After nine years of vigorously building cars, NIO has finally obtained the most valuable production qualification for new energy vehicle companies. You must know that among the first batch of new car-making forces, NIO is the last to obtain independent production qualifications. On December 5, Li Bin said at the third quarter performance meeting that "from the perspective of manufacturing, if we manufacture completely independently, the manufacturing cost will drop by 10%". In this regard, some netizens joked that "now the pressure has come to the side of Xiaomi Auto".
Following the layoffs in early November, NIO was once shrouded in negative news of "huge losses" and "on the verge of bankruptcy". In order to restore market confidence, the "big brother" of the new car-making force in an eventful season has been under pressure and has been continuously releasing good news to the outside world for nearly a month.
NIO first announced that it had signed cooperation agreements with Changan Automobile and Geely Holding on battery swap business, reducing the pressure on its own battery swap. On December 5, NIO announced its third-quarter results, with revenue of 190 in the quarter700 million yuan, a year-on-year increase of 466%；Deliveries were 550,000 units, a year-on-year increase of 754%, both hitting a record high in a single quarter.
At the same time, NIO's gross vehicle gross profit margin finally returned to double digits in the third quarter, reaching 11%. At the ** meeting that night, NIO said that this is due to the scale effect brought about by the increase in the proportion of high-priced models, the decline in parts costs, and the increase in delivery volume. In addition, the improvement of gross profit margin is also related to the refined management of sales policies.
However, the financial report shows that NIO still has a net loss of 45 in the third quarter600 million yuan, a year-on-year increase of 108%, fortunately, the loss narrowed, down 248%。
On the same day as the release of Weilai's third quarterly report, JAC Motors announced that on December 5, 2023, the company received the project "Bidding Result Notice" provided by Anhui Provincial Property Rights Trading Center Co., Ltd., and announced earlier that the three asset packages were transferred, of which the second package of assets was transferred to Hefei Hengchuang Intelligent Technology *** City Boundary Through the equity penetration of Tianyancha APP, it was found that the competent authority behind the company is the State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission of Hefei Economic and Technological Development Zone.
The first and third packages of assets involve F1 and F2 factories for NIO, and the total transaction is 315.8 billion yuan, a one-time payment, the transferee is NIO Automobile Technology (Anhui)** referred to as "NIO").
As soon as the announcement came out, it confirmed the news that NIO had obtained independent production qualifications through the acquisition of JAC factory assets. Talking about the motivation for the acquisition, Li Bin, founder and chairman of NIO, said at the meeting: "From a manufacturing perspective, if we manufacture completely independently, the manufacturing cost will drop by 10%. ”
On December 4, NIO Automotive Technology (Anhui) appeared in the "Credit Information Management System for Vehicle Manufacturers" of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology.
Although Qin Lihong, co-founder and president of NIO, told ** that "there is no information to release for the time being". But on the same day, a number of company executives, including Shen Fei, vice president of Weilai, and Huang Xin, head of intelligent driving of Weilai, said on Weibo, "Today will witness history, and Weibo will be temporarily suspended." It seems to confirm the reliability of this news from the side.
It is understood that the main role of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology's "credit information management system for vehicle manufacturers" is to disclose vehicle manufacturers and models that have been officially announced, and the enterprises that can be queried are all enterprises with production qualifications. Being able to appear in this system means that the company will have the qualification of "independent production".
NIO's cooperation with JAC began in April 2016. But on October 19 of this year, JAC Motors won with 44900 million yuan was publicly listed and transferred part of the assets, including two factories for NIO - JAC NIO Advanced Manufacturing Base (NIO F1 Factory) and NIO Second Advanced Manufacturing Base (NIO F2 Factory).
At that time, the industry generally believed that NIO would be the "successor" of the two factories. First, JAC has been OEM for NIO for nearly 8 years, and the two sides have a foundation for cooperation, and secondly, as the "big brother" of the new car-making force, NIO is one of the few car companies in the car circle that has not yet obtained independent car-making qualifications.
Now, with the boots on the ground, it means that some NIO models with the tail mark of "JAC" on the market are about to become out of print. NIO car owners who once thought that these four words were "falling shares" finally don't have to work hard to pick off the tail mark.
In accordance with the current industrial policy, the competent department of the industry implements the access system management for vehicle manufacturers, and each vehicle manufacturer that enters the "Road Motor Vehicle Manufacturers and Products" catalogue announcement has a corresponding catalog serial number. For example, the catalog number of Beijing Li Auto is "210", and the catalog number of Xpeng Motors (Zhaoqing) is "140". NIO's catalog number is "214".
