蔚来NIO

Who owns NIO? The ownership chain, NIO's stake and the 2014 deal

Facts checked Chinese holding 100%

NIO is Chinese. NIO Inc. was founded in 2014 by William Li, is headquartered in Shanghai and is listed in New York, Hong Kong and Singapore; it is best known for its battery-swap stations. It sells in Norway, Germany, the Netherlands, Denmark and Sweden but not in the United States.

NIO is the senior marque of NIO Inc., not a separate company; the brand has existed since the company was founded in November 2014.

The short answer

Controlled by NIO
Stakenot published
SinceNovember 2014
Kindbrand
OriginCN
Name in Chinese 蔚来 Wèilái “way-LYE”
Top of the chainL'imad
Is it Chinese? Yes

The chain, step by step

  1. L'imad owns CYVN Holdings at 100% since January 2026.

    L'imad wholly owns CYVN Investments, the entity that holds the NIO shares, following the January 2026 reorganisation of Abu Dhabi's holdings.

  2. CYVN Holdings holds a stake in NIO at 20.1% since 27 December 2023.

    CYVN Investments RSC Ltd of Abu Dhabi built its holding through an investment of about US$1.1 billion completed in July 2023 and a US$2.2 billion share subscription that closed on 27 December 2023 under an agreement dated 18 December 2023. Its Schedule 13D/A filed on 28 February 2024 reports 418,833,157 NIO Class A ordinary shares as of 26 February 2024 — 21.7% of the Class A shares and about 20.1% of all ordinary shares outstanding — with sole voting power over all of them. CYVN appointed two directors to NIO's board on 7 February 2024.

  3. NIO controls NIO since November 2014.

    NIO is the senior marque of NIO Inc., not a separate company; the brand has existed since the company was founded in November 2014.

Every holding above this entity, with the stake and the date it began.
Holder Holds Kind Stake Since
L'imad CYVN Holdings owns 100% January 2026
CYVN Holdings NIO holds a stake in 20.1% 27 December 2023
NIO NIO controls controls November 2014

NIO: questions people ask

Is NIO Chinese?
Yes. NIO Inc. is registered in the Cayman Islands and listed in New York, Hong Kong and Singapore, but it was founded in China in 2014, is headquartered in Shanghai, builds its cars in Anhui province and sells the great majority of them in China.
What does NIO mean?
The Chinese name is 蔚来 (Wèilái), which the company glosses as 'Blue Sky Coming' — 蔚 for the deep blue of a clear sky and 来 for 'coming'. NIO states that phrase as its mission in its own financial results releases.
Who owns NIO?
No one shareholder controls it. The largest is the Abu Dhabi state fund L'imad, which absorbed CYVN Investments in January 2026; CYVN had reached about 20.1% of all ordinary shares by early 2024. Founder William Li and Tencent are long-standing holders, and Chinese state investors hold a minority of the China operating subsidiary rather than of the listed parent.
Can you buy a NIO in the United States?
No. NIO has never sold a car in the United States. Its shares trade in New York, but its cars are sold in China, parts of Europe, the Middle East and Central Asia.
What is battery swapping?
Instead of charging, the car drives into a station where machinery removes the depleted battery pack and fits a charged one. NIO has built its network around this since 2018 and reported 3,790 stations worldwide and 100 million completed swaps as of 6 February 2026.

Related

Sources for NIO

  1. CnEVPost, Nio Dec 2025 deliveries: Nio brand 31,897, Onvo 9,154, Firefly 7,084. Read . Gives December and full-year 2025 figures by brand, including Onvo at 107,808 and Firefly at 39,414 for the year.
  2. NIO, NIO Achieves 100 Million Battery Swaps. Read .
  3. Wikipedia, Nio (company). Read . Finding aid for the EP9 and ES8 dates and for the list of European markets.
  4. CnEVPost, Nio begins EL7 SUV deliveries in Europe. Read . Read via the publisher's search listing: deliveries starting in the Netherlands with Germany, Denmark, Sweden and Norway following.
  5. CnEVPost, Nio plans expansion into Singapore, Uzbekistan and Costa Rica. Read . Names the local distributors and which brands and models go to each market.
  6. NIO Inc. / U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, NIO Inc. Reports Unaudited Fourth Quarter and Full Year 2025 Financial Results (Form 6-K, Exhibit 99.1). Read .
  7. Wikipedia, List of automobile manufacturers of China. Read . NIO listed among major private Chinese manufacturers with Onvo and Firefly.
  8. CnEVPost, Abu Dhabi merges CYVN's stake in Nio into new state-owned fund L'imad. Read .
  9. CYVN Investments RSC Ltd / U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, Schedule 13D/A (Amendment No. 3) — NIO Inc., filed by CYVN Investments RSC Ltd. Read .