Author: MuMin
ET5’s Monthly Sales Surpassing BMW 3 Series is Inevitable
“This is a revolutionary product. I also want to urge friends who are considering high-end fuel brand mid-size cars to take a good look at ET5. It may refresh your understanding of to what extent mid-size cars at this price point can be equipped.”
“Within one year, ET5’s sales in China should surpass that of BMW 3 Series. I’m referring to BMW 3 series gasoline-powered vehicles.”
This is the praise given by Qin Lihong, the co-founder and president of NIO, at the 2022 Chengdu International Auto Show for their electric sports car, ET5, and he is full of confidence in its sales prospects.
Currently, BMW 3 Series’ monthly sales exceed 12,000 units, which means that NIO’s ET5 needs to stabilize its monthly sales at this level one year later while ensuring production capacity doesn’t lag behind. Currently, NIO’s first Hefei factory is prepared to increase output, and the second factory will also follow closely.
ET5 was officially released at NIO Day last year, which sparked a lot of discussion. With a price range of 328,000 – 386,000 yuan and the NIO battery rental BaaS solution, it can go down to around 260,000 yuan. It aims to compete with BMW 3 Series gas-powered vehicles and targets a younger, sporty audience, with high beauty value.
At this auto show, NIO brought an ET5 in mirrored sky color, becoming the focus of attention on the stage. After waiting for so long, NIO is finally going to start delivering this car, and it is scheduled to open for large order locking on September 9th, with deliveries starting on September 30th.
More detailed information from NIO Fellow is that:
- Large orders open on 10 AM of September 9th;
- Lock orders between September 9th and 15th (inclusive), and arranged according to the order of down payment. Earliest delivery starts on September 30th;
- Lock orders starting on September 16th, arranged according to the order of order locking.- There will be display cars available for test-driving at stores around early September, and test drives will begin around late September.
- Due to the large number of ET5 orders, the probability of delivery within this year is high if the order is locked and prioritized before September 15.
As ET5 is the focus, Qin Lihong also provided more detailed information about this model at the auto show and made many optimizations, while keeping the price unchanged.
Regarding the exterior and interior design, ET5 now has added Mink Pink as a new color option. There are currently 9 exterior colors and 6 interior styles in total. During the Qin Lihong presentation, he strongly recommended the Mink Pink and the Tundra Green combination for the exterior and interior design.
In terms of seating, the ET5 seat has been updated to a sport seat with an integral design, which is more in line with the positioning of the ET5 sedan. However, once this seat was released, many consumers joked that this design was a “reverse upgrade,” but there were also many people who liked it.
One highlight of the ET5 cabin is that it supports AR viewing, and Nreal has cooperated with Nio to customize AR glasses for this purpose. The specific pricing of the glasses is currently unknown.
In terms of mechanical performance, the ET5 has been optimized to accelerate from 0 to 100 km/h in 4.0 seconds, down from 4.3 seconds in the initial release. This level was achieved under half-load conditions (a more vivid description: with three Qin Lihong sitting in the car).
The ET5 is also equipped with P Zero series silent tires, which enable the car to brake from 0 to 100 km/h in 33.8 meters, an improvement of 0.1 meters from the initial release.
As for mileage, the production version of the ET5 has also been improved to varying degrees. Currently, under the CLTC conditions, the 75-degree electric version has a range of 560 kilometers, while the 100-degree electric version has a range of 710 kilometers. With the relatively complete charging and battery-swap services that Nio provides, the mileage anxiety of ET5 owners has been greatly reduced.
Also, Nio has equipped the ET5 with an electric tow hook (which is likely to also be available for ET7), which allows for trailer modes and has a maximum towing weight of 1.4 tons, while also providing power to the vehicle being towed. Of course, since the ET5’s power is not as strong as the ES7’s, towing a trailer may be more stressful for the ET5, and the trailer version will not be available for delivery until the end of the year (as electric tow hook regulatory certification takes time).
Finally, regarding pricing, Nio has not increased the price of the ET5, which is still worthy of recognition.
- 75-degree electric version: 328,000 RMB or 258,000 RMB + a 980 RMB battery rental fee per month.- 100 kWh battery: RMB 386,000, RMB 258,000 plus RMB 1,680 monthly battery rental fee.
Given that the price of new energy vehicles has increased several times this year, and the price increase is at the level of tens of thousands of yuan, it can be seen that NIO has made some trade-offs to boost the sales of ET5.
Product Matrix Deployment, NIO’s Sales Growth is Promising
In addition to the focus on ET5, Qin Lihong also introduced NIO’s progress at this auto show.
In terms of sales, as of the end of July this year, NIO had delivered 227,949 new vehicles. However, in terms of monthly sales, NIO was overtaken by some other new contenders.
Regarding this issue, Qin Lihong said in an interview with the media, “In the past year or so, NIO’s sales have lagged behind the market, which is an inevitable process. But with the deployment of a complete product matrix, NIO is coming out of the curve and the growth rate will pick up soon.”
Looking specifically at products, NIO has started deliveries of NT2 platform models this year, including ET7 and ES7. However, both of these models with a unit price over RMB 400,000 are difficult to sell in large volumes, which means that ET5 must take on the task of boosting NIO’s sales growth.
In order to boost sales growth, NIO is also actively expanding its overseas market. Qin Lihong said, “Three shipments of NIO ET7 have been sent to Europe, and they will be delivered to five countries: Norway, Germany, Denmark, Sweden, and the Netherlands. At the same time, NIO’s service system will be deployed in Europe as well. It is said that NIO Day will also be held in Europe in the fourth quarter of this year. 2022 is the prelude to NIO’s comprehensive layout of the European market.“
More sales also mean that a more complete charging and battery swapping system must keep up. So far, NIO has built 1,079 battery swapping stations and 10,647 charging piles in its NIO Power network. The NIO app is also connected to more than 550,000 third-party charging piles.
Since the beginning of this year, NIO’s pace of building charging and battery swapping systems has not stopped for even a minute, despite various unfavorable external factors. Such a deployment has also brought great flexibility to NIO users.
For example, in Sichuan Province this year, due to drought and power rationing, NIO’s charging and battery swapping system helped users to replenish energy in various flexible ways, such as private pile sharing. Qin Lihong, the president of NIO, also asked at the press conference, “If one day there is a problem with oil supply, which fuel car brand will take care of their users?”
NIO’s system capability is helping it to move more steadily.Except for the NIO premium brand with a bicycle invoicing price of over 4 million yuan, NIO has planned to launch independent brands for the mass market, and it is not just one. The second brand officially announced is Alps. In the first quarter conference call of NIO’s financial report this year, NIO CEO William Li announced that the pricing range of Alps is between 200,000 yuan and 300,000 yuan, and it will be in mass production by 2024.
In addition to Alps, NIO may also plan to launch the third automotive brand to cover the low-end market below 200,000 yuan, and it will adopt an independent operation mode. Currently, they are also recruiting core teams.
In addition to launching new products and building new brands, NIO is also accelerating the layout of power battery research and development, as well as the development of autonomous driving software and hardware (including chips). They are also developing their own smartphones. Although it seems like they are pulling the company’s front line too long and spreading it too wide, nobody knows what these pre-research and development can bring to NIO in the future.
These new businesses mean greater investment and greater risks, but in my understanding, this is also a move that NIO must take in its journey to become a 50 or 100 year old car company.
This article is a translation by ChatGPT of a Chinese report from 42HOW. If you have any questions about it, please email bd@42how.com.