It is understood that when JAC was OEM for NIO, the F1 factory has a production capacity of 300,000 vehicles per year, mainly responsible for the production of ES8, ES6, EC6, ET7 and ES7 models, and the F2 factory was officially put into operation in September 2022 and is located in Hefei Xinqiao Intelligent Electric Vehicle Industrial Park, which is jointly built by NIO and JAC. The F2 plant has a planned annual production capacity of 300,000 units and is mainly responsible for the production of ET5 models.
A number of industry insiders told the city that the previous policy was very strict on the issuance of production qualifications for new car-making forces, and it was very rare for NIO to obtain production qualifications.
With the support of capital, many new energy vehicles have poured into the market, and chaos has occurred frequently. In order to standardize the industry's car manufacturing standards, in 2015, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology and the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology jointly issued the "Regulations on the Management of New Pure Electric Passenger Vehicle Enterprises", which requires that new car companies need to cross two hurdles if they want to obtain the production qualification of pure electric vehicles.
First of all, it is necessary to obtain the approval and approval of the project, and after that, the approved enterprises must also pass the assessment of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology's "Rules for the Management of Passenger Car Manufacturers and Products" and the "Rules for the Administration of New Energy Vehicle Manufacturers and Products", and be included in the "Vehicle Manufacturers and Products Announcement".
It is not easy to obtain qualifications, and it requires a comprehensive assessment of production capacity, product consistency, after-sales and other aspects.
Therefore, many new EV manufacturers choose to obtain production qualifications through acquisitions. For example, the ideal car costs 6500 million yuan to acquire Lifan Motors to obtain the qualification to make cars, and Xiaopeng Motors spent 12500 million yuan acquired Guangdong Foday Automobile *** to obtain production qualifications.
Regarding NIO's acquisition of the JAC factory to obtain production qualifications, the outside world has two questions:
First, Li Bin was originally a staunch supporter of "OEM", how could he spend a huge amount of money to buy the factory? After all, 315.8 billion is not a small amount, and it has to be paid in a lump sum, why should NIO, which is in the red, carry this heavy asset?
Second, since the start of cooperation in 2016, the two sides have continued to deepen their relationship. Tianyancha APP shows that in March 2021, both parties contributed 2500 million yuan, 50% of the shares, Jianglai Advanced Manufacturing Technology (Anhui) was established** JAC will continue to manufacture ES8, ES6, EC6 and other NIO models, and the OEM deadline is until May 2024. Why can't an acquisition wait until the end of the partnership?
Indeed, in the early days, NIO insisted on the road of foundry, which in Li Bin's view is the best of both worlds. As an innovative company, NIO has limited capital and resources, so it is very important to make reasonable trade-offs. Secondly, JAC has mature manufacturing experience and is willing to implement it in accordance with NIO's process and process standards.
NIO's adoption of the "foundry model" can not only effectively save investment and production cycles, but also make deliveries faster. According to the data, in 2018, NIO's cumulative annual deliveries exceeded the 10,000 mark. At that time, Xpeng Motors only started deliveries in December 2018, and Ideal was the latest of the three car companies to deliver, and it only officially began delivery in December 2019.
In the face of such achievements, Li Bin insisted that the road of OEM was feasible, "So many cars have been delivered to users, and the overall evaluation of users is still good, even if there are some experience improvements, they are not manufacturing." ”
However, not all car companies agree with the OEM road. Shen Hui, the founder of WM Motor, is very resistant, in his opinion, not to mention the big risk, R&D and sales are not the car companies' work, and the quality problems are the responsibility of the car companies, and the two sides are not a community of interests.
As a result, WM has become the first company to obtain the qualification of car manufacturing among the new car-making forces. Subsequently, Xiaopeng Motors and Ideal, which have experienced OEM, also spent hundreds of millions of yuan to win the production qualification through acquisitions in the follow-up development process.
Only Li Bin is still insisting. He thinks that it is not necessarily right to let every new startup spend so much money to build a factory, and let everyone do what they may not necessarily spend the most energy on.
At that time, the policy also recognized the existence of this foundry model. On December 6, 2018, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) announced the Administrative Measures for the Access of Road Motor Vehicle Manufacturers and Products.
Article 28 reads: "Encourage R&D and production capacity cooperation between road motor vehicle manufacturers, and allow road motor vehicle manufacturers that meet the specified conditions to entrust processing and production." Encourage road motor vehicle R&D and design enterprises to cooperate with production enterprises, and allow R&D and design enterprises that meet the specified conditions to borrow the production capacity of production enterprises to apply for access to road motor vehicle manufacturers and products. ”
Li Bin's ideological change is likely to occur in 2022. This can also explain the second confusion of the outside world, why the two sides are so anxious.
