Rumors have been floating around for months that Nio is looking to set up a manufacturing location in the United States, but today is not the day we get official confirmation. We instead came across some information that indirectly confirms it, this time straight from China, claiming that Nio is already hiring people for manufacturing-related jobs in the US, even though it has not officially announced building the facility.
According to Yicai, Nio (known in China by its company name, Wei Lai) is not only hiring people for manufacturing-related jobs, but is also looking to build a factory in the United States. We don’t yet know if it will purchase an already existing plant and repurpose it or build one from scratch in a new location.
They are also looking for an experienced designer with 10 years or more of blueprint planning and design experience for for an established automaker. It is in this particular job description that it is directly stated that the person to be appointed for this position would be
Responsible for above two experience of general drawing projects, including at least one US factory project.
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The others are infrastructure experts, logistics managers and park planning experts, exactly the kind of professionals they would need to set up a factory. Nio already has a research and development center in the United States, in San Jose, California, where its American headquarters are also located.
And the way the job ad is phrased, it makes it perfectly clear that Nio may not stop at just having one factory in the US if things go according to plan.
Nio is also looking to open a new R&D center in Singapore, which will focus on the development of self-driving technology and artificial intelligence (AI). Singapore was apparently chosen because it would enable Nio to link its facility up with local science and research institutions; the country’s financial sector is also very well connected and this too would be useful for the automaker.
The company also has a design office open in Munich, right in the heart of the German automotive industry, in Bavaria. Nio’s expansion strategy is seen as aggressive by industry analysts who point to the fact that it now wants to expand into Europe, Southeast Asia and North America; last year it built around 200,000 vehicles, most of which were sold in China.
