Written byLiu Baohua.
EditZHANG Nan.
DesignZhao Haoran.
We are all in the gutter, but there are still people who look up at the stars – Wilde.
NIO was born in November 2014, when China's economy was at its most active, and it was born for prosperity.
Mobike, one of the "New Four Great Inventions", was founded in early 2015 and was also incubated by Li Bin, who was known as the "Godfather of Mobility" at the time.
During the Spring Festival of 2015, Tencent cooperated with the Spring Festival Gala and spent 500 million yuan to promote WeChat New Year's red envelopes. Before the Spring Festival Gala, WeChat had less than 8 million payment users, and three months after the Spring Festival Gala, the number of WeChat payment users exceeded 300 million, catching up with Alipay's accumulation in the previous eight years. Mobile payment has truly entered China's daily life.
In those years, the Chinese people have been constantly impacted by new things, new technologies and new models, and their lifestyles are changing with each passing day, and I believe that tomorrow will be better than today, and next year will definitely earn more than this year. In September 2014, Alibaba was listed on the New York Stock Exchange, becoming the largest U.S. stock IPO in history, and an important symbol for Chinese companies to go global.
NIO was born in this era of high-speed prosperity, and it also brings together the optimism, ambition and imagination that best fit the characteristics of this era. It aims at the market of more than 400,000 yuan for the first time in China's auto brand, creating a high-end service system that has never been seen in the entire automobile industry, truly shaping a way of life, starting from scratch with a global layout of the R & D system, from employee benefits to the detailed quality of car owner services, this is a modern global enterprise built with the standards of a world-class company from the beginning, and the brand and products focus on the high-end market.
The success of NIO has given many new forces and traditional car companies in China confidence in the impact of smart electric vehicles on the high-end. If Tesla is the leader of the global smart electric vehicles, NIO can be said to be the leader of China's high-end smart electric vehicles, creating a market segment that Chinese brands have never touched.
The time has come to 2023, and 8 years have been full of vicissitudes.
There are highs and lows in technological innovation and the economic environment. Pinduoduo, which took "cutting a knife" as the trump card, once became the first brother of the Chinese concept of value, which can project the change of the national consumption concept, and the automobile industry is a knife to me, and the battle is fought until the blood flows.
In order to survive, the eight immortals crossed the sea. Price reduction is the basic skill, and a bunch of models under the banner of "high-end intelligent electric" have been reduced to the ** range that is ashamed of high-end. Adjusting the strategy is a compulsory course, and a bunch of pure electric companies have launched extended-range models, and they will first maintain sales.
NIO did not do any of this, but only complied with the call of car owners to split part of the rights and interests and car prices, giving consumers one more choice, laying off employees and improving organizational efficiency when the pressure increases, and unswervingly spending 1 billion yuan a month on R&D and service systems. This year, NIO did not have a good time, with losses of 47 in the first three quarters400 million yuan, 60600 million yuan, 45600 million yuan, loss and capital utilization rate are the biggest doubts about NIO from the outside world.
In the era of economic downturn, the mentality of the industry and ordinary consumers has changed, and the primary consideration is no longer better products and better technology, but lower cost, lower cost performance.
How can NIO, which was born for prosperity, survive and develop in a diametrically opposed environment?
NIO's response was the 800,000-yuan executive flagship sedan NIO ET9.
Up
The theme of this year's NIO Day is "Up", which is NIO's attitude towards this small era.
Li Bin said in the interview that when this theme was raised, there was basically no objection from colleagues to car owners, "The upward theme not only reflects NIO's own current mentality, but also reflects the current expectations of NIO users for the present, and the expectations of the whole society for the future." ”
The upward action is NIO ET9. Executive flagships refer to Mercedes-Benz S-Class, BMW 7 Series, and Audi A8 models, which are the highest-level models for BBA, the world's leading luxury car company. NIO, which has only been born for 8 years, wants to challenge this top market segment.
Li Bin said in an interview on NIO Day, "ET9 is not only the crystallization of NIO's own technological innovation, but also the process of China's smart electric vehicle industry moving from a technological power to a technological power." It is not only the achievement of NIO as a company, but also a milestone in the upward movement of China's automotive industry, challenging the market of executive flagships. ”
Long-termism is the practice of being firm in the face of drastic changes in the surrounding environment. When the capital market is staring at the amount of losses, taking stock of the sales of each company every month, comparing the sales volume of friends every week, and the outside world thinks that NIO needs to boost sales the most, this requires courage and the courage to adhere to its own judgment, positioning, and goals.
Li Bin praised the two friends in an interview, and also encouraged himself, both of whom can be described as long-termism, keeping the clouds open and seeing the moon, and waiting for the flowers to bloom.
The two companies that have done particularly well this year, BYD and Chery, have encountered a lot of pressure in 2019. BYD from more than 400,000 units in 2008 to 12 years in 2020, a few years ago, everyone may not have imagined that BYD had the opportunity to 3 million units a year, that is, the matter of the year, Chery's globalization has been small for 20 years. The automotive industry is a very long industry, and the finals are going to start in 2025, and I never said when the finals will end. One year ago, none of us thought that Pinduoduo would be the first among Chinese concept stocks. Competition is ever-changing, don't be temporary, what is really to know what you want to do, know your shortcomings and where you want to improve. ”
He took the initiative to mention that there was a gap between this year's performance and the plan, and the set goals were not achieved, both due to the external environment and NIO's own reasons, and it was necessary to reflect, and the company has been reflecting on it. For example, he also set up a WeChat group on the evening of Nio Day to discuss with relevant colleagues which details of a certain thing were not done well.
