NIO Capital Updates

▌NIO Capital’s Portfolio Companies Visit NIO

In January, NIO Capital invited more than 40 senior executives from its portfolio companies to NIO to learn about the electric vehicle company's experience in corporate culture and values. This is the first session of its post-investment empowerment campaigns in 2024.

 

 

Portfolio Updates

▌NIO Capital’s Portfolio Companies Attend 2024 CES

Several of NIO Capital’s portfolio companies, including Seyond, Black Sesame Technologies, Ambilight, XREAL, and NOLO, showcased their latest products and application cases at the 2024 Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in the U.S.

 

 

Mobility and Logistics

▌Newrizon Expands Footprint to Middle East

Newrizon, an electric commercial vehicle manufacturer, has shipped the first batch of its iC1 electric light trucks to the Middle East, becoming the first Chinese start-up automaker of intelligent connected new energy commercial vehicles to enter the Middle East market.

 

 

▌Tuhu Inaugurates First Factory Outlet in Jiangsu with PetroChina

Integrated automotive service provider Tuhu Automotive Service has seen significant progress in its cooperation with China's largest oil and gas producer, PetroChina. The first factory outlet jointly established by the Suzhou sales branch of PetroChina, Tuhu, and Longjie Auto Service Express was opened in Kunshan, Jiangsu Province. This deal will promote the sustainable development of the consumption model that combines fueling and automotive services.

 

▌Total Mileage of Eacon’s Autonomous Driving Trucks Sets New Record

Eacon, an autonomous haulage solutions provider, said the mileage of its autonomous driving trucks surpassed 600 million kilometers as of December 2023, setting a record in the industry. The mileage is equivalent to 150 times around the equator.

 

 

▌TrunkTech Builds Full-Scenario Autonomous Trucking Network Across Beijing, Tianjing, Heibei

TrunkTech, a L4 autonomous driving technology and service provider, has established an intelligent network that covers the whole process of container logistics across Beijing, Tianjin, and Heibei Province, making it the first in the industry to have the full-scenario autonomous trucking capability. 

 

 

▌Inceptio Technology Wins APEC award 

Inceptio Technology won the “2023 Innovating for Public Urban Technology Transformation Competition” (INPUT2). The INPUT2 is a global competition under the guidance of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Partnership on Science, Technology and Innovation (PPSTI), which focuses on issues such as green economy, low-carbon urban mobility, and livable cities, and aims to promote international exchanges among economies.

 

▌Pony.Ai Gets Green Light in Tianjin and Starts Commercialization of Sixth-Generation Driving System

●Autonomous driving technology company Pony.ai has become the first to receive a inter-provincial demonstration application permit for self-driving heavy-duty trucks in China after it won approval Tianjin authorities. 

 

 

●The robotaxi model equipped with Pony.ai’s sixth-generation autonomous driving system has been granted a demonstrative commercial operation license in Nansha District, Guangzhou, Guangdong Province. Passengers can place orders through Pony.ai’s PonyPilot+ app, as well as the ride-hailing app Ontime.

 

 

▌Autolink Launches New Generation of Products

Smart cockpit software and hardware provider Autolink unveiled its new generation of cockpit and integrated driving and cockpit domain controller, following the release of the third-generation flagship cockpit domain controller for the Snapdragon cockpit platform (SA815P). Autolink is the first in the industry to roll out an integrated driving and cockpit domain controller that is based on a single computing chip and ready for mass production.

 

New Energy

▌PCG Power Helps Ka Shui Technology  and Shenyang Shuanghui Go Green

●PCG Power, an energy management and service provider, commenced the 6.5MW distributed photovoltaic power generation project for alloy component producer Ka Shui Technology in Huizhou, Guangdong Province. The project is expected to generate 179.85 million kWh of green electricity within 25 years after completion. Compared with a coal-fired power plant of the same generation capacity, the project will save 71,578 tons of standard coal and cut the CO2 emission by 178,410 tons, equivalent to planting 9.75 million trees in total.

 

 

●PCG Power completed the 4.675MW rooftop distributed photovoltaic power generation project for Shenyang Shuanghui Food Co., Ltd. in Liaoning Province. Once completed, the project is projected to generate 5.69 million kWh of green electricity for Shenyang Shuanghui per year. Compared with a coal-fired power plant of the same generation capacity, it will save 2,276 tons of standard coal and cut the CO2 emission by 5,672 tons per year, equivalent to planting 310,000 trees per year.

 

 

▌Sunman Energy Unveils Dragonfly PV Module

Solar panel manufacturer Sunman Energy launched the Dragonfly lightweight photovoltaic (PV) module. With a pre-integrated mounting on the back, the 520W high-efficiency, glass-free PV module creates a brand-new installation experience, which will explore more application scenarios of solar power.

