Former Honda fleet boss named national fleet sales manager at Nio

Marc Samuel has been appointed as the new national fleet sales manager for Chinese carmaker Nio.

Prior to joining Nio, Samuel was most recently head of SME and B2B telesales at the AA.

He joined the breakdown and recovery company in June, 2020, after being appointed by Pendragon Vehicle Management (PVM) in August, the previous year.   

He had resigned from his role as fleet sales operations manager at Honda Motor UK two months earlier (June, 2019). 

He had held the position for two years at Honda, overseeing a total restructure of the brand’s fleet service offering.

Writing on LinkedIn, Samuel said: “Very pleased to share that I have started a new position as national fleet sales manager at Nio UK.

“I’m very proud to be part of this exciting brand and can’t wait to introduce our fully electric model line up to the movers and shakers in the UK.”

Nio is one of several Chinese brands targeting the UK. While Chinese-owned MG has been dominating the value end of the EV market for a few years now, Great Wall’s Ora has already launched in the UK at the end of last year and other brands like BYD (Build Your Dreams), Lynk and Co, Omoda and Nio are all lining up to offer EVs to UK customers.

A UK launch for Nio is tipped for before the end of 2023, with models like the ET5, ET7 and EL7 already on sale in markets like Germany, Norway and the Netherlands.

Sales will be online subscriptions led with physical locations called “Houses” centred around destination retail meeting spaces. A Nio House in London is likely to be the first location.