Opening Nio House Rotterdam: for everyone

This afternoon (23-03-2023) it became Nio House officially opened in Rotterdam and we were there as Dailyauto.nl of course! The Nio House is located on the Meent in Rotterdam, close to the Volvo and Polestar studios. You can read how that opening went down below!

The beginning

At the entrance my coat was taken and taken to a locker room. This cabinet turned out to be a two-meter coat rack, but okay. The main room is kind of a big U, with a few open spaces on the closed side of that U. Being the good journalist (and curious little guy) that I am, I’ve examined these spaces thoroughly.

The three Nio models, namely the ET5, ET7 and EL7, are located in the main room. In addition, in the main hall, you will find the Nio Café, “the forum” and a corner with Nio Life products such as jackets, sweaters and bottles. The prices for these surprised me. The forum is a meeting room, which can be created in the middle of the room by means of a table on the ceiling and a sliding glass wall.

Behind the main hall are several meeting rooms very creatively named after places in Rotterdam. There is also an open space intended for the art exhibition, now a local artist who creates recycled works of art. There is also a brightly decorated children’s play area.

The speech

While playing with the ET7’s automatic tailgate, I was told “it” was about to begin. “It” soon turned out to be a speech by the Dutch general manager and a co-founder named Jihong. They said a lot of specs and a few interesting things.

For example, she said that there are now four active battery swap stations in the Netherlands, two are planned. 1.6 million battery changes have already been made worldwide, so the system is scalable, says Nio. An interesting fact is that there are around 100 Nios driving on Dutch roads at the moment, but more than 14,000 people have already downloaded the Nio app in the Netherlands.

With this application you can save points and spend them in any of the Nio houses in our globe. With this you can, for example, buy goods or order a cup of coffee. Now that’s funny. During the speech, the speaker joked and repeatedly referred to new models. For example, Mr. Jihong said he hoped they would produce a performance car soon. An engineer also said they only used 5 and 7 so there was still room for more.

Other interesting things

Nio says he is especially happy with their competition, they say they compete together, but also work together to make the world a greener place. They also say that Tesla is more focused on mass production and standardization, while Nio is more focused on customer contact and the ultimate “experience.”

Talk about the green world. Nio is not going to start its own Tesla-style service outlets. Instead, they enter into a partnership with Kwik-Fit, they become official repairers of Nio. It’s not just because it’s more durable, it’s also a logical step, explains the brand. The first service on a well-running Nio is only after 200,000 kilometres. The rest of the maintenance will consist of wipers, cabin filters, tires and engine oil… Oh no, not that last one.

Nio wants his Nio House to be a place for everyone. This way anyone can come in and that person doesn’t have to want to do anything with Nio. You can rent a meeting room, relax with a coffee or a cake, celebrate your birthday (I’m not kidding). Everything is allowed and possible in Nio, the space also belongs to the people of Rotterdam, they report. At least I know where I’m going to have my next children’s party.