On May 5th, it was reported that William Li, the founder of NIO, stated in an interview with German media that they are fully prepared to enter the European market and will offer electric vehicles for less than 30,000 euros to European customers. They are also expected to achieve their profitability target this year.
William expressed his respect for European local big brands such as Mercedes-Benz, BMW and Audi in the interview, but also made it clear that they will challenge Volkswagen in the European market.
NIO’s cars have officially gone on sale in Germany with positive customer feedback, and in the future the company will launch two more brands in the European market. One of them will only offer small, affordable electric cars priced below 30,000 euros.
During the interview, William also stated that he is not afraid to engage in a price war with Tesla in the Chinese market. He believes that Tesla’s actual market share in China is not more than 10%, and therefore cannot dictate market pricing. Additionally, our flagship model is $20,000 more expensive than Tesla, which is not our core target market.
