According to Bloomberg, Singapore's sovereign wealth fund, the Government of Singapore Investment Corporation (GIC), has filed a lawsuit in the United States against Chinese electric vehicle manufacturer NIO and its executives.

The lawsuit initiated by GIC has named NIO, its CEO Li Bin, and former CFO Feng Wei as defendants. GIC accused NIO of inflating its revenue and profits through its battery asset company, NIO Power, which was established with CATL, and of hiding its actual control over NIO Power, misleading investors and causing them losses. Currently, the court has suspended the trial of this case, awaiting the outcome of the class-action lawsuit filed by U.S. investors before making a decision.

In the secondary market, NIO's Hong Kong shares fell by more than 13% at one point, and NIO's US shares fell by more than 10% in the night session. So far, NIO has not yet responded to this lawsuit.

It is understood that the fuse of this lawsuit can be traced back to a report released by the American short-selling firm Grizzly Research in June 2022, which first questioned NIO's revenue and profit inflation through NIO Power. The short-selling firm believes that NIO sold batteries to Wuhan NIO Power and included the income of a 7-year order in the 2021 revenue all at once, thus inflating the performance level of the year.

At present, many car companies are actively exploring the battery-swapping charging model for new energy vehicles, and the outcome of this lawsuit may affect the industry's design of business models and the specific methods of accounting treatment.