Source: e-Company Author: Han Zhongnan

On May 9, NIO ushered in a phased highlight. With the launch of the 500,000 new car, NIO's brand strength, product quality, and technical strength have been verified once again.

Li Bin, founder, chairman and CEO of NIO, said that behind reaching a mass production scale of 500,000 units, it is an important manifestation of the ability of all NIO systems to continue to “improve”.

According to reports, during the ten years since NIO was founded, NIO has always insisted on improving products, technology, and service. Together, these three dimensions of improvement have propelled NIO to become the first high-end pure electric brand in China to reach a scale of 500,000 mass-produced vehicles.

Recently, in an interview with a reporter from the Securities Times · e Company, Li Bin specifically discussed NIO's unique understanding of the upward trend of Chinese automobiles. Li Bin believes that for the entire Chinese automobile industry, NIO has followed a different path and will not even create difficulties. However, from a long-term perspective, high-end brands must have an original spirit, so NIO chose to do positive research and development and choose to build a rechargeable, replaceable, and upgradeable charging and switching system.

“We have gradually made the industry feel the value of these layouts, which people generally find difficult and unsatisfying.” Li Bin said that in the past ten years, NIO has had both bright and dark moments, but no matter what, NIO will continue to do long-term and valuable things and stick to being a user-oriented enterprise. This kind of unsurprising investment will always be rewarded.

A watershed will come

According to public data, in April of this year, NIO delivered 15,620 vehicles, an increase of 134.6% over the previous year; a total of 45,673 vehicles were delivered this year, an increase of 21.2% over the previous year.

With the demise of the 500,000 mass-produced car, NIO's position in the high-end pure electric market of over 300,000 yuan was further stabilized. Li Bin revealed that being able to turn Liu Qingfeng, chairman of iFLYTEK, into a NIO user has in fact fully demonstrated that the consumer mentality of current high-end car users is changing.

At the same time, along with the decline in lithium prices and the continuous improvement of charging and switching infrastructure, Li Bin believes that the high-end pure electric vehicle market will heat up further.

“This year will be a very important watershed. Although it may not necessarily usher in a major explosion in the high-end pure electric vehicle market, the accelerated transformation of the market is certain.” Li Bin said.

Music is mainly aimed at home users

In an interview session after the launch ceremony of NIO's 500,000 mass-produced cars, Li Bin first clarified the schedule for the debut of NIO's second brand, Ledao.

According to the plan, on May 15, NIO will officially launch its second brand, Ledao. Its products will target the mainstream home market. The first model, the Ledao L60, will target the Tesla Model Y, focusing on the 250,000 yuan household smart all-electric SUV market.

According to Li Bin, Ledao is NIO's work of achieving a leap from 0 to 1 and then from 1 to 10 or even 1 to 100.

In such a market environment, where is Ledao's competitiveness and advantage reflected is one of the biggest concerns in the industry. Li Bin responded that since its inception, Wei has been adhering to a strategy of “daring to be the first in the world”. To be a high-end brand, innovation leadership must be its undertone. For Ledao, the reason this brand was born is to enter a larger market.

“We don't want to use cost performance to sum up Ledao's competitiveness, but Ledao does have a better service system, more competitive prices, and a better product experience.” Li Bin said that Ledao's advantages are based on NIO's long-term R&D investment in the past and supported by the company's overall system capabilities, including the company's service system and charging and switching system, all of which provided a stronger natural advantage for the launch of Ledao.

According to public data, since 2016, NIO has continued to invest more than 43 billion yuan in R&D. Up to now, NIO has applied for and granted more than 8,700 patents worldwide.

In terms of the charging and switching system, as of May 9, NIO had set up 2,456 power exchange stations, 3,844 charging stations, and 22,338 charging stations across the country.

Li Bin judged that the formal “establishment” of the Ledao brand will fully revitalize the systematic construction that NIO has invested in over a long period of time and face the new stage of market competition in China's new energy market with more efficient systematization capabilities.

The power exchange alliance continues to expand

Unlike many new car builders, Wei has insisted on laying out power exchange routes since its inception, and has achieved technological leadership and scale leadership in the field of power exchange.

Many people think that the power exchange model has increased NIO's operating costs and dragged down NIO's performance growth. However, starting last year, NIO began opening up the power exchange system, opening up its own charging and switching technology and infrastructure network layout to the entire industry.

Up to now, NIO has reached cooperation related to power exchange with Changan Automobile, Geely Holdings, Jiangqi Group, Chery Automobile, Anhui Energy Group, Anhui Traffic Control Group, and Southern Grid. NIO Energy has also reached cooperation on charging connectivity with Geely Holdings, SAIC-GM, Xiaopeng, and Jiyue.

Recently, NIO has also reached cooperation with Lotus and GAC Group in business fields such as power exchange and charging interconnection. The continued growth of the power exchange alliance has fully verified that the power exchange model has been widely recognized by the industry.

Li Bin said that the establishment of a power exchange alliance is a long-term strategy; it is not something that can be achieved overnight. From the first day NIO exchanged electricity, the company made it clear that we wanted to open up.

“Opening a power exchange station is much more difficult than opening a charging station. Take NIO's fourth-generation power exchange station as an example. We support two types of standards. This will involve a lot of back-office technical support in the cloud, including cooperation with different car companies, and sorting out the legal relationships involved as many as ten items.” Li Bin believes that although opening up the power exchange system is a complicated matter, it is very meaningful for the development of smart electric vehicles in China as a whole. Especially for households and users who are unable to install charging stations, switching electricity is the best way to recharge energy.

Referring to judging competitive trends in the industry, Li Bin believes that the automobile industry is a marathon on a muddy road. The process is very long. For car companies, they must always maintain awe, face industrial competition with a long-term mentality, and continuously demand themselves with high standards.

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