Nio-branded Phones In The Works? Rumors Suggest So

$NIO Inc (NIO.US)$  is working on a product that may be loosely related to its core business, if reports are to be believed.

Nio may be working on a phone, which is currently in the nascent phase of research, according to CnEVPost, citing a post by a car blogger on his Weibo account. The company apparently wants to dig deep into the phone business.

Nio is not interested in getting the phone built by another manufacturer and merely adding its brand name to it, the report said. Instead, the company wants to build its phone business from the scratch, including designing the product, the report added.

The Nio phone, according to the Weibo post, will have features for interacting with the company's car. It may allow transfer of files between the phone and the vehicle, and projection of AR/VR resources, while also having a mobile version of Nio's NOMI virtual assistant.

The reported move, if true, may raise eyebrows. Nio had to toil with component shortages for much of last year, and the company has an ambitious vehicle introduction plan for 2022.

Incidentally, tech giant $Apple (AAPL.US)$ , which has smartphone manufacturing as its mainstay business, is working on a self-driving car.