NIO’s venture apologises for premature embrace of China’s digital currency to buy electric cars without regulatory approval
- The electric car joint venture between start-up NIO and GAC Group made the announcement on the use of digital currency on Weibo only to withdraw it
- Carmaker, however, says that it was closely studying the central bank’s policies on digital currency and has been making preparations to use it
NIO’s electric car venture with Toyota Motor’s Chinese partner announced a premature embrace of China’s digital currency, only to retract it hours later for lacking the necessary permission to accept payments in the virtual yuan.
The announcement was amended to digital currency, for which the Chinese central bank is conducting trials in four cities, excluding the home location of GAC-NIO. The carmaker later posted an apology on its blog for the back-to-back errors and confusion.
“Without considering the fact that it needed to pass through a licensing procedure by the financial regulators, the announcement that the company will become the first carmaker to accept digital currency has drawn wide attention from the public,” the company said in a statement. “We sincerely apologise for the confusion.”
The carmaker, however, did say that it was closely studying the central bank’s policies on digital currency and had been making preparations for its use. It could still become the first Chinese carmaker to adopt digital currency in transactions if it were to secure regulatory approval as no other car company has announced such plans.