Chinese EV matches luxury with cost-cutting guts, teardown shows

TOKYO -- What is the special characteristic of ever more popular Chinese electric vehicles? It may be aggressive economizing in the unseen nuts and bolts while maintaining a luxury experience for the passengers, a close examination of a high-end EV sold by Shanghai startup NIO shows.

Founded in 2014, NIO designs and develops EVs, while production is contracted to Anhui Jianghuai Automobile Group Corp. NIO first launched its mainline sports utility vehicle, the ES8, in 2017.