NIO, which intends to 'fly with both wings' in the domestic and international markets, clearly does not have plans to fully enter the European market at the moment. On the contrary, by relying on the official launch of its second brand, Ludo's first model, the L60, NIO hopes to overturn the 'table' of the new energy market in China.

'Are they trying to put us in a difficult position? We can't even afford Audi, how can we afford this?'" On the day after the launch of the L60, Li Bin, the director of NIO, denied the rumors of 'acquiring the Audi Brussels factory' and said he was not clear about the source of this rumor. 'It's not true, we haven't had any contact with Audi.'

According to Belgian media De Tijd, on September 18, local time, Audi is actively looking for a buyer for its factory in the Foster region of Brussels, Belgium. The factory is Audi's first electric vehicle factory and mainly produces the Audi Q8 e-tron. Due to poor sales, Audi is planning to restructure the factory. If the factory closes, 2,910 employees will face unemployment.

NIO and Audi have a long-standing connection. In October 2021, Audi sued NIO in Munich, the capital of Bavaria, Germany, claiming that NIO's ES6 and ES8 models had similar names to Audi's S6 and S8 models. In January 2022, a local court in Munich ruled in favor of Audi.

In October 2022, NIO fully entered the markets of Sweden, Germany, the Netherlands, Denmark, and other European countries, and successively released five products based on the NT 2.0 platform: ET7, EL7 (ES7), ET5, ET5 Touring, and EL6 (ES6). However, NIO's performance in the European market is not outstanding. According to data from market research company Dataforce, NIO's new car sales in the European market in 2023 were 2,404 units.

Faced with uncertain tariffs and market factors, it is obviously a more pragmatic strategy to focus on the domestic market. For NIO, which has had monthly deliveries of over 0.02 million vehicles for four consecutive months, the launch of the L60, which is planned to start deliveries on September 28, may further strengthen this strategy.

On the day before Li Bin denied the acquisition of Audi's European factory, the official price of the L60 was announced. The starting price of the L60 is 2.069 million yuan, and the price with the BaaS battery rental service is as low as 1.499 million yuan. Li Bin predicted the production capacity of Ludo, saying that currently, the Hefei factory can achieve a monthly production of 0.01 million NIO vehicles and 20,000 Ludo vehicles, but new car launches will face production capacity challenges. 'We aim to achieve a production capacity of 5,000 units in October, 0.01 million units in November, 0.016 million units in January next year, and 0.02 million units in March next year.' Li Bin said that he will not release sales figures, but the L60 has already received 'explosive orders' since its release.

While expanding production capacity, the LEDWAY brand is also further laying out the replenishment system and channel terminals. According to the plan, by the end of this year, LEDWAY's swappable battery stations will exceed 1,000, and the charging system has already connected to over 23,000 self-built supercharging piles, as well as over a million third-party charging piles, achieving swappable and accessible charging in every county. In terms of channels, LEDWAY plans to establish over 200 stores and connect to 350 service centers.

At this year's second-quarter financial report meeting, Li Bin predicted that the long-term goal of the high-end NIO brand is a monthly sales volume of 0.04 million vehicles, and a 25% gross margin; the upper limit of LEDWAY brand's sales will be much higher than NIO, with a medium to long-term gross margin target of 15%.

"The LEDWAY brand plans to launch a new car every year, and next year will introduce a 6/7-seat layout medium-sized SUV." Li Bin revealed that the new car was already approved two years ago and can be delivered as early as the third quarter of next year.