Chinese EV manufacturer Nio has been forced to suspend production due to local supply chain issues caused by the impact of further Covid-19 restrictions.
Nio published a statement on its mobile app over the weekend explaining that “There will be a delay in the delivery of vehicles for many customers in the near future, and we ask for your understanding.”
The company went on to explain: “Since March, due to reasons to do with the epidemic, the company’s supplier partners in several places including Jilin, Shanghai and Jiangsu suspended production one after the other and have yet to recover. Due to the impact of this Nio has had to halt car production.”
Unlike many countries which have taken an increasing laissez-faire approach to the Omicron Covid-19 variant, China has imposed strict lockdown measures in Shanghai and other cities in an attempt to stop the spread of the highly contagious variant and its Covid zero policy.
These shutdowns have already affected big-name automakers including Tesla and Volkswagen which have both been forced to temporarily shutter Chinese production facilities, including Tesla’s Giga Shanghai.
Unsurprisingly, Nio has been unable to offer any indication as to when production will resume or just how long deliveries will be delayed.
The news comes only days after Nio announced that it had delivered 9,985 vehicles in March – including 9,822 smart electric SUVs – and had delivered 25,768 vehicles through the first quarter of 2022.
Production and delivery delays also mar the pending unveiling of the 2022 NIO ES8, ES6, and EC6, which is due to take place next month and which will also see the launch of the company’s latest digital cockpit hardware and the launch of the digital cockpit upgrade plan for existing owners.
To make matters worse, the delays come less than a fortnight after Nio began deliveries of its flagship electric sedan, the ET7 – available with either a 75kWh or 100kWh battery pack, and with a 150kWh battery pack with claims of 1,000-kilometres (NEDC) set to be debuted at some point in the future.
These delays may also affect Nio’s planned expansion into Europe which has been scheduled for later this year. Nio also hinted that it may expand into Australia at some point, including Australia and New Zealand in a map to expand into 25 countries and regions by 2025 at its investor day in 2021.
