Text karakush
At least half of the highlights at the end of 2023 are NIO.
From the buyback of the JAC factory, it obtained the independent car manufacturing qualification, paving the way for the pure-blood stamp;to reach battery swap cooperation with Chang'an and Geely, self-proof business model leading;To 150 degrees, the battery is not charged, not replaced, and the single ride is thousands of miles, and the technology is used to disintegrate the shortcomings of pure electric and not long-distance distancesTo obtain 2.2 billion US dollars of war investment from Abu Dhabi, a total of 3.3 billion dollars in July, becoming China's largest foreign direct investment equity this year.
And then last weekend NIO Day, more than 10,000 users came to Xi'an for pilgrimage, more than 400,000 people watched the ceremony, and no car company press conference could hold the same folk subjective initiative, which is worth savoring the brand appeal and cohesion. A domineering detail is that the booths of NIO Phone in the outfield market were all sold out by 4 p.m. that day.
The high-spirited winter has strongly lifted his frustration for a year.
Although the growth rate of 33% is aligned**, but under the backdrop of peers, NIO's market size and presence are opening up a gap with the top stream. The market performance has led to a ripple effect of continuous losses, business adjustments, and layoffs, and at the same time, NIO has been at a loss for words about its rhythm and style of play.
NIO is easily dragged into a kind of public opinion, the boss is very mediocre and inefficient, and he is fooled by his super ability to turn his fate.
This situation made many friends feel dead in 2019, and suddenly began to kick in the round. Li Bin remained cautious and optimistic, he said that in 2019, he really didn't know that next month's salary would be **, and in 2023, it would just be stressful but not difficult.
There are always external reasons, such as the high-end pure electric market compared with the extended range hybrid has not yet exploded, such as the lithium price once soared and brought a loss of 10 billion. However, Li Bin pointed out that it is not interesting to say these things all the time, and introspection is something that an organization should always see.
To summarize the small defeat in 2023, there are three root causes:
First, the product definition is not precise enough. The biggest strategy in the automotive industry is product war. Li Bin once assessed that due to the lack of precise product definition and detailed product planning, thousands of units were sold less (monthly).
For example, "ET7, NIO divides the product into three sequences: for me for family for business, and ET7 is classified as for business, but it is difficult to get business empathy for cold decoration, and it is a product with a bit of liberalism in terms of design. How strong the product is, how much it is a pity to sell. This is more or less a historical baggage.
By the time ES8 was launched this year, I knew who I was going to sell to just by looking at the skin, and my understanding of the boss and the acceptance of needs returned to the level of "exceeding expectations". The ET5T, which was also launched this year, is also an example, which unexpectedly repositioned for the family, changing the label from touring to T, weakening the niche feeling of the station wagon, strengthening the space and loading, and forming a synergy with the ET5's For ME positioning.
Second, the construction of sales energy is not timely enough. If sales can be raised in February, combined with the monthly launch of new cars and the reduction of equity cuts, a lot of sales can be converted, and it will not be a problem to sell 1 to 20,000 units (monthly). In fact, NIO only reacted in the middle of the year, and the sales are only 3,000 so far, and it is expected that the sales will be in place in the second quarter of next year.
Li Bin pointed out that the inertia of the enterprise organization is too strong, it is difficult to face external changes keenly, the adjustment speed is not fast, and the cost is very high. The best level of organizational inertia of NIO was three months, and this year's worst was nine months, and after the organizational adjustment in November, it basically returned to four months.
Third, long-termism digs holes. It is understandable that NIO will use a long cycle of three years, five years, and ten years to evaluate what NIO does, such as battery swapping, and it took five years to start to cash in on the returns.
The disadvantage is that it is easy to overestimate the boundaries of one's own resources, making the business not focused enough. One manifestation is that since the end of 2019, NIO has always been carrying out a five-year strategic plan, and the strategy is actually to spend money, and the effect has not been achieved, the money has been spent, and in the market that fluctuates too much and too fast, it will bring operational risks.
The capital environment at the bottom is still too good in the first two years, and the US dollar market will have zero interest rates in 2021, and many Chinese entrepreneurs lack risk awareness and cycle awareness because they have been living in a unilateral upward era. Li Bin repeatedly mentioned that we have never seen the world too much, so we regard luck as the norm. If more cautious, many measures could have been taken to intervene earlier.
At the same time, it is also easy to cultivate a corporate culture of "big and simple", and use long-termism to shirk short-term execution efficiency. After recognizing that the risks of long-termism have become greater and the returns have decreased, this year's strategic plan has been reduced to a two-year cycle, and each department will conduct a detailed ROI assessment to optimize projects that are not profitable or contribute to the improvement of gross profit in three yearsLong-termism must be necessary, and short-term implementation must be hard.
Looking at this year's NIO Day with these reflections, you can understand the theme of "upward", which at first glance looks like a virtual word cut out of the large-scale Chongyang Gala of the local station, but it sums up the real mental journey of NIO, which is not only an expectation for the future, but also a change that must be made.
At the same time, it is also understandable why on this year's NIO Day, in a not very good **, not too large market capacity, insist on releasing a model ET9 that does not directly contribute to performance. Through this car, NIO first wants to send a turning signal to the outside world: the company is rebuilding pride and confidence on the premise of giving up illusions and facing reality.
