TECH - Tesla's Chinese Rival Nio Partners With Warren Buffett-Backed BYD To Launch Budget-Friendly EV Brand | Benzinga
In a significant development in the Chinese electric vehicle (EV) market, Nio (NYSE:NIO) has teamed up with BYD (OTC:BYDDF) (OTC:BYDDY) to procure batteries for a new, competitively-priced EV brand.
What Happened: This partnership marks a major milestone for BYD, which has been striving to expand its revenue streams beyond its own EV sales, Reuters reported on Tuesday. The collaboration also highlights the fierce competition in China’s EV market, especially in relation to pricing and battery costs, the most significant expense in a new vehicle.
Nio, which initially planned to produce batteries internally, has now shifted its strategy towards cost reduction to offset losses. The company announced on Monday that the new brand would be called “Onvo” and is intended to compete with Elon Musk‘s Tesla Model Y.
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Currently, Nio sources most of its batteries from industry leader CATL. Under the new agreement, BYD will join CATL in supplying a smaller battery pack for ...