Nio plans to enter the European market in the second half of 2021, William Li, founder, chairman, and CEO of Nio, said at a web conference, according to Bitauto.com, an automotive media outlet founded by Li.

After entering Europe, Nio plans to start selling in other international markets in 2022, the report said.

Nio's electric vehicles on sale include the ES8, ES6, EC6, and ET7, covering SUVs and a sedan model.

If it starts entering the European market in the second half of the year, it will be the first time Nio sells electric vehicles outside of China.

Nio's first stop in overseas markets could be Norway, the first country in the world where electric car sales account for more than 50 percent of vehicles.

The speculation is based on a hint from Li, who said in a January 10 interview with several English-language media outlets, including CnEVPost, that the center screen navigation map shown at the launch of its first sedan, the ET7, revealed information about its entry into overseas markets.

And when CnEVPost checked the center screen picture on the ET7 introduction page, it found that the address shown in the picture seems to be Karl Johans gate in Oslo, Norway, although it is very blurry.

Another evidence that Nio may enter Norway first is the job advertisement posted on LinkedIn, which shows that the company is already hiring locally for a large number of positions, including delivery specialists.

It wouldn't be surprising if Nio chose to enter the Norwegian market first, with a record 54.3 percent of electric vehicle sales in 2020, despite the Covid-19 causing delays in the release of several new models.

That's up from 42.4 percent in 2019 and up from 1 percent a decade ago, making Norway the first country in the world to have electric vehicle sales account for more than 50 percent of vehicles.

The high penetration of electric vehicles is also a fact that Li constantly mentions when talking to the media, including CnEVPost.

Li said that Nio's entry into overseas markets will start with Europe first, due to the consensus on the importance of electric vehicles and environmental protection in Europe. "The proportion of electric vehicle sales in Europe rose very quickly last year, with Norway exceeding 50 percent, which is very good."

Li also said that many of the automotive regulations in China and Europe are close and that the European user and policy environment is more friendly to electric vehicles, adding that the signing of the China-Europe Investment Agreement also allows Chinese companies to have a more friendly environment when entering Europe.

As with rival Tesla, high-level automatic assisted driving capabilities and excellent power performance are the highlights of Nio's products.

Nio's products generally support battery swap, and when battery swap stations are built intensively enough, refueling times are similar to or faster than those of internal combustion vehicles.

In the field of electric vehicle manufacturing, Nio has up to 1200 patents, including battery pack, vehicle, battery swap station, and cloud dispatch system, which is an end-to-end complete system, Qin Lihong, president of Nio, has said.

Nio is the second largest electric vehicle manufacturer in the world by market capitalization and ranks sixth among all auto companies, surpassing car companies such as General Motors, Volkswagen, and Honda.

(Source: CnEVPost)