Who is Behind NIO? User-Centric Innovation
“Who is behind the rise of NIO?” asked the official NIO WeChat account a few days ago.
As a dark horse that has soared to third place in May’s new car sales rankings, the question of who is behind NIO’s success is on many people’s minds.
On June 22nd, at the NIO media communication meeting, CEO William Li gave the answer: NIO is a user-centric enterprise.
What is a User-Centric Enterprise?
The importance of users has become a consensus among car companies in the age of Car 2.0. NIO is not the first and definitely not the loudest proclaiming themselves a user-centric enterprise.
So what is a user-centric enterprise exactly? William Li gave the following answer: users define the product and service.
This means that NIO aims not only to provide good service and operations for users, but also to involve users in the design of their products.
And the result? The three user-defined series models unveiled at the media communication meeting: NIO V Co-sport Magic Edition, NIO V Co-loli Witch Edition, and NIO Co-kids Magic Children’s Edition.
NIO’s design and R&D team of more than 80 people interacted with over 300 users more than 100 times to customize the three models according to what users wanted.
Some users have racing licenses and love sports cars, so NIO launched the Co-sport Magic Edition with a sports kit. Some female users like pink and wanted to give their NIO V a pink makeover, so the pink-themed Co-loli Witch Edition comes with a large touch screen. And the Co-kids Magic Children’s Edition is designed for parents who want to share the joy of driving with their children.
While gender is certainly the most straightforward and clearest label for classifying user demands, NIO is constantly striving to explore deeper and more diverse needs.
# Huge amount of user interactive data not only used in products, but also user-selected name “Netai” is now a fan name. Netai has established a community “Netai Universe” that allows users to participate deeply, and even on July 2nd, NETA is preparing to collect new brand logos for fans. Allowing users to vote for fan names and collect logos, common operations in fan circles, has also added a lot of user stickiness and made users feel like “being the boss themselves”.
Of course, just letting users participate without feedback would be “free-riding”, right?
“The people need to participate, and the participating ‘Netais’ need to benefit.” Zhang Yong’s solution is to: for this reason, NETA Auto is launching an initial user fund worth 100 million yuan, widely soliciting user creativity and suggestions, inviting users to define NETA’s products and services, and returning the fund to everyone within the next 18 months.
On NETA Auto’s first user day, NETA narrowed the distance with users through emotional symbols such as user funds, customized products, and deep interaction, making users’ fans one of their biggest aids in this fiercely competitive automotive market.
“Not just a toy for the rich”
As a user-centric enterprise, of course, it must have its own user profile. Zhang Yong gave the user profile for NETA Auto:
- Mostly young users, especially families that have just married and need to buy their first car;
- Slightly more male users;
- Widely distributed, from first and second-tier cities to third, fourth, and fifth-tier cities, with no clear differentiation in sales data.
It is precisely by targeting this clear and populist data image that NETA V has sold more than 20,000 vehicles in the six months since its launch, and its sales in May surged to the third position in the new car-making forces, surpassing Ideal ONE. And NETA clearly wants to continue this strategy, with its user-customized models, the 76,900 yuan “Magical Edition” and the 72,900 yuan “Witch Edition”, both targeting the 70,000 yuan car market.
Extreme cost performance, quality configuration that doesn’t lose out, and user-driven thinking, doesn’t it sound a little familiar? It seems like that company called Xiaomi is doing the same thing. Before Xiaomi Auto was even produced, NETA had already taken the same path in the automotive industry, and from the current data, this path is not bad.
In the fiercely competitive price range of 200,000 to 300,000 yuan for electric vehicles, there is not only a chance to showcase new technologies for smart cars, but also an opportunity to establish a high-end brand image. However, it must be said that for many people, buying a car for under 100,000 for daily travel is still a necessity.
According to data released by the Chinese National People’s Congress in 2020, there are 600 million people in China with a monthly income of around 1,000 yuan, and 964 million people with a monthly income of less than 2,000 yuan. Among these nearly one billion people, there are a significant number of people who have a demand for electric vehicles. The technology of electric cars has made three to four seconds per hundred kilometers acceleration no longer exclusive to sports cars. Equity of such technology ultimately needs to be reflected in the products themselves. “Make cars for the people, not toys for the rich” is the answer given by the NIO car company.
Of course, taking the mass-market route is just the first step for NIO. “Making popular products intelligent and high-end products popular” is a more long-term goal. In response to this, Zhang Yong has also given more specific goals for each stage:
- First stage: Achieving monthly sales of 10,000 vehicles soon.
- Second stage: Launching a competitive model priced between 100,000 and 200,000 yuan within one or two years, achieving sales of 5,000 to 10,000 vehicles per month and taking on the main battleground of electric cars.
- Third stage: A medium- to long-term goal of achieving annual sales of 400,000 to 500,000 vehicles by 2025.
To achieve annual sales of 500,000 vehicles is not only a test of a brand’s products, but also a test of the comprehensive requirements of a car enterprise system, including scalability, research and development capabilities, and supply-chain integration capabilities. If these problems can be solved one by one, then NIO has already succeeded halfway.
Finally, as new energy vehicles enter a phase of more intense competition, every car company faces greater challenges. Finding their own path in the fiercely competitive electric vehicle market is a challenge for not only NIO, but also other car brands. From the current perspective, NIO has found a mass-market approach, focusing on extreme cost-effectiveness while also understanding user psychology and user wallet. As for whether or not NIO can be like the legendary boy, Na Zha, who was capable of the magical in the eponymous Chinese movie, as it said, let the people choose.
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.