Formerly owned by Chinese EV concern NIO, 333 Racing bought the team in 2019 and set about reworking the squad after initial success in Formula E had long since disappeared.
With its focus on the Gen3 regulations, NIO 333 has shown a strong turn of pace in qualifying so far in the 2023 season.
Although race pace is less strong, with the team explaining that design decisions early on in the Gen3 development process introduced inefficiencies in the package, driver pairing Dan Ticktum and Sergio Sette Camara have both managed to impress this year.
Sette Camara took fifth place in Hyderabad, while Ticktum managed sixth in Cape Town. According to Hui, NIO 333's stronger results is offering more "momentum" in talks with potential backers.
"We still lack resource and procedure in some areas, which we'll try to do as much as we can for this year. The [powertrain] package is more or less frozen between this season and next season, but the big manufacturers will be able to do more development with the current package," Hui explained.
"We will try to do that, but I think the rate of development of us as a smaller team will be more limited and we are already looking at Season 11 [2024-25] to how to make a big step for the next package.
"But with the better results recently, I would say we're getting more momentum in terms of partnerships and all other opportunities, which is fundamental to the success of the racing.
"I think it's giving good motivation, but we need to really keep our feet on the ground to be realistic that we have improved it, but it's not enough. Although there's some deficits in the package, we'll keep trying to extract more."
Speaking to Autosport at the Diriyah E-Prix, Hui explained that NIO 333 wanted to retain its position as a manufacturer team despite its small status, to have its own intellectual property rights with powertrain design.
He says that this could be of interest to an OEM wishing to enter the championship as a supplier in the future, and explained that the team is actively looking for more sponsors and investors - with the intent on challenging for the Formula E title in 2024-25.
"I'm sure we can able to put together a championship winning car and I'm really confident about that. But now it's like in the point that we need to extract more sponsors, partners and investors," Hui explained.
"We hope the relationship [with NIO] can develop, but you know, the door is open for everyone. We are not ruling out that 333 Racing will work with some other manufacturers or sponsor in the future.
"That's the reason why we decided to be manufacturers. It takes a longer route, because we think having that ownership of the IP - basically, short term is difficult, but it opens doors.
"If any OEM wants to come in, they would like to get in a team that has the information they can build on. A customer team, you've got no IP, so it's different.
"But I think the positive start actually attracted quite a lot of interest. We are talking to various partners, sponsors, someone even discussing that they would like to be an investor in the team. We are in discussions."