 

▌Rongtong High Tech Named as Eligible Recycler of Waste Power Storage Batteries of New Energy Vehicles by MIIT

Rongtong High Tech, a producer of basic materials for lithium batteries, was listed as among the fifth batch of companies that met the Industry Standards for the Comprehensive Utilization of Waste Power Storage Batteries of New Energy Vehicles   issued by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT). The eligible companies are categorized as cascade utilizers and recyclers, with Rongtong High Tech belonging to the latter.

 

▌AlphaESS Attends Industry Show in U.S., and Receives Two Awards

●Battery storage systems provider AlphaESS presented its SMILE-SP/SPB household energy storage system at the 2024 Intersolar and Energy Storage North America in the U.S. Tailor-made for the U.S. market, the system can increase the proportion of self-generated and self-consumed solar power between the storage and release of electricity, and ultimately enable users to cut electricity costs.

 

●AlphaESS won the Best Carbon Neutrality Practice Award and the Best Emission Intensity Award for Carbon Neutrality at the first Best Practice Within Solar & Storage Energy Industry, an event jointly held by TÜV SÜD, China EcoPV Alliance, Yangtze Institute for Solar Technology, and Electrical Energy Storage Alliance.

 

Frontier Technology 

▌XREAL Completes New Financing Round, Sells 350,000 Pairs of AR Glasses, and Launches XREAL Air 2 Ultra

●AR glasses designer and manufacturer XREAL secured a new round of strategic investment worth $60 million, bringing its total funding to $300 million. This proceeds will be used to support product R&D and expand its production base for optical engines. 

●XREAL sold more than 350,000 pairs of AR glasses, accounting for 51 percent of the global market as of 2023 Q3. 

●XREAL Air 2 Ultra comes with dual 3D environmental sensors equipped with computer vision capabilities. The glasses are available for pre-order on its official websites in the U.S., the UK, Japan, South Korea, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands and the Czech Republic, while the shipping of glasses with XREAL’s latest NRSDK 2.2 is scheduled to start by March.

 

 

▌BIBO Completes Series A+ Financing and Joins Hands with Baolong Automotive

●Intelligent chassis solution provider BIBO concluded its RMB200 million series A+ financing. The raised funds will be used to expand the mass delivery of full-stack wire control chassis, as well as the R&D and mass production of the smart suspension and smart steering products.

●BIBO and auto parts and electronics producer Baolong Automotive reached an strategic agreement. Baolong Automotive agreed to invest in BIBO, which will allow the two to complement their commercial advantages and share channels and resources.

 

 

▌Seyond Teams Up With Avikus

Seyond, a high-performance LiDAR sensors and solutions provider, entered cooperation with Avikus, a South Korean autonomous navigation solutions provider. Seyond will provide Avikus, a subsidiary of South Korean’s Hyundai Construction Equipment, with the resources needed for highly precise, long-range detection, advanced navigation assistance and improved autonomous functionality across several new models. The first models leveraging the 500-meter detection range of Seyond’s Falcon series LiDAR will be introduced this summer, with additional models planned for later this year.

 

 

▌Black Sesame Technologies Partners with LeddarTech and Nullmax

●Black Sesame Technologies, a Chinese intelligent vehicle SoC and SoC-based solution provider, reached strategic cooperation with LeddarTech, a Canadian automotive software company that provides patented AI-based low-level sensor fusion and perception software technology for ADAS, AD, and parking applications. The two parties will provide a joint solution offering for the surround-view premium L2/L2+ ADAS/AD market segment.

 

●Autonomous driving technology company Nullmax will utilize Black Sesame Technologies' Wudang C1200 series high-performance cross-domain computing chips to offer a Transformer-based high-performance Bird’s-Eye View (BEV) algorithm. They will collaborate to develop an industry-leading, cost-effective single-chip NOA (Navigate on Autopilot) intelligent driving solution.

 

 

▌United Winners Recognized as CATL’s Outstanding Supplier of 2023

United Winners, a supplier of laser welding equipment and intelligent manufacturing solutions, was honored as the Outstanding Supplier of 2023 by CATL, a leading Chinese battery manufacturer and technology company. United Winners was previously awarded as CATL’s Best Supplier of 2022 and Outstanding Supplier of 2016. 

 

▌BoCloud Joins Alibaba Cloud’s Financial Pioneer Alliance 

BoCloud, a provider of professional cloud computing services for enterprise clients, signs up for the Financial Pioneer Alliance initiated by Alibaba Cloud. Bringing together multiple world-renowned consulting companies and leading Chinese fintech companies, the alliance is committed to helping financial institutions transform from the traditional centralized architectures to the cloud-centered distributed architectures.