Tesla’s (TSLA) rival Nio Inc. (NIO) has set its foot in the US and the company’s shares have taken the upward momentum for the third consecutive day. Nio, which has been dubbed as the ‘Chinese Tesla’, is expected to give a stiff competition for Tesla and other automakers. The company is the first Chinese electric vehicle manufacturer to go public in the US.
Nio priced its initial public offering at $6.25 to raise about $1 billion. The stock has surged on the debut date and the growth has been following the carmaker as the stock has been trading in the green territory for the third consecutive day.
The company had hoped to raise as much as $1.8 billion from the IPO but had to scale back the size to $1 billion. Nio plans to use the offering for ramping up EVs production and expand EV infrastructure. In addition, experts believe that the company will be coming out with its second electric vehicle that could be smaller and cheaper.
The company rolled out its ES8 electric SUV last year at a price of $65,000. Nio reportedly had 17,000 orders at July-end. Till date, Nio has manufactured about 2,000 vehicles. Nio was founded in November 2014 as NextCar Inc. and changed its name in July 2017. By the end of 2018, Nio is likely to launch another cheaper five-seater electric SUV, the ES6.
The electric vehicles space in China has been crowded and there remained tough competition from other carmakers around the globe despite the country being the largest global automobile market. Nio has stepped into the US market as it was hurt by general trade and currency issues in China.
Nio does not own a factory yet in China and depends on JAC Motors for vehicle production. Experts believe that the company is likely to build its own factory in China in order to give a stiff fight in the EV market. Also, Nio intends to expand its sales globally.
Shares of Nio were fluctuating between $13.80 and $9.22 in today’s trading and dropped about 7% in the afternoon session. The stock surged up to 92% on Thursday while tumbling 15% on debut date.