After announcing that it would reduce jobs by about 10%, NIO recently reported further layoffs.
According to related reports, some departments of NIO have been asked to prepare a "reserve layoff list" and may expand the original layoff ratio within the unit to 20% to 30%. In response, NIO responded that this is untrue news and the company has no plans to lay off further employees.
However, as the saying goes, there is no wind and no waves, and it is an indisputable fact that NIO, which once led the entire new force in car manufacturing, is gradually losing its dominance. Years of losses and recent layoffs have put NIO on the cusp of the best, and some radicals even believe that NIO is likely to become the next WM. So what is the current situation of NIO?Does it have a bright future?Let's take a closer look.
A veritable "money burner".
As we all know, making cars is a very money-burning business, and Lei Jun, the helmsman of Xiaomi, has prepared 100 billion yuan for making cars, which shows the degree of terror. However, judging from NIO's performance at this stage, there is still a question mark over whether 100 billion yuan is enough to win a future.
After slapping itself in the face and unifying the ** downgrade, NIO's deliveries in the third quarter of this year reached 55,432 units, successfully hitting a record high in a single quarter, but this sales figure is basically equivalent to Li Auto's monthly results, and its scale growth rate is still slow. Li Bin had previously formulated a plan to break even in the fourth quarter of 2023, but this has finally become an empty phrase.
According to the financial report for the first three quarters of this year released by Weilai, the scale of Weilai's loss this year has reached 1531.3 billion yuan, if you count the fourth quarter, this figure will only be more exaggerated. In less than 6 years of NIO's car-making career, its cumulative loss has exceeded 80 billion yuan. Although NIO has received nearly 20 rounds of financing since its establishment, who can withstand such consumption?What's even more frightening is that after burning more than 80 billion yuan, NIO still has no sign of getting out of the predicament.
The first thing to consider in doing business is to make a profit, investors can allow you not to make money in a short period of time, but you have been losing money, and you can't see any hope of making a profit, which investor is willing to continue to take risks for you?In addition, everything is afraid of comparison, in the first half of this year, Xpeng Motors' net loss was 514.2 billion yuan, Li Auto took the lead in achieving profitability, with a net profit of 32 in the first half of the year4.4 billion yuan. Compared with the little brother who used to be behind him, NIO has successfully achieved a reverse far ahead, which makes investors in Future Auto feel that they are wronged.
Difficulties. 
On November 3, 2023, Li Bin issued an internal letter to all employees of NIO, in which he mentioned that the next two years will be the most competitive stage in the transformation period of the automotive industry, although NIO has launched 5 new products this year and achieved more than 40% market share in the pure electric market with a delivery price of more than 300,000 yuan, there is still a certain gap between the comprehensive performance and the expected target. At the same time, Li Bin clearly stated that "the company will reduce the number of jobs by about 10%". Objectively speaking, NIO's layoffs must be to reduce the company's operating costs, or lay off unprofitable departments, or lay off employees who eat dry food, but reducing staff and increasing efficiency can only solve a small part of NIO's loss problem.
If you want to be targeted, you must first understand the current situation of the enterprise. Judging from the financial report for the first half of 2023 released by NIO, in the first half of the year, NIO's R&D and sales expenses accounted for the majority of its expenditures, of which R&D expenses were as high as 64200 million yuan, and marketing expenses are 530.3 billion yuan, an increase of 64 percent year-on-year15% and 2339%, and the superposition of the two phases is 1172.3 billion yuan, far exceeding the scale of losses in the same period. It can be seen that in the matter of spending money, NIO is indeed a big spend.
Secondly, one of the major differences between NIO and its competitors is that it takes the asset-heavy route, and the so-called battery swap mode has also become a wound for NIO to continue to bleed. According to statistics, as of September 15 this year, NIO has 1,800 battery swap stations and more than 18,000 charging piles across the country. According to NIO executives, the cost of a single battery swap station is about 3 million yuan, and the cost of 1,800 battery swap stations is about 5.4 billion yuan, not counting the expenses of operation, maintenance and labor. There is no doubt that the battery swap station is already a big tail.
In addition, a few months ago, JAC planned to transfer two factories in cooperation with Weilai, which is equivalent to directly digging out the nest of Weilai, and it is imperative for Weilai to acquire factories, but it is suffering from the lack of money, which can really be said to be a leak in the house and rains overnight.
Uncle Che concluded. Overall, the current situation of NIO is not optimistic, with backward sales and scale, and growing losses, and the entire brand urgently needs to adjust its business. At this time of turmoil, it is not difficult to understand that NIO has repeatedly reported layoffs. However, the current competition in the new energy vehicle market is becoming increasingly fierce, and there is really not much time left for NIO.