• Nio is expected to enter the Hong Kong market in the fourth quarter and will work with a distributor to sell cars, according to a local media report.
• Nio will also adopt this model in markets such as Azerbaijan and Brazil, said a company insider.

Nio (NYSE: NIO) is reportedly set to enter the Hong Kong market in the fourth quarter and adopt a light-asset operational model similar to its approach in multiple other markets.

The company is expected to enter the Hong Kong market in the fourth quarter of this year, adopting the same model of collaborating with a distributor as it did in Macau, according to a report by local media outlet Lanjinger today, citing an insider at Nio.

“We aim to enter more markets with low capital costs,” the insider said, adding that Nio will also adopt this model in markets such as Azerbaijan and Brazil.

Nio will officially launch a new strategic partnership in Macau on July 1, authorizing Guangdong Hongyue Automobile Sales Group as the sole distributor in the region, the Nio insider said.

Guangdong Hongyue will be responsible for market operations, user service system development, and brand ecosystem growth for the Nio, Onvo, and Firefly brands in Macau, the insider said.

On June 7, Nio said that it was recruiting a distributor partner for the Macau market. This marks a shift in its operational strategy from the previous direct sales model.

Earlier today, the electric vehicle (EV) maker announced in a new statement published on its mobile app that it has initiated the transition of its partner in Macau.

Guangdong Hongyue has been selected as its distributor in Macau and is already prepared for sales and service operations, Nio said.

Nio has not officially announced its entry into the Macau market, but the city already has hundreds of Nio vehicle owners, given its proximity to mainland cities like Guangzhou and Shenzhen.

It currently has two battery swap stations in Macau, with the first launched in November 2021 and the second in October 2023.

Macau is a special administrative region of China, where vehicles on the roads are predominantly right-hand drive models, unlike the left-hand drive models prevalent in the Chinese mainland.

Notably, Macau permits the sale and purchase of left-hand drive models within the city, adopting a more lenient policy toward such vehicles compared to Hong Kong.

Nio began exploring a model of collaborating with distributors to sell vehicles in the second half of last year, following several years of direct sales in Europe.

On November 15, 2024, Nio announced Green Car as its national general distributor in Azerbaijan, marking its first collaboration with a distributor in an overseas market.

Earlier this month, the company announced that it was partnering with distributors to enter more European markets and that it was shifting its operations in Denmark from a direct sales model to this new approach.