The company's recent situation
The company held a press conference for the Ledao brand on May 15. The Ledao brand was officially launched. The first model, the Ledao L60, was unveiled. The pre-sale price for the Ledao L60 was set at 219,900 yuan.
reviews
The Ledao brand was officially launched, focusing on the needs of mainstream home users. The company officially launched the Ledao brand. Ledao means “having fun with the family, having a good family”, and is a car brand focusing on mainstream family users. In the development and operation of the NIO brand for many years, the company's investment in electrification, intelligence, and complete vehicles has enabled the development of the second brand Ledao at a lower cost. In addition, at this press conference, Ledao CEO Ai Tiecheng explained the brand's approach to solving the needs of home users with all-round safety, comfortable space, smart cockpit, battery life, driving experience, intelligent driving, car purchase costs, energy supplementation costs, maintenance costs, and time costs as the core. The Ledo L60 is positioned as a mid-size SUV. The length, width and height are 4828/1930/1616mm, respectively, and the wheelbase is 2950mm. The pre-sale price starts at 21,900 yuan, 30,000 yuan lower than the Model Y. The model is scheduled to be officially released and launched in September. In terms of performance, the Ledao L60 embodies the above brand problem solving ideas, focusing on large space, low energy consumption and strong intelligent experience. It achieves standard operating conditions of 12.1 kWh/100 km and a wind resistance coefficient of 0.229Cd, ranking among the leading mid-size SUVs in the industry.
The NIO power exchange system was shared, and the differentiated value of the energy supplement system was recognized. In terms of energy supplementation, Ledao plans to share NIO Power's “rechargeable, exchangeable and upgradeable” full-scene energy service system. Users can enjoy a power exchange network composed of over 1,000 power exchange stations when picking up a car. Currently, NIO has the largest infrastructure for power exchange stations in China, and has the advantage of network effects. The company has more than 1,600 patents related to power exchange, built and operated more than 2,350 power exchange stations, accumulated rich experience in R&D, construction and operation, and has a first-mover advantage. Recently, the company has continuously signed strategic cooperation agreements with a number of car companies for the power exchange business. Based on the reduction of monthly BaaS rents based on long-life battery management, driving an increase in BaaS sales share and sales momentum, the company's sales volume reached 15,600 vehicles in April, a significant increase over the previous month. We expect subsequent sales to remain steady.
Product modernization is progressing steadily, and Ledao is opening up a large-scale market. Following the release of NIO Day's flagship model ET9, the NIO brand's existing models completed annual facelift before the Beijing Auto Show, laying a solid foundation for NIO brand sales and profits. This time, the company officially launched the Ledao brand and entered the mainstream home user market. The first model progressed smoothly and is scheduled to be officially released and delivered in September. The company previously stated at the performance meeting that it is expected to be about 10% lower than Tesla Model Y products in terms of cost control, and has strong comprehensive products and price competitiveness. The company plans that the Ledao brand will launch more household model products such as SUVs one after another. We look forward to Ledao rapidly increasing sales and NIO + Ledao forming a more complete gradient product layout.
Profit forecasting and valuation
The current US and Hong Kong stock prices correspond to 1.8x EV/Rev in 2024, keeping the 2024/25 deduction for nonprofit unchanged, and remaining outperforming the industry. Maintaining the target price of HK$62/$8 for Hong Kong and US stocks, all corresponding to 2.5x EV/REV in 2024. Hong Kong stocks and US stocks have 46.9%/38.2% upward space compared to current stock prices, respectively.
risks
Demand fell short of expectations due to increased competition in the market, and cost control and power exchange cooperation fell short of expectations.