Exclusive-China's Nio explores investment, tech alliances with Mercedes

SHANGHAI - Nio has held exploratory talks with Mercedes-Benz for a tie-up that would see the German automaker invest in the Chinese electric vehicle startup in exchange for technology, twoSHANGHAI - Nio has held exploratory talks with Mercedes-Benz for a tie-up that would see the German automaker invest in the Chinese electric vehicle startup in exchange for technology, two people with direct knowledge of the matter said.

One of the sources said Nio approached Mercedes with the tie-up proposal, but cautioned that it was facing resistance within the German company which discussed it internally in recent weeks, and that it was highly likely it would not proceed.Nio, when contacted, denied it talked to Mercedes on a collaboration, calling it"untrue", without elaborating. Mercedes said in a separate response that there were no collaboration plans with Nio at the moment.

For their part, many of the incumbents are scrambling to reposition themselves to catch up with Tesla and Chinese companies as EV adoption scales up rapidly in markets globally. By seeking tie-ups and investment from established automakers, China's EV startups are following a playbook from Tesla at a time when the EV industry leader was struggling to ramp up production. Elon Musk has credited a $50 million investment from the Mercedes group with saving Tesla in 2009.

"Rather than spending so much money and time on your own, isn't it better to seek win-win via partnerships with EV startups?" he added.The resistance being felt at Mercedes, however, reflects friction still at play in the adjustment to the EV shift.

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