Senior officials from Nio, a Chinese manufacturer, stated on Thursday at a Reuters conference that the company is still “debating” a 2025 entry into North America. Volkswagen plans to launch an electric vehicle for around $35,000 in the U.S. market within three to four years.
Senior vice president and head of strategy at VW Group of America Reinhard Fischer stated, “We are not scaling back” ambitions for EVs in the US market.
According to Ganesh Iyer, CEO of Nio USA, “things have changed” in terms of geopolitics, international supply chains, and other elements influencing a choice to sell its automobiles in the United States.
VW intends to manufacture the less than $35,000 EV in the United States or Mexico, according to Fischer, who was speaking at the Reuters Events Automotive USA 2023 conference in Detroit.
Options include the new assembly facility for VW subsidiary Scout in South Carolina, as well as VW factories in Puebla, Mexico, and Chattanooga, Tennessee.
For the under-$35,000 EV, VW is also considering localising battery pack assembly in order to be eligible for further incentives under the U.S. Inflation Reduction Act, according to Fischer.
The German carmaker has already declared that it will produce battery cells for its present and upcoming electric vehicles (EVs) developed in North America in Canada.
During the same conference, Iyer stated that Nio is thinking about “any kind of partnerships” and that the business has to establish infrastructure before delivering electric vehicles to North America.