[AUTO] China’s E.V. Threat: A Carmaker That Loses $35,000 a Car

[Angel of Death]

Chinese electric vehicle companies like Nio are pulling ever further ahead, partly through government support but also through rapid technological advances.

Nio, a Chinese electric car company that competes with Tesla, employs 11,000 people in research and development, but sold a mere 8,000 cars per month from April through June. It has invested so extensively in robots that one of its factories employs just 30 technicians to make 300,000 electric car motors a year. Nio offers $350 augmented reality glasses for each seat in its cars, and has introduced a cellphone that interacts with the car’s self-driving system. And none of it is profitable — far from it. Nio lost $835 million in the second quarter, or $35,000 for each car it sold. Nio and other companies in China’s sprawling electric car sector have formidable government backing that allows them to withstand such losses and keep growing. When Nio nearly ran out of cash in 2020, a local government immediately injected $1 billion for a 24 percent stake, and a state-controlled bank led a group of other lenders to pump in another $1.6 billion.

https://www.nytimes.com/2023/10/05/business/nio-china-electric-vehicles.html