NIO Chairman William Li has publicly confirmed for the first time that the Chinese EV maker is providing technical services to British supercar brand McLaren, a collaboration facilitated by NIO's major shareholder, Abu Dhabi's CYVN Holdings.

"CYVN, which acquired McLaren, has enabled us to supply certain technologies to them. This business now constitutes a major source of our external technical service revenue," Li stated, adding, "Related income was already recorded in Q1 of this year, with even more coming in Q2."

According to Li, the technical partnership with McLaren began in the first quarter of this year and has since developed into a substantial collaboration. However, he noted that "this revenue stream is currently unstable, fluctuating from period to period."

Growing Revenue Streams

NIO's Q2 2025 financial results, released on September 2, reported "Other Sales" revenue of approximately $3.96 billion (28.726 billion yuan), a 62.6% increase year-over-year and a 37.1% increase from Q1 2025. The company attributed this growth primarily to increased used car sales, higher technical R&D service income, growing parts and accessory sales alongside rising vehicle ownership, and increased revenue from vehicle aftersales services and energy solutions.

CYVN made strategic investments in NIO totaling approximately $3.3 billion in July and December 2023. Upon completion of these transactions, CYVN beneficially owned approximately 20.1% of NIO's total issued and outstanding shares.

In April of this year, CYVN completed its acquisition of McLaren's automotive business and a portion of its racing division, becoming a major shareholder. Concurrently, McLaren underwent a full merger with startup Forseven to accelerate its electrification transformation.

Technical Collaboration Details

The technical cooperation between NIO and McLaren was brokered by CYVN. Previous reports indicated that, under CYVN's direction, NIO signed a technology licensing agreement with Forseven. This agreement grants Forseven access to NIO's EV platform-related technologies, solutions, software, and intellectual property for the R&D, manufacturing, sales, import/export, and aftersales of Forseven-branded vehicles. NIO is also reportedly developing a power battery based on 4680 large cylindrical cells for McLaren's hybrid models, with low-volume production expected in 2026. Li did not directly comment on these specifics.

Beyond the technical output revenue from McLaren, NIO's other source of technology income comes from its partnerships with other automakers on battery swapping and charging. Since November 2023, NIO has announced battery swap strategic collaborations with Changan Automobile, Geely Auto, Chery, JAC Motors, GAC Group, Lotus, and FAW Group, with plans to jointly develop vehicle models capable of battery swapping.

"With the companies we have signed battery swap cooperation agreements with, we are primarily jointly planning future battery-swappable models. We hope our partners will not simply modify existing models but instead plan for the medium-to-long term from the outset, reserving technical interfaces to effectively control subsequent cost investments," Li emphasized. He described this as a long-term service revenue stream that has not yet generated stable income.

Financial Performance and Future Outlook

The financial report shows that in Q2, NIO's revenue reached approximately $26.2 billion (190.09 billion yuan), a 9% year-over-year increase and a 57.9% increase from the previous quarter. Its net loss was approximately $6.88 billion (49.95 billion yuan), down 1% year-over-year and 26% quarter-over-quarter. The company plans to achieve profitability in the fourth quarter of this year.

"After ten years, NIO is still in the investment phase for R&D, infrastructure, and its multi-brand strategy. Transitioning from an investment stage to financial returns, moving from a $8.27 billion (60 billion yuan) loss in Q1 to profitability in Q4, seems like a nearly impossible task, and external skepticism is very reasonable. For a long time, perhaps less than 1% of people believed we could be profitable in Q4; now that figure might have risen to 5%," Li candidly admitted.

However, Li believes that by effectively combining long-term vision with short-term execution, the market will see NIO's competitiveness. "We will fight a solid battle in Q4. The profitability challenge is immense, but this is a battle we have a chance to win, and one we must win," he concluded.

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