Under the questioning of **, he also gave a judgment on the future competition pattern: "By about 2035, Chinese brands will account for 5 of the top 10 in the world, and we strive to become one of them." "There is no assertion about the life and death of any brand.
On the other hand, sales in the first 11 months of this year increased by 33 compared to the same period last year1%。The growth rate is higher than that of the high-end market of electric vehicles.
Since July, in Shanghai, our sales have exceeded the sales of more than 300,000 of all other brands, no matter what the form of power, and from July to November for 5 consecutive months, we have surpassed BMW, Mercedes-Benz, Audi, more than these high-end brands, more than 300,000 market, not pure electric or separate power forms, we have exceeded all. And our lead is getting bigger and bigger, last month we were in Shanghai, in November, we sold a thousand more than BMW, we were more than 3,300 units, BMW was more than 2,300 units, we were more than Audi, it was twice as much, Audi was almost more than 1,700. "10 days ago, in the face of the 2023 NIO**, Li Bin took detailed data to explain the good performance of NIO in some regional markets.
Li Bin's conclusion is not to deceive himself, face his own strengths and weaknesses, and resolutely do what he thinks clearly. The risk of long-termism has increased, and the return has decreased, "enterprises can have long-termism, and they must do a good job in short-term implementation."
Base color
Yesterday's release also made everyone realize NIO's own background, and NIO's background has always been technological innovation. "From NIO Technology Innovation Day on September 21 to NIO Day, NIO has been spreading technology in a high-profile manner.
There are 57 first-to-date features, 52 class-leading features, and 525 patents on the ET9.
Here are a few of the more significant technological breakthroughs.
The first is NIO's first self-developed intelligent driving chip, the Shenji NX9031, the industry's first intelligent driving chip manufactured by 5nm automotive-grade process, with more than 50 billion transistors, and the performance of four current flagship intelligent driving chips in the industry can be achieved with one one.
The second is the global 900V high-voltage architecture. The maximum voltage of the 925V vehicle, the peak charging power of 600kW, and the peak charging current of 765A can bring more extreme performance output, higher safety standards, and better comprehensive energy replenishment experience.
To realize the global 900V high-voltage architecture, it is necessary to have full-stack self-research capabilities from battery cells to battery packs. NIO has developed its own 46105 large cylindrical battery cell and battery pack for 900V, with an industry-leading energy density of up to 292Wh kg per cell, a whole pack capacity of 120kWh, and a charging efficiency of 5C for the supercharging and quick-swapping battery pack.
There is also the world's first "900V supercharging fast change platform", 3 minutes of fast battery replacement is the only way to replenish energy that is fully automated and does not need to get out of the car, and 5C lightning charging can last 255 kilometers in 5 minutes.
The third is the Tianxing intelligent chassis, including steer-by-wire, rear-wheel steering, and fully active suspension.
Steer-by-wire can liberate the constraints of mechanical steering on space, and also provide the possibility for high-level intelligent driving, intelligent adjustment of steering ratio when vehicle speed and steering wheel angle change, steering wheel rotation angle 6:1 at low speed, steering wheel rotation angle can be restored to 14:1 at high speed, low-speed operation is more convenient, high-speed steering is more stable.
The rear wheel steering angle can reach up to 83°, a minimum of 109 meters of turning diameter.
NIO's fully active suspension is the world's first integrated hydraulic fully active suspension, which is the first time that the shock absorber and the active suspension electric drive unit are highly integrated, which can maximize the vibration generated by the vehicle body, even in complex road conditions. The test car on the scene passed over the speed bump, and the champagne tower on the hood was as stable as Mount Tai.
The reason for this year's high-profile dissemination of technology is, "We can't forget that we are the best at charging because we do a good job of battery replacement, and we can't forget our technology because of our service." ”
NIO's cumulative investment of more than 40 billion yuan in technology research and development should let the outside world see the results.
The reason for launching the executive flagship model at a time when various companies are cutting prices to pursue sales is also because all NIO needs a piece that can carry all the advanced technology. Li Bin believes that the executive flagship model is the cornerstone of the brand and the standard of the brand.
Our positioning has always been very clear, only to do the pure electric high-end market, not to fight the first war, to ensure that the product is leading, the technology is leading, and the service meets the expectations of users. We also hope that in terms of community, buying a car can also give users some emotional experience, which is a positioning that we have always had, and nothing has changed. ”
At the communication meeting on December 14, Li Bin answered whether he would make adjustments in positioning in the future.
The executive flagship model has been extremely limited in its contribution to sales, and the investment is huge. The biggest expectation of NIO is to increase sales and reduce losses. In the current reality, all car companies are reducing costs and increasing efficiency.
These NIOs all know that they still do not change their minds and move forward alone.
It's hard to say whether this is the right or wrong choice in business, after all, everything is an experience when you succeed, and everything is a lesson when you fail. However, there is no shortage of successful car brands in China today, and what is scarce is a stargazing brand.