Recently, the automobile circle has been continuously swiped by the news of NIO: semi-solid-state batteries, the expansion of the battery swap alliance, the third quarter financial report is very good, and the news of new models has been revealed ......
On December 14, the Weilai ** exchange meeting came as scheduled, and Li Bin, founder and chairman of NIO, spoke for more than two hours at the event site and answered 140 ** questions seriously.
Even Qin Lihong, co-founder of NIO, said: "Li Bin has been standing and talking, answering 140 questions in two hours, who is so humble and down-to-earth?."”
Fortunately, Li Bin's two-hour hard work was not in vain, not only facing the current situation of NIO, revealing the next strategic plan, but also receiving praise from the capital market, after the event, the market value of NIO in Hong Kong stocks once soared billions of Hong Kong dollars.
I can't help but wonder what is the magic of this ** communication meeting, what is the current situation of NIO, and what is the road to breaking the situation of NIO?
In fact, many peers have sorted out the content of this exchange meeting before press time, but the author still wants to talk about something different, that is, at this exchange meeting, the author saw the change in NIO's mentality and actions.
From long-termism to short-term execution
It is understood that the public relations department originally just wanted to collect ** questions, and then let Li Bin pick part of the answers, but Li Bin chose a very sincere way to brush from beginning to end.
It's a laborious approach, but you have to admit that it's an effective way to get a full picture of the outside world's doubts about NIO, and to better face the changes that lie ahead.
And in this interview, the most intuitive changes are in two aspects:One is the enterprise operation level, and the other is the actual landing level.
In this paragraph, we will mainly talk about the changes of NIO at the operational level.
You must know that in the automotive circle, Li Bin has always been an unswerving long-termist, and NIO is often accompanied by the label of "long-termism", but in fact, insisting on long-termism is often easy to step into a misunderstanding, that is, too much attention to the future, but it is easy to ignore the present.
There is a line in the online drama "Mao Liar": "People always have a problem, when they look at one place, they forget to look elsewhere." And NIO has fallen into such a misunderstanding before.
We all know that NIO has been engaged in battery swapping stations, making chips, developing self-developed batteries, making mobile phones, and improving brand services ......To outsiders, this may be a bit "unprofessional".
In fact, the author believes that all of the above actions are actually rare competitiveness, because they are closely related to car building. For example, the battery swap service can indeed solve many people's range anxiety and charging anxiety, and improve the tram experience to a higher levelFor another example, making chips and self-developed batteries can indeed reduce costs and firmly hold the technology in their own handsAnother example is to build a mobile phone, which seems to be very fascinating, but it can greatly improve the interactive experience of the handcar;As for the brand service, needless to say, it has become the "golden signboard" of NIO.
Obviously, NIO is not as unserious as the outside world says, but all of the above is a bit too long-term and will take a long time to get an answer. For an automaker, short-term result orientation is equally important, because it is the fastest thing to get positive feedback.
In this regard, Li Bin said: "Our original intention will not change, long-termism will not change, long-termism is not an excuse not to do a good job in short-term implementation, always talk about long-termism, it is easy to derive a culture in the company, that is, do not look at short-term implementation, this is definitely not good." So in the future, don't say that NIO is a long-term company, which will paralyze our colleagues, just say that NIO is a company that pursues short-term execution, which is good, and that it is no problem to say that we are short-sighted, and our colleagues will be encouraged. ”
Therefore, the first change of NIO is a change in the pattern and a change in the company's operational thinking. While believing in long-termism, we pay more attention to short-term implementation, improve execution and efficiency, and insist on laying a good foundation in the pursuit of the ideal castle in the air.
It's all a change of mindset.
How to implement short-term implementation?
There has been a change in thinking, so what should NIO do when it comes to reality?
In this interview, the author summarized the following points.
The first is the sales volume. You know, Weilai handed over a brilliant financial report in the third quarter of this year, sweeping away the previous haze, and the direct reason for all the good performance is the delivery volume, Weilai even said in the financial report: The increase in sales is mainly due to the increase in car deliveries.
