islands holding company for his high-end Chinese EV enterprise. 

NextEV's first major accomplishment was being named the title sponsor for the Chinese Formula E team that won the championship during its 2014/15 inaugural season. In 2016, NextEV announced that its name for commercial purposes would be NIO, replacing the NextEV name going forward. That same year came the reveal of its first road-going car, the NIO EP9 performance EV. This is one of those Chinese cars you wish were sold in the U.S. because it set an EV lap record at the Nürburgring Nordschleife. 

NIO's selected market niche is premium EVs over RMB 300,000 ($41,641.80). Its first mass-produced vehicle — the NIO ES8 electric SUV – started production in 2018. By May 2024, NIO produced 500,000 ES8s. Since April 2025, NIO has delivered a total of 737,558 EVs of nine different models. Nine The company has three different brands, including the NIO brand, the lower-priced ONVO brand, and a third known as firefly, which started deliveries at the end of April 2025.

In 2016, NIO arranged for JAC, a Chinese state-owned carmaker, to produce its vehicles. In late 2023, NIO received its own automobile manufacturing license. All NIO cars are built in China. There are two factories located in Hefei, a city of 4,800,000 in the Anhui province. In conjunction with these two factories, the more than 120 supply chain partners of NIO have their own manufacturing facilities that produce the parts and subassemblies that go into all NIO vehicles. It doesn't look like NIO will be one of those EV startups that has to file for bankruptcy because, in 2024, it received regulatory approval to build a third factory.

The completion of NIO's third factory would increase the company's production capacity to 1 million vehicles. NIO also has facilities that support its production all over the world. Its global headquarters is located in Shanghai, China. It has a global software development center that doubles as its North American headquarters in San Jose, California. There's also a design center in Munich, Germany and a London, UK office that focuses on high-performance vehicle development and Formula E racing, which is different from Formula 1.

Additional facilities can be found in Beijing, Nanjing, Shenzhen, Hangzhou, and Wuhan in China; Oxford, UK; Berlin, Germany; Budapest, Hungary; Abu Dhabi, UAE; and Singapore. NIO has also set up sales and service networks in China, Sweden, Denmark, Norway, the Netherlands, Germany, Azerbaijan, the UAE, and Israel.