NIO begins selling first smartphone

Shanghai (Gasgoo)- On September 21, 2023, during the NIO IN 2023 (NIO's innovative technology event), the Chinese smart electric vehicle (EV) maker NIO launched its debut smartphone, the NIO Phone, and made it instantly available for purchase.

The NIO Phone comes with three variants, which are priced at 6,499 yuan, 6,899 yuan, and 7,499 yuan for the Performance, Flagship, and EPedition, respectively.

Photo credit: NIO

According to NIO, the NIO Phone features the Qualcomm Snapdragon® 8 Gen 2 chip’s Leading Version. It offers up to 16GB of RAM and 1TB of storage. With a 6.81-inch curved 2K display, it supports variable refresh rates from 1Hz to 120Hz. Its camera setup includes 50-megapixel primary, ultra-wide, and periscope telephoto lenses. The phone is powered by a 5200mAh battery, delivering flagship-level endurance, and supports 66W wired and 50W wireless charging. It is also specially compatible with NIO's wireless car charger. The device boasts an expansive under-display ultrasonic fingerprint sensor and 3D fingerprint recognition, requiring only one press for enrollment. It also comes equipped with features like 10W wireless reverse charging and IP68-level water resistance, among other flagship offerings.

NIO Phone is integrated with NIO Link, NIO's all-scenario interconnected technology newly launched at the event, which seamlessly blends the phone with NIO's intelligent electric vehicles. It utilizes UWB (Ultra-Wideband) technology to completely replace traditional car keys and offers 48-hour unlock capability, even when the phone is out of power. On the phone's left side, there's an innovative NIO Link vehicle control button, granting direct access to 30 interconnected functions for drivers, such as quick checks of vehicle status, parking location, convenient vehicle locking and unlocking, window control, trunk access, and remote climate control, all achievable even when the Internet signal is dropping.

Photo credit: NIO

During this event, NIO Founder, Chairman, and CEO, Mr. William Bin Li, presented NIO's comprehensive approach to intelligent electric vehicles, known as the "NIO Technology Full Stack." This initiative encompasses 12 key technology domains, including chip and in-car intelligent hardware, battery system, electric drive system, vehicle engineering, operating system, mobile connectivity, intelligent driving, smart cabin, smart energy, intelligent manufacturing, artificial intelligence, and global digital operations. It caters to NIO's requirements for R&D across three dimensions: intelligence, electrification, and vehicle products and services.

At NIO IN 2023, NIO unveiled several new technologies and products aligned with this initiative.

Photo credit: NIO

At the event, NIO introduced its all-domain vehicle operating system, "SkyOS". This is the first foundational operating system released by an automaker, covering various areas such as the complete vehicle system, advanced driver assistance, intelligent cabins, and mobile connectivity. SkyOS employs a "1+4+N technology cluster" to address software-hardware-service integration issues, as well as challenges related to security, real-time performance, and application complexity across different domains. According to NIO’s plan, the SkyOS will be fully implemented in the NT3 platform models.

Photo credit: NIO

Meanwhile, NIO unveiled its first self-developed chip product, the "Yang Jian" with LiDAR as its master controller. The chip is named after the Chinese folk hero god with a third truth-seeing eye in the middle of his forehead, who is also known as “Erlang Shen”. The automaker said the chip boasts high integration, low power consumption, and strong performance, offering better support for complex scenarios.

The "Yang Jian" chip will be put into mass production in October this year.

Photo credit: NIO

NIO Link, NIO's all-scenario interconnected technology, was officially launched at the event as well. As a vehicle-centric interconnected technology, the NIO Link combines software and hardware, end-to-end cloud coordination, and a secure, open mobile interconnected technology system to realize integration of various devices (including the NIO Phone) and create a better interconnected mobility experience around users' vehicle lives.

Additionally, NIO introduced the cross-domain integrated supercomputing cluster CCC, which is already in volume production. The CCC enables ADAM, NIO's supercomputing platform, and the Qualcomm Snapdragon 8155 chip to share computing power, enhancing intelligent cabin experiences by supporting cross-domain, low-latency data sharing and further improving the user's intelligent cabin experience.