NIO Clarifies It Won't Enter Robotaxi Market for Now, Focusing Instead on Advancing Autonomous Driving to Enhance Safety and User Experience

During the 2026 High-Level Forum on Intelligent Electric Vehicle Development, Li Bin, Founder, Chairman, and CEO of NIO, stated that autonomous driving technology has now largely converged in terms of perception and modeling and is poised to enter a period of rapid growth. He noted that the development of Robotaxi involves not only technical challenges but also complex issues related to operations, regulations, integration with traditional taxis and ride-hailing services, and broader societal governance. Given these complexities, NIO currently has no plans to enter the Robotaxi sector and will instead focus on leveraging autonomous driving technology to reduce driver workload and enhance road safety. In January this year, NIO rolled out a new version of its NIO World Model (NWM), marking the first time in China that a complete closed-loop reinforcement learning system has been applied to the development of intelligent driving assistance. Built on a "world model + closed-loop reinforcement learning" architecture, this update fully models both urban and highway navigation-assist capabilities. It also introduces an urban navigation-assisted battery swap feature, supporting over 2,000 Gen-2 and newer urban battery swap stations nationwide. Additionally, Li Bin mentioned that NIO achieved its first-ever quarterly profit in Q4 2025. He emphasized that profitability is merely the starting point, as the company views competition in the automotive industry as a long-term marathon. He added that this milestone has strengthened confidence in NIO among users, investors, and the team, and reaffirmed the company’s commitment to maintaining full-year profitability in 2026.