At the beginning of 2022, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) issued the Notice on Carrying out the Pilot Work of Commissioned Production of New Energy Vehicles, requiring both the entrusting party and the entrusted party of new energy vehicle production to require production qualifications, and only qualified factories are no longer feasible. This is known as "dual qualification".
On October 28 of that year, when the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology publicly solicited opinions on the Regulations on the Administration of Road Motor Vehicle Production Access Permits (Draft for Comments), the Draft for Comments had deleted the relevant provisions on "encouraging cooperation between design and R&D enterprises and production enterprises and allowing commissioned processing and production" in the original management measures.
Some investors said that the OEM model requires both parties to have the same new energy vehicle production qualifications. Therefore, even if NIO still allows JAC to OEM, it still needs to get its own qualifications.
JAC, as a benchmark car company in Hefei along with NIO, also has operational pressure and is actively looking for new possibilities.
Rumors of cooperation between JAC and Huawei began as early as 2019, and it was not until early 2023 that JAC Motors was officially confirmed to join Huawei's smart selection model. As a result, JAC's move to divest its factories is seen as a shift to cooperation with Huawei. It is reported that the two parties will invest in the construction of a new energy passenger car plant with an annual production capacity of 300,000 units in Hefei, which is expected to be put into operation in 2024.
A senior car critic told the city that Hefei's transformation in layout, in fact, NIO has stabilized in Hefei, and there is no need for JAC and NIO to bind again, but JAC needs to be separated from NIO and fully turn to cooperation with Volkswagen and Huawei.
Another factor that advances is that at the beginning of 2023, the rhetoric that "car production qualifications cannot be sold" circulated in the market. In other words, the domestic automobile production qualification may no longer be allowed to be **, but can only be cancelled. Foundry models like NIO and JAC will no longer be approved.
The above-mentioned investors said that it is undoubtedly the fastest way to obtain qualifications through acquisitions, but it involves various complex factors such as NIO's funds, the packaging and transfer of JAC's state-owned assets, and the operation of the Anhui State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission, and NIO needs to prepare in advance.
Under a series of factors, the OEM model that Li Bin is optimistic about has come to an end. But who took the initiative to take this step, perhaps the story behind it is best known only to the protagonist.
Industry insiders said that NIO, which has obtained independent car manufacturing qualifications, has its own factory, which can better produce products, and is also expected to have greater decision-making power in the coordination of the first chain, supply cycle and production control.
Obtaining the qualification of independent production and car manufacturing is not enough for NIO. In fact, in the second half of this year, the competition in the new energy vehicle market became more intense, although NIO has increased its sales and service network, at present, there are about 5,700 sales consultants, of which 3,000 are just hired in the month. However, Li Bin said frankly that the sales ability of this part of the population needs to be trained for a period of time before it can be released.
In order to improve operational efficiency and reduce costs, Li Bin emphasized at the ** meeting that the battery swap mode has reached the point of openness. In addition, NIO will postpone or reduce investment in projects that cannot improve the company's financial performance for three years, merge departments and positions that are duplicated and eliminate inefficient positions. For example, the self-made battery has made it impossible for NIO to improve its gross profit margin in three years, so in addition to continuing to develop battery cells, NIO will also entrust others to produce them to reduce costs.
Now, with the production and car manufacturing qualifications in hand, Li Bin expects that under the condition of maintaining the most stable situation, NIO's total delivery volume in the fourth quarter will reach 470,000-490,000 units.
*At the meeting, NIO also mentioned that a new flagship model will be unveiled at NIO Day on December 23, 2023, but further details were not revealed. However, Ma Lin, assistant vice president of brand and communication of Weilai, also said on social ** that Weilai will launch a very heavy model. Previously, there was news in the industry that the car may be named ET9 and positioned at the million level. If the news is true, this will be the first car that NIO will hand over after obtaining the independent car manufacturing qualification.
Among many cities, Hefei has always been crowned as the "most bullish venture capital city". Since 2019, Hefei City has rescued Weilai from the "ICU", Li Bin has now become the senior investment promotion specialist of Hefei**, so looking at the news of the unbundling of Weilai and JAC, behind all kinds of actions, whether it is for Weilai or JAC, it is a matter of course.
Author |Yang Qiao,Edit |Tian Yanlin).