Nio is considering "any kind of partnerships" in North America, the company's US CEO Ganesh Iyer said.

(Image credit: CnEVPost)

Nio (NYSE: NIO) is still "debating" entering the North American market in 2025, Reuters said in a November 9 report, citing an executive at the Chinese electric vehicle (EV) maker.

Speaking at the Reuters Events Automotive USA 2023 conference, Nio US CEO Ganesh Iyer said the company is considering "any kind of partnerships" in North America.

Nio also needs to build infrastructure before bringing EVs to North America, Iyer said.

Nio sees an "immersive user experience" as a differentiating factor for the brand, Iyer said, according to a Reuters report.

The brief report doesn't offer much more, but it's the second time in several days that a Nio executive has made rare comments about entering the North American market.

On November 4, Nikkei Asia cited comments Iyer made at a conference in New York that Nio plans to sell its first car in the US by 2025.

"My goal, and my commitment to this company, is I want all of us to buy a Nio car from our personal paycheck one day," Iyer said at that New York conference.

"I hope that 'one day' will be sooner, which means we need help from everyone -- government, policymakers, supply ecosystem [and] infrastructure readiness," Iyer said.

Nio will import its China-built EVs into the US rather than trying to get tax breaks by manufacturing them locally. That means, however, that pricing could become an issue for it in the US market, as US rivals such as Tesla benefit from tax incentives.

The US government passed the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) last year, which requires EVs to be built in North America and use locally produced batteries in order to receive tax credits. That puts automakers that import cars at a disadvantage.

Nio will still build EVs in China for the US market because it is too costly to build factories in the US, Iyer said at last week's event, adding that Nio had considered local production and had even shortlisted three states for factories.

"For our products, there are a lot of local suppliers in China who exclusively provide to us. They don't do business in the US," Iyer said of the decision not to build a US factory.

Nio unveiled its plans to expand globally at the Nio Day 2021 event on December 18, 2021, saying the company will enter Germany, the Netherlands, Sweden and Denmark. It currently sells cars in these European countries.

Nio aims to serve users in more than 25 countries and territories around the world by 2025, William Li, the company's founder, chairman and CEO, said at the time.

Li didn't announce at the time which of those 25 countries would be included, though local media have since reported that it would include core global automotive markets including the US, Western Europe, Australia, and New Zealand.

Nio exec reaffirms goal of entering US market by 2025