The Chinese EV-manufacturer NextEV renamed itself to NIO. The company website NextEV.com now reroutes to NIO.io.The Shanghai-based startup has several subsidiaries worldwide, one of them in San Jose, California. As can be seen on the photo from the San Jose location, at which a banner is covering the old company name, several electric vehicles of other manufacturers can be seen. One Tesla Model S, and two Nissan Leaf. Already a first report on the opening of the subsidiary pointed out at a Tesla Model X parked at the entrance.
Just past week the company presented its first car – the NIO EP9 – to the public. This electric super sports-car already holds a track record on the German Nürburgring.
The company, which was founded only in 2014, raised in two rounds at least 500 million Dollar in venture capital. The founders are William Lee, also CEO of the Chinese car portal Bitauto.com, and Xiang Li, CEO of Autohome.com. Investors in Bitauto are the Chinese internet giants Baidu and Tencent, as well as the Chinese shopping portal JD.com.