No other company currently has enough strength and corresponding positions to offer to Zhang Jianyong, so it is considered a good choice for him to start his own business, local media said.

Nio's Associate Vice President (AVP) of autonomous driving and head of autonomous driving systems engineering Zhang Jianyong, who is leaving the company, will start his own business in the field of automotive chips, a latest report said.

XEV Lab, a media outlet focusing on the smart car industry, said in a Wednesday report that multiple sources familiar with the matter confirmed that Zhang is leaving Nio. "Jianyong is still at Nio, but the news that he is leaving is true."

Zhang will start a business in the field of autonomous driving, possibly in the area of automotive chips with high computing power, and Nio's venture capital arm, Nio Capital, is interested in investing in his project, according to the XEV Lab report.

Nio plans to deliver three models based on the latest platform this year - ET7, ET5 and ES7, of which the ET7 was delivered to the first customers on March 28.

Maintenance of Nio's first-generation platform went into the final phase, and Zhang stayed until the mass production of the second-generation platform, sort of helping the company out a bit, XEV Lab said, citing people familiar with the matter.

The current focus of Nio's R&D in autonomous driving is NAD (Nio Autonomous Driving), which will use an ADaaS (AD as a Service) subscription model and is expected to gradually start allowing subscriptions in the fourth quarter of this year.