Nio recruiting distributor partner for Macau market

• Nio is currently recruiting distributor partners for the Macau market, describing this as a strategic upgrade in the city.
• Earlier this month, Nio announced plans to enter seven new European markets in collaboration with local distributor partners.

Nio (NYSE: NIO) is recruiting distributor partner for the Macau market, marking a shift in its operational strategy in the city.

The electric vehicle (EV) maker described this move as a strategic upgrade in Macau, aimed at optimizing the local user service experience, according to an announcement published yesterday on the Nio App.

"After carefully assessing the characteristics of the Macau market, we will select a strategic distributor with comprehensive service capabilities to fully manage Nio's market operations, user service network development, and brand ecosystem growth in Macau," said the general manager of Nio's Guangzhou regional company in the announcement.

The process is being advanced based on Nio's global cooperation standards, with the final partner to be announced in mid-to-late June, according to the announcement.

Macau is a special administrative region of China, where vehicles on the roads are predominantly right-hand drive models, unlike the left-hand drive models in the Chinese mainland.

Notably, Macau permits the sale and purchase of left-hand drive models within the city, adopting a more friendly policy toward such vehicles compared to Hong Kong.

Nio has not officially announced its entry into the Macau market, but the city already has hundreds of owners, given its proximity to mainland cities like Guangzhou and Shenzhen.

The EV maker currently has two battery swap stations in Macau, with the first launched in November 2021 and the second in October 2023.

For overseas markets, Nio's previous strategy was to conduct direct sales and services. However, following unsatisfactory results from its European trials over the past few years, it is now adjusting its strategy.

Earlier this month, Nio announced plans to enter seven new European markets, collaborating with local distributor partners to launch services for Nio and Firefly brands.