Feel the Light!

Nio has set the date of its new Nio Day and, more importantly, confirmed that the event will be able to take place offline after many were concerned that Covid controls may derail the event.

Nio Day 2022 will be held on December 24 at the Hefei Binhu International Convention and Exhibition Center in Hefei, Anhui province, the company wrote today on its mobile app. Both of Nio's current factories are located in Hefei.

Nio's launch event at Nio Day 2022 will start at 19:00 Beijing time on December 24 and last until 21:30.

The theme of this year's event is "Feel the Light," according to the company.

In 2022, the world is still full of challenges. In this age of uncertainty, everyone who takes life seriously is a light that illuminates ordinary lives, the Nio poster reads.

The poster continues:

Light can warm yourself and illuminate others.

It represents always maintaining an optimistic attitude towards life, an expression of goodwill towards others, and the hope of holding on to faith and looking forward to the future.

Since the first Nio Day was held in 2017, we have created beauty together with users in our community and witnessed numerous unforgettable moments.

The light of love for life brings us together here.

With optimism, goodwill and hope, let's feel every moment of life with our hearts.

Let's light each other up and move forward with warmth.

The registration channel for Nio Day 2022 is now available, and those who wish to participate can already submit their applications.

Nio Day is Nio's most important annual event and is the occasion for the company to launch new models and technologies.

Below is a video Nio shared about previous Nio Day events.

Nio Day 2020 was held in Chengdu, Sichuan, which was the first time Nio uses a bid system to decide the location of the event. Nio Day 2021 was held in Suzhou, Jiangsu province.

This is somewhat similar to the bid for the Olympic Games by major cities around the world, with the difference that the applicants for the Nio Day host city are local Nio users.

On July 15, Nio announced the launch of a process to select a city to host Nio Day 2022, which is one month later than last year's schedule.

On July 21, the Nio Day organizing committee confirmed the following 10 applicant cities after an initial venue check of each city:

Guangzhou, Harbin, Haikou, Hangzhou, Hefei, Jinan, Qingdao, Shijiazhuang, Wuhan, Xi'an

On August 14, the Nio Day organizing committee nominated the following three candidate cities through evaluation -- Guangzhou, Hefei and Xi'an.

On August 28, Nio announced that Hefei won over Guangzhou and Xi'an with 42 percent of the votes to become the host city of Nio Day 2022.

Since then, Nio has not provided updates on the progress of Nio Day preparations. At a time when Covid posed a serious challenge, many were concerned that the event might not be held offline for the first time this year.

Fortunately, however, China has recently significantly adjusted its Covid policy, essentially abandoning zero-Covid. Cross-city travel for residents is no longer restricted and infected individuals do not need to be forcibly quarantined.

There is no clue what models Nio will release on Nio Day 2022, but the company's next product plans are much anticipated.

Nio will launch five models in the first half of next year and will have a total of eight available models by June, William Li, the company's founder, chairman and CEO, said in a conference call after announcing third-quarter earnings on November 10.

Li did not provide more details at the time, but what can be expected is that the five models to be released by Nio will include the switch of the ES8, ES6 and EC6 to the NT 2.0 platform, as well as two other new models.

Last month, some spy photos showed that Nio might be testing the ET5 shooting brake version. Previously, spy photos of the EC7 as well as the new ES8 were also circulating.