Colin Phipps shows us around Nio’s recently-opened Shanghai studio

Nio caused quite a stir at the Shanghai Auto Show with its handsome ET concept, but the biggest surprise was that the company wasn’t showing the widely expected production ET7. In the months following the show, the company has faced some challenges.

With the ET7 ostensibly on hold until Nio’s advanced second-generation platform becomes available, we were wondering what to expect from a visit to Nio’s Shanghai studio in an Auto Tech Park not far from the Shanghai International Circuit. Only in his 46^th day with the company, Colin Phipps, the new Shanghai based Head of Design, is busy with the studio and in near hourly contact with Nio’s design facility in Munich, which is head office for the design team. “Working here is like drinking from a fire hose!” he exclaimed.

Hidden away in an anonymous building, Nio’s facilities are impressive. “Being next to the production department, we focus on the design and execution of our vehicles,” said Phipps. The Munich facilitiy concentrates on design vision and is where Phipps’ new boss Kris Tomasson is based, San Jose works on AI and level 4 autonomy. Clay milling facilities allow for six models to be done at the same time and there is also 3D printing.

On display was Nio’s EVE concept. “Before you even had the driver driving the stagecoach, you had just passengers in a coach. We’ve now just gone back to the coach. A lot of the choices made back then in the way it was decorated reflected the tastes of the owners,” said Phipps, before going on to say there seems to be a trend back to this.

An outdoor viewing area surrounded by high walls has turntables for three cars, unusually a terrace area allows for viewing from above. “This is not a view that designers usually get and from here you can really see the diamond-cut DNA of Nio. This area is also always in shade from about 2pm and so it is perfect light for viewing” said Phipps. “We can open up the doors to the clay area and bring the outside in. This feeds into the core ethos of the brand Weilai: ‘blue sky coming’” he added. The whole facility is designed to have very healthy design discussions.

We looked around the CMF lab, where Phipps showed us directional carbon fibre – one of the IPs that Nio has. Shanghai’s design team consists of 60, spanning around fifteen nationalities. Surprisingly, not just in the design department but across the company, English is used as the unifying language.

For Phipps, who has spent his life working for General Motors – including in China – Nio is quite different. Unusually in his career he’s managed to touch almost all the points of design, including both interiors and exteriors, which has managed to give him a holistic view of a car company and how it is perceived by the user. But ultimately, at GM many of the decisions for China were taken in North America.

One of the seminal moments leading him to join Nio was getting to meet Kris Tomasson, VP of design, and then a few days later William Li, the founder and CEO. “It was very evident why those two had achieved so much together, and I wanted to be part of that,” said Phipps. With Nio the focus is very much on the user, and the company’s Nio Houses allow the designers to meet the users to find out their needs and wants. “The ethos of this brand is transparency and it is very user focused; we don’t necessarily think of ourselves as a car company but a user technology company that offers mobility. Yes, there is a vehicle, but it is much bigger and broader than that,” explained Phipps.

As we drove around the Anting area of Shanghai in Nio’s flagship ES8 SUV, Phipps shouted “Hey Nomi, take a selfie” from the back seat. Nomi is a swivelling AI assistant mounted on the front dash, complete with facial expressions, which acts as the interface for voice controls. “What I love about this, and one of the things that really attracted me to work for Nio, is this humanisation of artificial intelligence, which no one else seems to have done. This puts a character, face, expression and personality behind it. Everything we do has personality and it feeds into the persona of the brand,” said Phipps. He then went on to say his youngest daughter, aged eight and with good Chinese, loves taking control of the car’s functions from the third row – giving a whole new level to back seat driving.

“One of the first things I learnt in Mandarin was shi yi shi – just try it – and we personify that here with our attitude,” he said. Despite being unable to tell us anything about what he is currently working on, Phipps says the future looks good.