ATQ Explained | Unveiling the Secrets of High-Quality Cars in the Factory

In June 2024, NIO announced the All-Time Quality (ATQ) system for the first time, which is a full lifecycle quality system putting users’ interests first.

The ATQ framework consists of four pillars, which represent the four major quality management processes: development quality, partner quality, manufacturing and logistics quality, and user service quality. Today, let’s go to the ATQ Exploration Journey — manufacturing and logistics quality.

If development quality is about building high-quality cars on paper, then manufacturing and logistics quality guarantees the transition from paper to physical cars. In terms of manufacturing, we have the iconic entity of NIO's intelligent manufacturing — NIO Factory 2 (F2) at NeoPark, Hefei.

NIO F2 is a fully digitized smart factory, with the vision of lean and efficient, intelligent and advanced, green and eco-friendly, as well as joyful and open. It leads globally in areas such as full-chain intelligence, process flexibility, and advanced equipment. It serves as a key embodiment of NIO's 12 full-stack technologies in the field of smart manufacturing. The factory creatively solves the contradictions between mass production and customization, allowing for nearly 3.6 combinations of personalized configurations. From receiving the user order to the car rolling off the production line, it takes just 14 days, making F2 a model of AI-driven factory in the new era.

Putting ourselves into users’ shoes, we have designed a comprehensive quality inspection process of "observe, listen, smell, and touch", simulating various driving scenarios. Leveraging the industry-leading smart technologies, we inspect vehicle functionality, appearance, smell, noise, vibration, and harshness (NVH), comfort, subjective perception, and user experience through visual, auditory, olfactory, tactile, and physical feedback. Each NIO car undergoes over 5,000 inspection procedures before rolling off the production line. Amid these complex procedures lie a variety of cutting-edge manufacturing and testing technologies. The control of details and imperfections relies not only on skilled professionals but also precise and advanced technologies in quality inspection, ensuring that every car delivered to users is of high quality.

We’ve prepared several understandable examples to explain how NIO manages manufacturing and logistics quality.

Lidar Measurement System — "Hair-Width Precision" for Parts

NIO's Stamping and Welding Joint Measurement Center is the "heart" of monitoring the dimensions of stamped parts and body assemblies, tracking over 260 parts and generating data from more than 100,000 measurement points. This massive amount of data is monitored by a Lidar measurement system originated from the aerospace industry, achieving 0.05mm precision, thinner than a human hair. This highly efficient and precise measurement ensures the quality of parts and body, contributing to superior vehicle appearance, sealing, NVH performance, safety, battery swapping, as well as assisted and intelligent driving capabilities.

Intelligent Visual Inspection System — Good Looks Guaranteed

NIO and ONVO currently offer 9 models with nearly 3.6 million combinations of personalized configurations to meet the personalized needs of users. To ensure that each vehicle scores high on appearance, NIO employs an industry-leading Intelligent Visual Inspection System during the exterior inspection process. This system uses a self-developed camera array with 11 sets of light sources, with each camera boasting a resolution of 12 million pixels. These cameras are equipped with lenses of three different focal lengths—6mm, 12mm, and 35mm—to capture the vehicle from all angles, ensuring that the exterior configuration is 100% accurate before delivery to the user.

NIO has also integrated traditional visual algorithms with deep learning algorithms to automatically recognize various exterior components, including the front license plate bracket, front bumper trim, charging port cover, front and rear wheel designs, as well as tailgate badges and logos. The inspection status is displayed on a workstation screen, and the inspection data is uploaded to the Q-Plant system in real-time, enabling digital management. This ensures high accuracy and reliability in the results, guaranteeing that the vehicle's exterior configuration is flawless.

Intelligent Audio Inspection System — The "Top Sound Engineer"

Every NIO model comes standard with the 7.1.4 Immersive Sound System. To ensure consistent audio performance across the entire vehicle, NIO has innovatively developed the industry's first Intelligent In-Car Audio Inspection System in-house. This system uses in-vehicle microphones and speakers, which are controlled by backend software that sends test audio frequencies across different zones. Combined with advanced algorithms, it automatically diagnoses and analyzes the sound quality, with the results being automatically uploaded. This creates a highly efficient automated testing process that allows for intelligent inspection of all 23 speakers and 6 microphones in the car. The system significantly improves diagnostic accuracy, and all test data is tied to the specific vehicle, enabling traceable, closed-loop management to ensure the perfect operation of the sound system. Additionally, this system reduces the physical burden on inspectors by eliminating the need for over 1,000 daily bends and body twists, greatly improving working conditions and employee well-being.

Vehicle Air Quality Assurance System – The "Golden Nose" That Makes Every Breath Safe

Do new cars always seem to have a strange odor? Is there formaldehyde? In recent years, in-cabin air quality has become a major concern for car buyers. To protect the health of both users and frontline employees, NIO strictly controls every aspect of the supply chain, including components and manufacturing processes, ensuring that even the smallest plastic particles are properly treated. This attention to details ensures that harmful substances and unpleasant odors are eliminated at the source. All materials used in NIO’s cabins come from top-tier international suppliers, featuring specially customized, ultra-low odor materials. Every component undergoes rigorous treatments such as particle processing, odor removal through component baking, and leather washing to eliminate any lingering smells. Additionally, eco-friendly, low-odor additives are used to create a cabin that is not only premium in touch and feel but also healthy and clean for occupants.

NIO has also established a nationally certified product environmental analysis laboratory and formed a company-wide chemical expert team, known as the "Golden Nose" group and the Chemical Safety Task Force. After vehicle mass production begins, we randomly select several vehicles each month for VOC (volatile organic compounds such as formaldehyde and toluene) testing. This test covers all models and configurations currently in production to ensure that any fluctuations in the production process do not affect the vehicle's chemical safety. We place a high priority on the chemical safety of our vehicles, ensuring that users can breathe freely and safely inside the car.

Appearance Review – Creating “Baby-Soft” Touch

During the vehicle development process, the Manufacturing Quality Department's AAR Sub Team strictly controls the quality of every exterior component according to the relevant appearance standards, ensuring the sophistication of vehicles. At the same time, the team also guarantees that each component reflects its design intention according to the color palette for a perfect NIO-style appearance for users.

NIO’s entire lineup features a significant amount of premium soft materials inside the vehicle, with Haptex or Nappa covering the frequently touched areas such as door panels and instrument panels. The soft and delicate touch of Haptex, and the natural and authentic feeling brought by Nappa, combined with the elasticity of 3D Mesh fabric, provide a touch and feel as soft as “baby skin”.

Multi-Sensory Intelligent Inspection Island – Safeguarding Comfortable Touch

Inside NIO F2 at NeoPark, there is an unmanned inspection station that replicates the full suite of sensors of users – the Intelligent Inspection Island.

Every vehicle passes through this station, where intelligent, digital, and automated inspection equipment simulates a user’s sensory experience in everyday car use: the insertion and extraction force of the vehicle charger, the feel of seats and the steering wheel, the heating of the windshield, the temperature of the air conditioning vents, and the optional configurations of the vehicle interior.

This vehicle-size inspection island protects users’ tactile comfort while driving. It embodies the value of “Putting User's Interests First” in the field of vehicle manufacturing.