NIO The first month of the new year is about to pass, and the first heavyweight event has occurred in the camp of the new forces. According to the latest news, NIO has released the 2024 version of worry-free rights, which at first glance is still a car insurance + three-stage tiered service sales model, which is 499 yuan for the entry light luxury version, 1399 yuan for the enjoyment version, and 4999 yuan for the exclusive version. It seems that the entry threshold has been lowered, but if you think about it carefully, you will find a change: point cashback and value-added service coupons are actually weakened in disguise.
What caused the dissatisfaction of old car owners was actually mainly in the cashback of points. In the past, NIO car owners would get 20,000 points back after purchasing worry-free services, and 3,500 points would be credited every month; The inexhaustible value-added service coupons can also be used by the official**, and you can also get a lot of points; If NIO car owners often don't drive, it can also be converted into a cashback of 3000+ points. Calculated from seventy-seven eighty-eight, Weilai car owners can always get wool, and even on the second-hand platform, they can directly exchange ** yuan, which is about 1000 points converted into 80 yuan.
However, according to the 2024 version of the service rules, the points have become N values that are of little use, and for many old NIO car owners, it is equivalent to not being able to get wool every year, and they may lose thousands of dollars in their accounts. Although we default that the people who buy NIO are not bad for money, the lack of such a way to get wool still makes rich people complain. After all, the mentality of many of us is "if you don't pick it up when you go out, you will lose it".
In fact, NIO's operation needs to be viewed from two aspects. First of all, and what everyone can think of, is that there are indeed people who are taking advantage of this right to pick wool, and they don't look good. It has been rumored that some NIO car owners use free battery replacement services to power supermarkets, and even charge other people's ideal L9, so that the rights and interests that originally belonged to NIO car owners are over-consumed and abused, which will inevitably lead to high operating costs for NIO.
This matter also sparked heated discussions among netizens, some netizens said, that is the rights and interests I should enjoy, whether the electricity is for camping or for the supermarket, I did not exceed the rights and interests of the supermarket, the electricity for the supermarket, the battery is not enough to change, and it is not okay to charge it yourself? Of course, some people have come forward to say that good policies have been used crookedly by a handful of people who love to take advantage. Some netizens pointed out that some people always think that "this is the right and interest that they spent money on", but the problem is that this right is actually supported by all consumers, and once a small number of consumers make excessive use of it, it will lead to the reduction of rights and interests.
Another aspect is also a problem that NIO has not solved for so many years, that is, the high operating costs. According to NIO's official financial report for the third quarter of 2023, the net loss was 45600 million yuan, and the gross profit margin fell to 88%, selling a car is almost a loss of 200,000 yuan. In this case, if NIO wants to continue to maintain the worry-free rights and interests of huge expenses, it has to consider "opening up sources and reducing expenditures". The so-called open source is to overcharge money, the so-called throttling is to shrink the service rights, and the inside and outside is to increase the price of service rights and interests.
It's something that can't be helped. In the internal letter, it was mentioned that "ineffective and inefficient investment should be completely cut off", which is a big knife to reduce costs and increase efficiency, and immediately cut to the service matrix that NIO is most proud of. Some time ago, NIO first announced that the battery swap service will no longer be free during the Spring Festival, and car owners need to pay electricity bills and be free of service fees. Although it is understandable, it directly reflects that NIO is not as generous as before; Now that the rights and interests of worry-free have been narrowed, it fully proves that NIO is indeed "reducing costs".
But, in any case, slashing at one's most advantageous service doesn't seem like a smart move at all. Many people buy NIO because they value comprehensive services, and NIO has shrunk its services this time, which may lead to a change in the attitude of potential users, coupled with the fanning of old car owners, there may also be a risk that sales will continue to decline.
As the first batch of giants of independent new forces, it is impossible for NIO not to understand this truth, but NIO seems to have no other way out.