Chinese electric vehicle (EV) maker Nio is planning to build a 40GWh battery plant in China, according to reports.
Reuters said Nio’s first battery plant will make 4680 cylindrical battery cells similar to those used by Tesla, citing insiders. It will be located next to its main manufacturing hub in Hefei city, in eastern China’s Anhui province.
The company is seeking to be more independent of battery maker CATL for its supplies. It is looking to ramp up in the EV domestic and international markets.
Nio is also planning a factory to make EVs in in neighbouring Chuzhou for budget EVs, the report said.
Jiemian News reported that, according to Zhang Yichao, a strategy consulting partner at EY-Parthenon, batteries developed in-house by car makers need to reach 50GWh capacity to break even. If each vehicle is equipped with a 100KWh power battery pack, at least 500,000 car sales are needed to break even. Nio has a sales target of just 200,000 vehicles this year.