You must have heard these about ET9:
It is NIO's executive flagship with a pre-sale price of 800,000;
It integrates 17 first-time technologies, 52 class-leading technologies, and 525 patents
It can run over a speed bump over a four-story champagne tower;
It will be delivered in the first quarter of 2025.
You'll hear these too:
That's it?
Until it is delivered, can the technology still be ahead?
*Is the innovation of the business considered the innovation of NIO?
It will be delivered in the first quarter of 2025.
The polarized discussion stems half from doubts and misunderstandings, and half from NIO's ambitions. It's just not a very expensive car, it's not more expensive than it;ET9 is not to become a footnote to be engraved (flattering) strange (vulgar), but to establish a monument in the official history of automobiles.
First, it should define the height of the era of smart electric vehicles.
At present, neither the Mercedes-Benz EQS nor the BMW i7 are executive flagships that match the times. For example, EQS has strong wind resistance, but it is not a particularly important pursuit for the target audience.
Different eras, the definition of executive flagship is different. This also explains the controversial styling of the ET9, which is not old enough compared with Rolls-Royce, and not subversive enough compared with NIO itself. This is NIO's conspiracy to create a new aesthetic, not grandstanding, but a decent and calm that can stand the test of timeAt the same time, I don't want to subvert myself as soon as I am remembered for family design, and focus on evolution and iteration.
The more critical indicator is how the technology is supported, which provides an opportunity for NIO to answer. Recently, NIO has been crazy**, and the executive flagship has always been a technology flagship, and in summary, it is the overall technology leadership.
For example, for example, the space, ET9 is not only large, the wheel diameter of 790mm, and the suspension travel of 220mm can bring a higher field of view, at the cost of inconvenient entry and exit, but in the Tianxing full active suspension, it is reduced by 50mm in 2 seconds to ensure a positive experience benefit.
Second, it wants to carry the common progress of the automobile industry.
At the heart of the Tianxing fully active suspension is the active suspension electric drive unit jointly developed by NIO and the American start-up Clearmotion, which is also the key to the Champagne Tower test. Many friends questioned whether the use of ** business can be regarded as Wei self-research - purely due to the lack of industry awareness.
The story is such a story:
Promote technological progress through capital, and promote the implementation of technology based on self-developed ICC chassis domain control and chassis development calibration. It is completely different from the imaginary take-it-or-leave-it-or-leave-it. The innovation chain is NIO's traditional art. NIO Capital has invested in more than 70 start-up companies, many of which are first-chain enterprises, including battery company Sunwoda, high-nickel material company Rongbai Technology, lidar company Tudatong and so on.
Illuminate the shimmer with a shimmer and you will get results beyond your imagination. For example, there is a start-up company on the Weilai chain, Haiwei Technology, a company that does NOMI, and the automotive-grade AMOLED full round screen is still a little difficult when it debuts. At the time of cooperation, it was a minimally invasive enterprise with only 12 people, and now it has a revenue of more than 100 million. By continuing to produce the best of the best companies, NIO is actually pushing the automotive industry to have more technology options.
Third, it wants to set the technical background of NIO.
NIO has been suffering from "service" for a long time, and the outside world always thinks that the technology is not good because the service is good, and this dualistic perception is difficult to change. Therefore, starting from ET9, NIO has held high the technical label, and they also have full confidence.
The self-developed 5nm intelligent driving chip, the global 900V high-voltage architecture, the Tianxing intelligent chassis, and the flagship-level safety system highlighted at NIO Day actually account for 30% of the innovation of ET9, and 70% is not talked about. The 30% of the official announcement, in terms of technology, experience, and standards, has constituted a gap for other players. For example, the self-developed intelligent driving chip does not expose many technical parameters, and the performance of 1 to 4 and the 5nm process are not in the same competitive dimension as their peers.
So when he appeared a year in advance, Li Bin was not worried. Technology has spillover benefits, but originality and organizational skills to make continuous technological breakthroughs are not easy to learn. You buy something that is easy;It's hard for you to make a thing. For example, NIO Phone is also a flagship mobile phone, but NIO will not brazenly say that my mobile phone research and development level is the first in the world. NIO's 12 full-stack and 40 billion investments in its territory are difficult to catch up with in terms of technical capabilities, technical background, and technical spirit.
Although industry competition now likes to define the gap through explicit experience, which makes NIO suffer very much, such as seven-fold security redundancy, which is difficult to understand, and may not be used for a lifetime, and the difference between the perceived experience and the actual role and actual technology is very large, but the reliability is dozens of times improved. NIO knows that the more progress goes on, the more difficult it will be. But they hope to turn around China's smart electric vehicle industry with a flagship benchmark and use technology to catch up.
We believe that high-quality investment will still be rewarded, and hard work may be disappointed, but it will never be in vain.
In fact, in areas with developed infrastructure, such as Shanghai, NIO has surpassed BBA sales for five consecutive months, regardless of the form of power. This shows that a full-package NIO constitutes a crushing experience in the high-end market, and there is no doubt about it.
Now it's just a matter of taking a step towards 2024, and the future is all uphill.