Evolution of Anhui's manufacturing sector
Inland province has emerged as one of China's fastest-rising production centers
When a car inspects itself
At Nio's factory in Hefei, the same idea is being pushed into automobile manufacturing, an industry built over more than a century around the principle of repetition.
The body shop alone has 941 robots, while joining processes are fully automated and multiple vehicle platforms and models can move through production simultaneously.
Nio said that around 80 percent of manufacturing scenarios at the factory are supported by AI-driven decision-making using in-house industrial algorithms, foundation models and specialized AI models.
The World Economic Forum added Nio's factory to its global lighthouse network in June, citing a real-time closed-loop system linking vehicles, battery-swap networks and digital twins capable of managing more than 3.6 million vehicle configurations.
One of the clearest examples comes near the end of the line. A newly built vehicle enters Nio's automated inspection system with no quality inspector sitting behind the wheel.
The lights switch themselves on. Seats begin to move. Electronic functions run through their commands. In about three minutes, nearly 1,000 functional checks can be completed.
A car, in effect, has inspected itself.
