Nio is starting preparations for Nio IN 2024, which will be held in either Shanghai or Beijing, according to an executive.

Nio (NYSE: NIO) is making Nio IN its new annual event, and a new edition of the event is coming soon.

"(Nio) is starting to prepare for NIO IN 2024 with content that is more brain-testing than last year," the electric vehicle (EV) maker's assistant vice president of branding and communications, Ma Lin, said today on Weibo.

Ma hinted that the event will be held in either Shanghai, where it has its global headquarters, or Beijing, and that Nio's vice president of intelligent driving research and development, Ren Shaoqing, will deliver a keynote address.

Nio held Nio IN 2023, its first innovation day event, on September 21, 2023, when it launched its first phone model, first in-house developed chip, SkyOS operating system, and expanded its NOP+ (Navigate on Pilot Plus) coverage from highways to urban roads.

The company's management had mentioned several times before that the Nio Phone will get a major update once a year, just like Apple's iPhone. The second-generation Nio Phone is expected to be launched at the upcoming Nio IN 2024 event.

The first-generation Nio Phone is offered in three variants, starting at a starting price of RMB 6,499 ($900), RMB 6,899, and RMB 7,499 respectively.

The Nio Phone's main feature is its interaction with Nio vehicles, offering an action button that allows users to quickly activate more than 30 functions, including controlling the vehicle's features such as adjusting the air conditioning temperature and switching on and off seat massage.

In January, local media outlet 36kr reported that Nio's smartphone business head Yin Shuijun would be leaving the company, and that the phone business would be headed by the company's hardware head Bai Jian.

Bai later confirmed on Weibo that he would be taking over Nio's phone business.

The change in the head of the phone business doesn't seem to have affected Nio's progress in launching the second-generation Nio Phone.

Nio founder, chairman and CEO William Li said at a meet-the-owner event in Wuhan, Hubei province in central China, on March 17 that the second-generation Nio Phone had completed development and was in the manufacturing phase.

Over the past few months, Nio has been giving away free Nio Phones to customers who buy its 2024 model as part of measures to enhance vehicles' appeal.

Apart from teasing the imminent arrival of the Nio IN 2024, Ma's Weibo today was more aimed at emphasizing that Nio's head of smart driving, Ren, is not leaving the company.

Earlier today, local media outlet Red Planx reported that the head of smart driving at a new local car-making force has submitted a resignation and will join a large model startup.

The report didn't provide any clues pointing to a specific new car-making force, and some people on Weibo speculated that it could be Nio's Ren when they shared the report.

Harry Wong, Nio's head of smart driving product and experience, also wrote on Weibo that today is not April Fool's Day, suggesting that speculation that Ren would be leaving was wrong.

($1 = RMB 7.2562)

Nio gives free Nio Phones to customers buying 2024 models