NIO launches its own Android-based phone for $890 with a new version to follow each year
After a year and a half of ambiguous updates and a swirling rumor mill, EV automaker NIO has officially launched its first-ever phone. The company shared extensive details of the new Android-based smartphone in China today, during its 2023 Innovation Day presentation that also included its own in-house developed chip to control LiDAR, and its own App Store.
As the rise in EV sales continues to hockey stick around the globe, legacy automakers have been adapting their lineups to electrification. Meanwhile, young and innovative EV automakers are challenging the status quo (as long as they have enough funding, of course).
Additionally, large tech manufacturers have taken note of the shift from from moving mechanical parts to chips and software dominant in EVs and have decided to take their own crack at building vehicles. These days its more common to see cell phone manufacturers like Xiaomi decide to build cars. Here’s also that whole Apple Car that’s been in development for about twelve years now…
What is more rare, however, is to see an automaker decide it’s going to begin manufacturing smartphones – but NIO ($NIO) has done it. The young automaker’s journey to today’s launch started in the March of 2022, when chairman and CEO William Li confirmed a NIO Phone was in the works and would arrive as a direct competitor to Apple… at least at some point in the future.
By last summer, we got a slew of new details surrounding the NIO Phone, including design cues, plans for a Qualcomm SnapDragon chip and deliveries sometime in 2023. Today, NIO has confirmed many of the specs originally promised, and at a starting price lower than originally anticipated. Check it out.
NIO Phone is here, built to support its EV owners
The debut of this new Android-based smartphone was the key presentation during NIO’s 2023 Innovation Day held in China earlier today. William Li and the NIO team spoke on stage for nearly five hours, showcasing several new technologies in the works in addition to its first-ever phone. Per the company’s Weibo page:
The full stack of NIO’s 12 technologies is presented in a panoramic manner for the first time, including NIO’s first lidar main control chip-Yang Jian, vehicle-wide operating system-Tianshu SkyOS, NIO Link NIO panoramic interconnection, global enhanced navigation assistance NOP+ service, and the first mobile phone NIO Phone is released to continuously innovate to improve user experience.
We’re here to talk about the phone, though, so here are the juicy details. As originally promised, the NIO Phone is powered by a Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 SoC processor and utilizes a 6.81-inch curved screen with 2K resolution from Samsung that supports a refresh rate of 1-120 Hz. The phone is equipped with a 5200 mAh battery that supports 66-watt wired charging, 50-watt wireless charging, and 10-watt reverse charging. NIO shared that even one of its new smartphones is completed depleted of battery, it can still unlock the EV its paired to for another 48-hours.
Since this is a phone from an automaker, the NIO Phone was built with its EV owners in mind and caters to those specific consumers. For instance, the smartphone features an action button that allows drivers to launch over 30 different functions pertaining to their EV controls including features like HVAC, seat massages, and vehicle locks.
Thanks to its ultra-wide band (UWB) technology, the NIO Phone can wireless display itself as a virtual phone on the center screen of the NIO EV it is paired too, similar to Apple Airplay. Another similarity to Apple is NIO’s approach to continue innovating in phones.
From early on, the Chinese EV automaker has shared its intentions to release a new NIO Phone each year going forward, so expect to see additional smartphones in the future. Apple’s iPhone 15 debuted last week and NIO appears to have strategically launched hereafter the undisputed global leader in smartphones, but at a slightly higher price. Here are the three versions:
- 12 GB ROM and 512 GB storage – RMB 6,499 ($889)
- 12 GB, 1 TB storage – RMB 6,899 ($944)
- 16 GB, 1 TB storage – RMB 7,499 ($1,026)
Additionally, NIO says it will offer protection plans for its phones, similar to Apple Car for RMB 699 ($96) and 1TB of cloud storage service for RMB 38 ($5) a month. As of today, the NIO Phone is officially available for sale in China with first deliveries expected to begin shipping on September, 28 2023.
You can check out the full presentation from NIO’s Innovation and Technology Day here, but it hasn’t been translated to english yet. Still lots of cool stuff to see including the launch video of the NIO Phone.
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Paris’ bike-share system, Vélib has long been considered one of the shining success stories of urban micromobility. With a massive fleet of over 20,000 pedal and electric-assist bicycles around Paris, the service has helped millions of residents and tourists get around the City of Light without needing a car or scooter. But lately, a growing problem is threatening to knock the wheels off this urban mobility marvel: theft and joyriding.
According to city officials and the service operator, more than 600 Vélib bikes are now going missing every single week. That’s over 30 bikes a day simply vanishing from the system – some stolen outright, others taken on “joy rides” and never returned.
“At the moment we’re missing 3,000 bikes,” explained Sylvain Raifaud, head of the Agemob company that currently operates the Velib system. That’s nearly 15% of over 20,000 Vélib bikes across Paris.
The sticky-fingered culprits aren’t necessarily professional thieves or organized crime rings. Instead, they’re often regular users who treat the shared bikes like disposable toys.
The city estimates that many people have figured out how to pry the bikes out of the system’s parking docks, unlocking one for a casual cruise and then ditching it somewhere far from a docking station.
Once pried free, the bikes are technically usable for the next 24 hours until their automatic locking feature kicks in. At that point, the bikes are often simply abandoned. Some end up in alleyways. Others get tossed in rivers. A few just disappear completely.
And since the bikes are intended to be parked at their many docking stations around the city, they don’t have GPS chips, further complicating recovery of “liberated” bikes.
The issue started small but has grown into more than an inconvenience – it’s beginning to undermine the entire purpose of the service. With bikes going missing at such a high rate, many Vélib docking stations are left empty, especially during rush hours.
Riders looking for a quick commute or a convenient hop across town are increasingly finding themselves without available bikes, or having to walk long distances to find a functioning one.
That kind of unreliability chips away at user confidence and threatens to drive potential riders back into cars, cabs, or other less sustainable forms of transport at a time when Paris has already made great strides to dramatically reduce car usage in the city.
The losses are financially painful, too. Replacing stolen or vandalized bikes isn’t cheap, and the resources spent on tracking down missing equipment or reinforcing anti-theft measures are stretching thin. Vélib has faced theft and vandalism issues before, especially during its early years, but this latest surge has officials sounding the alarm with renewed urgency.
Officials acknowledge that there’s no easy fix. Paris, like many cities with bike-share systems, walks a fine line between accessibility and accountability. Part of what makes Vélib so successful is its ease of use and widespread availability. But those same features make it vulnerable to misuse – especially when enforcement is limited and the consequences for abuse are minimal.
The timing of the problem is especially unfortunate. In recent years, Paris has seen impressive results in reducing car traffic, expanding bike lanes, and promoting cycling as a key part of its sustainable transport strategy. Vélib is a cornerstone of that plan. But if the system becomes too unreliable, it risks losing the very people it was designed to serve.
Meanwhile, as Parisians increasingly find themselves staring at empty docks, the challenge for the city and Vélib will be to restore confidence in the system without making it harder to use. That means striking the right balance between freedom and responsibility, between open access and protection against abuse.
In a city where cycling is supposed to be the future of mobility, losing thousands of bikes to joyriders and sticky fingers isn’t just frustrating; it’s unsustainable.
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