Author: Guo Hehe
First of all, happy Winter Solstice to everyone. I wonder what customs you have in your area? In our area, it’s business as usual.
As the year-end approaches and the new cars that are expected to hit the market this year are mostly settled, perhaps to take care of us office workers who are worried and distressed, the OG of the automotive media industry and NIO founder, Mr. Li Bin, has provided us with excellent materials to solve the dilemma of many small-town media editors like myself who have nothing to write.
Perhaps out of concern that the popular new sedan ET5 in the circle of friends is not enough to support our work, NIO has “generously” provided us with a hot news item.
During the communication session after the NIO Day press conference, NIO founder Li Bin said, “I really don’t understand why everyone is still buying gasoline cars.” The detailed video is as follows:
“What else is good about gasoline cars besides the smell of gasoline?” This sentence really broke down my defenses. Despite my inexplicable fondness for the smell of gasoline since childhood, even if there are no ordinary consumers with the same hobby as me, shouldn’t we stop buying gasoline cars?
Perhaps considering public occasions, after repeated consideration, the two-word “nostalgia” was used to summarize consumers who buy gasoline cars. If it were at a dinner table or in a drinking setting, it might be another two-word phrase.
“I really don’t understand why some people don’t turn on the air conditioning when it’s so hot during National Day?”
“I really can’t understand why some people are reluctant to turn on the heating when it’s so cold in winter?”
“I really don’t understand why some people like to fight with others at the charging station during holidays?”
As a backward owner of a gasoline car, it is not difficult to sniff the taste of modern-day “why not eat meatloaf” from Mr. Li’s remarks. I don’t need to do too much analysis and refute what he said. The divine reviews of netizens are enough to reflect my mood.
As someone from the automotive media, who participated in the listing through trials and tribulations three times, Li Bin wouldn’t have been unaware of what impact and controversy this statement would bring to him and the NIO brand. This statement just happened to be made after the release of the NIO ET5. This wave of publicity has really mastered the code of traffic.## Introduction
After gradually coming into contact with some good electric cars in recent years, electric cars do have some natural advantages over gasoline cars in terms of acceleration, intelligence, etc., and it is also a trend to replace gasoline cars as future cars. But is it too early to kick gasoline cars away when it comes to nostalgia? Especially as the founder of an electric car brand, is this kind of “self-proclaimed” appearance impressive?
Of course, after the incident, Li Bin also responded. He said that the original intention of this paragraph was that a few years ago, the infrastructure for charging and swapping batteries was really inconvenient, and there were few good choices for electric cars. However, now that the infrastructure has developed rapidly, there are many good products available at different stages. It’s time to choose new energy vehicles, which can be proved by the continuous increase of China’s electric vehicle penetration rate this year.
Yes, the speed of national infrastructure development is flying, and NIO has also cooperated with Sinopec to add battery swapping stations near a large number of gas stations. But is this really convenient enough?
Electric vs Fuel Cars
Mr. Li should not forget that half of these huge sales come from Tesla’s huge sales. Among the three domestic new energy vehicle leaders, Ideal ONE is the most heavily insured for single vehicles. Why is it a large 7-seat SUV? What three-screen technology, excellent quality of electric vehicles, excellent intelligent driving, and balanced product power are all secondary, and the biggest reason is that this car can refuel.
For most people, choosing a hybrid power that has both an electric vehicle texture and no mileage anxiety is currently the best and least compromising way to transition from gasoline vehicles to new energy vehicles. It is not something that ordinary families can afford to pay hundreds of thousands of dollars to “buy an identity”.
About NIO
There is no shortage of fans of NIO around me, and NIO’s core revolves around service. For example: 1. Compared with other brands, even if you buy a Porsche, it can be said that it is basic service, introductions, payment, car delivery, and other routine operations. However, NIO makes the buyer feel at home. Everyone is like a waiter at Haidilao; 2. A mature car owner community system. After buying a regular brand car, it is usually through forums or other places to find car owners on their own, but NIO has its own APP. Not only can it directly connect with the manufacturer for problems on your own car, but it can also find like-minded car owners on the APP; 3. NIO’s battery swapping system has a certain advantage over other ordinary new energy brands in terms of replenishment time.Due to the fact that most NIO experience stores are located in hot commercial areas in big cities, the majority of NIO’s customers have certain economic conditions, and the user class level is relatively secure. In addition, the sense of prestige brought by services such as redeeming points, on-site tire repair, and charging makes the user stickiness and brand loyalty very high.
Apart from services, NIO’s cars are indeed good in terms of material selection and driving experience, but the small problems with the car computer and the discount on battery life have still not been resolved, which has been criticized by people. In addition, even if the price of the ET5 is lowered to under 300,000 yuan, it is still not something that most families can afford. If there is no perfect confidence, why use such a black or white marketing strategy?
Before the deadline, Qin Lihong, co-founder and president of NIO, stated, “We value the comparison with mainstream traditional fuel luxury cars such as ‘BBA’ more. As NIO enters the high-end market and replaces mainstream luxury fuel cars, we should be able to turn the ‘BBA’ pattern into an ‘NBA’ in the future.”
Although the future pattern is so large, the current pattern is so small. Compared with the previous burning of money, caution and low-key are the catalysts for NIO’s regional stability in recent years. Don’t forget, the future will definitely come, but the future may not necessarily belong to NIO.
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.