The Yangjian chip will allow Nio to save about $100 per vehicle and recover its development costs in about a year, William Li said.

(Image credit: CnEVPost)

The Yangjian chip was defined by Innovusion and developed by Nio's R&D team, Li said in the interview in response to a question from CnEVPost about the division of work between Nio and Innovusion in developing the chip.

Separately, Li said in a group interview with local media today that Nio developed the chip for higher gross margins.

Nio wants to trade short-term investments in R&D for higher gross margins in the long term, and the chip could save Nio hundreds of yuan and recoup R&D costs in about a year, he said.

The Yangjian chip is Nio's first attempt and didn't take much effort from the chip team, Li said, adding that the company is working on its main chip and will release it at the right time.

The release of the Yangjian chip confirms a report from a year ago. On October 9, 2022, LatePost reported that Nio had assembled a chip team the size of nearly 300 people to work on both self-driving chips and LiDAR chips.

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