(Yicai Global) Nov. 27 -- NextEV Inc., an intelligent electric carmaker that Chinese entrepreneurs and internet companies established, opened its first customer center in Beijing and will open similar facilities in 10 Chinese cities next year, Beijing Business Today reported. 

Covering an area of 3,000 square meters, the first location is in Wangfujing in downtown Beijing. Unlike traditional 4S (sale, spares, service, survey) stores, the shop is part of a community where customers live and make friends, and customers can hold activities such as birthday parties and concerts there.

The ES8, a battery-powered sport utility vehicle NextEV is mass producing, is set to hit the market on Dec. 16.

Internet firms and entrepreneurs including JD.com Inc. [NASDAQ:JD], Tencent Holdings Ltd. [HK:0700], Hillhouse Capital Group, and JD.com Chairman and Chief Executive Richard Liu founded NextEV in 2014. It received backing from dozens of well-known institutions such as Temasek Holdings Private Ltd., Baidu Capital, Sequoia Capital, Legend Holdings Corp. [HK:3396], Warburg Pincus LLC and IDG Capital.

NextEV released NIO, its English brand name, last November.