China's Nio introduces smartphones designed to work with electric vehicles

Nio Inc., a Chinese company that makes electric vehicles (EVs) on Thursday, introduced a high-end smartphones that can be used with its vehicles. The newly launched smartphone has a variety of relevant features, including the ability to tell the car to park itself.

The Nio Phone, the first car-specific phone to be offered by a Chinese company, brings forth an advanced scale of EV technology in the automobile industry, where electric cars already make up more than one-third of vehicle purchases.

The phone can also be used by a Nio driver to unlock the car even when it is off and to instruct the car to drive itself to their location (which is legal in China in constrained locations and at regulated speeds).

Reuters cited William Li, the chief executive, who said that the Nio Phone had more than 30 features tailored specifically for cars and had pioneered new connectivity technologies.

"I believe many of our competitors will learn from our smartphone innovations and I welcome them to do so," he said.

Prices for three variants range from 6,499 to 7,499 yuan ($890 to $1030). Deliveries will begin on September 28 and the phone will initially only be marketed in China.

Despite worries from some investors that Li is taking on too much for the automaker, which has seen its losses increase due to a severe price battle in China, Li has continued with the smartphone project.

As noted by IDC analyst Will Wong, the automaker's main goal in developing the phone is likely to be user data collection rather than trying to make the phone a significant source of revenue.

"Smartphones will be a good platform to collect more data which is crucial in the current tech world and could potentially lead to better user experience and customer stickiness," Reuters quoted him as saying.

The newest fusion of the smartphone and automotive industries is Nio's foray. Meizu, which was acquired by a company run by the founder of Zhejiang Geely Holding, revealed smartphones in March that can connect to Geely's Lynx & Co-branded automobiles but are also promoted to a wider audience of consumers.

Nio, which is ranked No. 9 among Chinese producers of electric and hybrid vehicles, has increased its investment in in-house innovations for vital parts like CPUs and batteries. It has also developed a following among its drivers in China by launching private membership clubs and providing goods like wine under the Nio brand.

Li stated at the occasion that the company employs 11,000 engineers who work on important EV smart technology components such processors, batteries, autonomous driving, and smart manufacturing.

Due to the popularity of its updated ES6 SUV, Nio has shown indications of recovery after experiencing a decline in sales in the first half of the year, with deliveries in August increasing by 81 per cent year over year.

It outperformed China's electric car sales, which had a 20 per cent growth rate in the first eight months, selling 94,350 vehicles, a 32 per cent increase over the same period last year.

(With inputs from Reuters)

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