This Chinese Electric Car Maker Says its Cars are Better than Tesla’s

Chinese electric car maker Nio, which was founded just four years ago, made its debut on the NYSE on Wednesday and is already throwing shade at Tesla.

The company has said that its cars are better and cheaper than comparable Tesla vehicles.

According to Nio, the IPO market is tough, partly due to U.S.-China trade tensions. The company’s CFO, Louis Hsieh, has said that Nio has plans to expand into Europe and the United States.

“We’re telling investors the opportunity in front of Nio is huge,” he said. “China is 60 percent of the global market and growing even this year 80 percent a year even though the auto market is down.”

In addition, Nio is the only premium electric vehicle in China besides Tesla, Hsieh remarked. He also noted that Nio’s seven-seat SUV is a better product at a cheaper price than the Tesla Model X.

“Ours comes in at less than half the price, better features, a faster car,” Hsieh said.

“They’ve got the first mover advantage,” said Tu Le, founder of consulting firm Sino Auto Insights. “This is the first Chinese company that wants to be the Tesla killer.”

The company raised $1 billion from the offering, coming in short of the $1.8 billion target Nio had set.

The stock was priced at $6.26 per share, just one penny over the bottom of the range Nio was hoping to see.

Disclaimer: We have no position in NIO Inc. (NYSE: NIO) nor Tesla Inc. (NASDAQ: TSLA) and have not been compensated for this article.