Life as a new car brand is tough. Nio, which flopped in Denmark, is still selling cars in Norway. But it costs them 377,000 Norwegian kroner each time.
Just as they tried in Denmark, Chinese Nio has established itself at one of the most expensive addresses in the Norwegian capital Oslo.
And it's expensive. For every time the Chinese sell one car in Norway, they lose 377,000 Norwegian kroner. That's the equivalent of 240,000 Danish kroner.
The loss must be compared with modest sales, and the fact that Nio – at least in Norway – has invested massively in the brand's battery swapping stations.
BilNytt.no writes.
In comparison, Nio in Denmark only managed to build a battery swap station in Slagelse, because the brand fired the majority of its Danish employees and the Danish CEO Anja Bruun Meineche.
The firing of the CEO came just three months after the brand cut every third employee in Denmark from its payroll. If you wrote an email to the leading Dane at the car brand in March 2024, the following auto-generated response came back:
– I am no longer in Nio Denmark, so depending on your matter, please contact the following” and then a list of five employees.
Since then, Nio in Denmark has merged with the Swedish branch. But in Norway, the brand continues to stand on its own two feet. However, it has been extremely expensive.
The accounts for 2023, which first landed shortly before Christmas 2024, show that Nio lost almost a quarter of a billion Norwegian kroner in Norway that year.
Divided over the sale of 621 cars, this equates to a loss of a staggering 377,000 Norwegian kroner. Or if we convert it into Danish currency, just under a quarter of a million kroner each time.
According to the Norwegian media, however, Nio has lost even more money in Norway since the brand came to the country in 2021. If you add up the years that have passed since then, the loss is calculated at a total of 527 million Norwegian kroner since then.
The question is whether Nio has the finances and courage to continue in Norway. Right now, the brand is taking comfort in the fact that it has reached an agreement for the delivery of some taxis. Read more about it here .