China’s Nio explores investment, tech alliances with Mercedes 

Market Impact

Nio’s founder and chief executive William Li discussed the potential collaboration with Mercedes CEO Ola Kaellenius earlier this year, seeking an investment from the latter in exchange for loss-making Nio sharing its research and development capabilities with Mercedes, said the sources. The Nio-Mercedes talks align with a trend of closer collaboration between legacy automakers and new players as Chinese EV companies, lacking cash, seek to survive a consolidating domestic industry by trying to sell innovations to established automakers.