Hong Kong Jockey Club helped inspire this Tesla challenger's Beijing showroom

With more than 70 electric vehicle (EV) models to choose from, mainland Chinese consumers are spoiled for choice – which is why one carmaker looked to racing when it came to separating itself from the pack: Horse racing, that is.

Inspired by the members-only business model of the Hong Kong Jockey Club, Tencent-backed start-up NIO has just opened a 3,000 square metre “clubhouse” in an upmarket Beijing shopping district as part of a strategy to burnish its own brand and challenge Telsa Motors and others in how EV carmakers sell to customers.

“I am often invited by [Jockey Club] members to have dinner [at the club in Beijing],” William Lin Bin, founder of NIO, said at the launch of NIO House on the weekend. “The membership is 250,000 yuan, but I didn’t feel particularly happy [to pay]. So I thought … can tens of thousands of our customers enjoy the same privilege at our store?”

The store in Wangfujing, one of Beijing’s most famous shopping districts, illustrates how companies like NIO are changing the sales environment in China’s red hot EV market, which made up 43 per cent of EV production worldwide last year, according to consultancy McKinsey.

Traditionally, car showrooms are located out of the city centre where rents are cheaper. Tesla led the move to put showrooms in shopping districts. Now NIO is taking it a step further with the “car club” concept.