Author: Lu Zhiyao

NIO Day 2022 will be held on December 24th in Hefei. This is a big event for NIO every year, and there are always some heavy news. Yesterday, NIO held the annual “Li Hong Media Communication Meeting”. Qin Lihong, CEO of NIO, provided a lot of key information, which made everyone look forward to NIO for this year and next year.

NIO and BMW

In the Shanghai area, in the past two weeks, the number of ES7 delivered by NIO was more than that of BMW’s X5L, while the total number of ET7 was slightly less than that of the BMW 5 Series, and the number of ET5 delivered was more than that of BMW 3 Series. Although BMW is still ahead of NIO overall, the two are now in a “fighting” state.

The competition between NIO and BBA is fierce. In some cities in East China, NIO has already surpassed BBA and become a stable player in the luxury brand camp.

Intelligence, electric power, and automobiles

Qin Lihong clearly stated that the future form of automobiles will be “intelligent electric vehicles”, and intelligence, electric power, and automobiles will be three dimensions. Different companies will have different performances and answers in these three aspects. In Qin Lihong’s opinion, these three aspects must be synchronized and none of them can be ignored.

In terms of NIO’s service advantages, Qin Lihong emphasized the importance of energy services for new energy vehicles, stating that it is obvious service gap for new energy vehicle companies that have not yet deployed energy services – “making new energy vehicles requires managing energy”. Secondary car services are also important.

Two new cars are about to debut

At the upcoming NIO Day, NIO will release two new models, including the second-generation NIO ES8 developed on the NT2.0 platform, and a “stylish” brand-new model.

This year, NIO has significantly increased the speed of launching new models, intensively releasing the second-generation ES7, ET7, and ET5 models on the new platform. Combined with the three old models, ES8, ES6, and EC6, and the new model that will soon be released, the entire NIO lineup will soon reach 8 models, greatly exceeding other new car makers such as Li Xiang, XPeng, and Zeekr.Although some people think that NIO has too many models, Qin Lihong thinks that each model has a different mission, some are for increasing the brand richness, some are for sales volume. High-end brands must have enough richness.

Countdown to the Launch of Sub-brands

The news that sub-brands will be launched in the future is not new, and Li Bin himself has mentioned it many times. At this media communication meeting, Qin Lihong said that NIO has “relatively high share” in the 400,000 yuan and above level, but the main incremental market for Chinese electric vehicles is in the 200,000 to 300,000 yuan range.

In the NIO brand, ET5 will be the “cheapest” car, with a starting price of 320,000 yuan, with a main sales range of around 350,000 yuan.

Previously, Li Bin, CEO of NIO, revealed that the second brand with the internal code name “Alps” will fall in the range of 200,000 to 300,000 yuan, and its monthly sales volume will reach 50,000 vehicles. The brand will probably appear in 2023, which is next year.

Continuing to “Not Focus on the Main Business”

NIO is making mobile phones. This is already a done deal. On the latest strategic plan diagram displayed by NIO, the mobile phone business is also a part of the system. Qin Lihong stated that NIO’s investment in mobile phones is reasonable and controllable. There is certain reuse of functions between mobile phones and in-car systems, and the ultimate goal of mobile phones is still centered around vehicle use, which is the starting point of “NIO mobile phones.”

Regarding the fact that people say they “aren’t focusing on the main business,” Qin Lihong expressed that this is actually a normal practice for high-end brands in various industries, and few can truly focus only on one product.

Insisting on Full-Stack Self-Research and Development

Qin Lihong clearly stated that NIO will insist on full-stack self-research and development. According to the financial report, NIO has basically achieved R&D investment of RMB 3 billion in one quarter, which is basically equivalent to NIO’s loss amount, that is to say, the current loss of NIO is actually its own R&D cost. Regarding this, Qin Lihong stated that they do not consider this as a “loss,” but rather as “tuition” – NIO does not want to save this part of tuition.“`markdown

Integrating Industrial Chain

In recent years, the issue of chip, battery and other components supply in the new energy vehicle field has also been a hot topic in the industry, so many car companies have begun to build their own supply chains. Qin Lihong said: “We should adhere to the way of walking on two legs, one is to do it ourselves and the other is to rely on external supply, which may be a better way.”

Qin Lihong believes that Tesla and BYD, two mature car companies, actually rely heavily on self-research and self-made batteries to achieve profitability. “Since this year, the profit situation in the electric vehicle industry is actually very simple. If the money earned from batteries is subtracted from the money earned by enterprises, the entire industry is negative growth.”
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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.