Chinese maker Nio already has an impressive roster of EVs to its name, with some being sold in Europe as well as China. The company launched its first smartphone, the Nio Phone, last September, and now it’s ready to unleash its sucessor.
The Nio Phone 2 will become official on July 27, which is when Nio is holding its Nio Innovation Day event in Shanghai.
The original Nio Phone from 2023
The logic behind Nio making its own smartphones is simple: the company claims this is the way to offer unparalleled connectivity between these phones and its cars.
This has been quite a trend in China recently, with Polestar also releasing its own phone for the Chinese market in the past few months – although that one is clearly more of a rebranded Meizu than an entirely built-from-scratch device.
The Nio Phone 2 should be all-in with using large language models for AI, and it should also come with performance improvements compared to its predecessor, according to Nio’s vice president for hardware, Bai Jian, who previously worked at Xiaomi and Oppo.
The company has in the past mentioned it would launch a new Nio Phone each year, just like Apple and the big smartphone makers, although this one is coming about two months early compared to the original.
The Nio Phones allow you to quickly interact with more than 30 functions of your Nio car, including using them as keys, controlling AC and switching seat massage on and off. Over the past few months, in China, Nio has been giving away free Nio Phones to customers who buy its 2024 car models.
