What happened

Chinese electric vehicle maker Nio (NIO 0.25%) was one of many electric vehicle companies whose shares were trading lower on Tuesday afternoon, amid a broad market decline triggered by rising rates on government bonds.

As of 2:30 p.m. ET, Nio's American depositary shares were down about 3.1% from Friday's closing price. 

So what

There was no negative news pushing Nio's shares lower on Tuesday. The stock was one of many caught in a broad sell-off of technology names. The apparent trigger: The yield on the benchmark 10-year U.S. Treasury note rose to 1.857% on Tuesday morning, up from 1.771% on Friday and its highest level in two years.

There was some minor positive news of note for Nio and its investors. Black Sesame Technologies, a self-driving chip start-up backed by Nio's venture capital unit, announced a deal with BlackBerry's (BB 3.21%) QNX unit to develop a flexible and open self-driving platform. The platform will use a special chip developed by Black Sesame and a safety-certified operating system from QNX.

Black Sesame's HuaShan system-on-a-chip, designed for autonomous-vehicle processing.

Black Sesame Technologies, a Nio-backed start-up creating chips for autonomous vehicles, has struck a deal to create a self-driving system with BlackBerry's QNX unit. Image source: Black Sesame Technologies.

That's not why the stock is down today, but it's worth noting.

Now what

Electric vehicle investors won't have to wait too long to get an update on Nio's business from its CEO and leadership team. The company is expected to report its fourth-quarter and full-year results in mid-February.