In fact, Li Bin is also aware of this, so at the press conference, Li Bin said that it is a big lesson not to strengthen sales capacity in time, otherwise you can sell one to twenty thousand more cars.
We have an internal review this year, the biggest lesson is that the sales can be late, should start in February this year, probably the month can generate sales, we have a lot of intentions at that time, really because the follow-up is not enough, not timely enough, really lost. Li Bin said.
In order to improve sales capabilities, Weilai has also been expanding sales positions, in the previous financial report meeting, Li Bin revealed that the current Weilai sales consultants have reached 5,700 people, of which more than 3,000 are recently hired, and will also develop a more efficient assessment mechanism.
The author believes that this will greatly increase NIO's sales. Because at the communication meeting, Li Bin revealed that even in such fierce competition, the number of locked orders for Weilai's models is still increasing month by month, so after improving its sales ability, it is believed that Weilai's sales will usher in a qualitative leap in the near future.
The second is the battery aspect. The self-developed batteries of car companies have been a common topic in the industry, but in the early days, NIO did not stop at self-development, but also made itself, which invisibly added a lot of cost input.
So, does it make a lot of sense to make your own battery?
Big of course For car companies, once the model is mass-produced, according to the scale effect of industrial production, manufacturing costs can be greatly reduced and gross profit margin can be improved. However, there is a premise for this matter, that is, the volume is increased, and before the volume is increased, the manufacturing investment of the battery will cost a lot of resources, which will once again increase the burden on the enterprise.
To put it simply, making your own batteries is a good thing, but it can't get rid of the label of long-termism, and it has little effect in the short term.
In this regard, Li Bin said: "The battery is roughly divided into two links, one is research and development, the other is manufacturing, research and development to improve the gross profit performance must have an opportunity, but manufacturing in the short term can not improve the gross profit performance, because the battery manufacturing has a long investment period, this investment period not only occupies the capital, but also climbs, improve the yield, we certainly do not have such a resource to support this today." ”
NIO's strategy is to prioritize the development of battery for gross profit, and wait until the model is massive, and then carry out self-manufacturing, so as to exchange gross profit by scale. It can be said that every sentence grasps the short-term results, but never forgets long-termism.
In fact, batteries are just one of the examples given by Li Bin, and in other R&D, Li Bin also said that he would maintain R&D investment in core technologies and improve the efficiency of R&D, so that the output can be higher.
Finally, in terms of new models. Previously, NIO planned to launch a second brand and target the market at the level of 200,000-300,000 yuan. Li Bin believes that in the household market of more than 200,000 yuan, there is an opportunity to generate monthly sales.
50,000 or 60,000 models, so NIO only plans 3 vehicles, and the playing style will be more efficient-oriented, that is, through sales capacity and efficiency to obtain sales.
In addition to the second brand, the million-level flagship model that was previously rumored on the Internet is also about to be unveiled, but Li Bin said that it will not really sell for one million yuan, but he is still full of expectations for the car. "Our next-generation flagship model is what we really want to show you what our technological innovation is like when you put it into a car”
You must know that the materials used in Weilai's models are also excellent enough, the brand service is good enough, and the technology is comprehensive enough, but there is a problem of vague product definition, Li Bin also said: "I think we are not accurate because of the product definition, because the product planning is really not detailed enough, it must have allowed us to sell less cars, this is the tuition we paid." We are the next generation of products, we will know more clearly who we are selling to, why it will be bought, and we will define this matter more clearly. ”
It can be seen that Li Bin has realized the problems of NIO, and after completing the transformation of thinking and action, NIO's new models and new brands are still worth looking forward to.
Conclusion
NIO, a car company that has experienced twists and turns. It has reaped numerous glories and is one of the few new listed forces, and it has also suffered countless doubts from the outside world this year.
Previously, it was labeled as "long-termism", but now it has started a shift to "short-term execution", which is a change in mentality and a rebirth within the company.
The author believes that after the reform of the enterprise and the change of mentality, NIO still has the opportunity to compete in the final battle of new energy.
Just like Qin Lihong, co-founder and president of NIO, said at the ** meeting:
"NIO has reached the bottom, and every step in the future is upward. ”