Nio supplier, Miracle Automation, announced that it has successfully won the bid for Nio’s F3-1 final assembly mainline conveyor project. This marks a further deepening of cooperation between the two parties following their collaboration on Nio’s fourth assembly plant.
The latest project focuses on design concepts of lean, intelligent, highly flexible, and high-precision assembly. It integrates AGV (Automated Guided Vehicles) automated workstations with island-style assembly lines, building on traditional final assembly conveyor line to further enhance automation.
Nio Production
Miracle Automation also says a new conveyor equipment concept to accommodate automated part assembly was created. Although the fourth plant, F4, has not been confirmed by Nio, Miracle Automation says they have already partnered with Nio on the F4 assembly conveyor line project.
Miracle Automation is a Wuxi, Jiangsu Province based automobile manufacturing company that has worked with Stellantis, BMW, Li Auto, Aiways, Volkswagen and more. Founded in 1984, the company was one of the first to be medium to small businesses to be listed on the domestic A-share.
Nio currently has two assembly plants in Hefei, Anhui province. The assembly plants were originally owned and managed by Anhui Jianghuai Automobile (JAC Group). Nio bought the two factories, named F1 and F2, near the end of 2023 to manage manufacturing independently.
This was off a record revenue in Q3 2023 of 19.07 billion yuan (2.61 billion USD) and 55,432 vehicles delivered. The two plants were purchased for a total of 3.16 billion yuan (422 million USD). The F1 factory was jointly constructed with JAC Group. F2 factory was constructed in the industrial park established by Nio and the Hefei government named NeoPark.
Nio officially confirmed the construction of a third plant, F3, in June. The plant is expected be built in NeoPark and have a single-shift capacity of 100,000 units per year. The plant is expected for use for existing Nio models and the, yet to be launched, Onvo models.
The F4 plant has been rumored to also be under planning, but construction has not been officially announced. The fourth plant is expected to produce models for Nio’s other sub-brand, codenamed Firefly.
Nio Sub-Brands
Onvo is Nio’s mass-market brand and positioned under Nio focusing on young families. Their first model, the Onvo L60, will start deliveries in September with a presale price of 219,000 yuan (30,500 USD).
Onvo L60 will launch into a crowded space of family SUVs competing with the Tesla Model Y, Xpeng G6, and BYD Sea Lion 07. All Onvo cars will support battery swapping with Nio’s the newer third and fourth generation swap stations.
Not as much is known about Nio’s second sub-brand, Firefly. The brand is being developed explicitly for Europe, though models will still be sold in China. Firefly is expected to be positioned under Onvo in the 100,000 – 200,000 yuan (13,900 – 27,800 USD) range. William Li, Nio’s Founder and CEO, has previously said that Firefly would be to Nio what Mini is to BMW.
Sources: Yiche
