NIO’s long-termism enters harvest period

The fourth-generation substation was officially put into operation, and the cumulative driving mileage of NOP/NOP + users reached 1 billion kilometers. The market share of NIO ES6 and EC6 in the high-end pure electric vehicle market above 300,000 was as high as 49.76%. In recent months, the major sections of NIO have reported frequently.

Relying on the continued growth momentum, NIO forecasts that the total revenue in the second quarter will reach 16.587 billion yuan to 17.135 billion yuan, an increase of about 89.1% to 95.3% compared with the same period in 2023.

The beautiful business expectations suggest that NIO’s long-term strategy in various fields such as products, services, and technologies is enjoying a harvest period.

Leverage star models and play a good product combination

In Quarter 1 this year, in the high-end pure electric vehicle market above 300,000, the share of NIO ES6 and EC6 is as high as 49.76%, sitting on half of the market segment. This also means that for every two high-end pure electric vehicles sold above 300,000, one comes from NIO ES6 or EC6.

The NIO ES6 and EC6 together with BBA’s GLC, Q5L and X3 form the first echelon of high-end mid-size SUVs. In May this year, the NIO ES6 and EC6, two high-end mid-size SUVs, the Gemini Star, sold 10,836 units in a single month, surpassing the BMW X3 with monthly sales of 9,378 units and the Mercedes-Benz GLC with monthly sales of 10,150 units, and second only to the Audi Q5L with monthly sales of 11,130 units.

At the end of May this year, NIO ES6 ushered in the delivery of the 200,000 vehicle. Since its birth, NIO ES6 has become the sales responsibility of NIO. From December 2018 to April 2023, the first generation ES6 has delivered 120,000 vehicles, ranking first in the sales list of 300,000 pure electric SUVs all year round. In May 2023, the second generation ES6 was launched, and the sales volume exceeded 70,000 vehicles in just one year, which was significantly faster than the previous generation.

Compared with traditional high-end luxury fuel vehicles such as GLC, X3 and Q5L, the NIO ES6 is slightly better in terms of power performance and flexibility of the vehicle system. The maximum horsepower of the NIO ES6 is 490Ps and the total power is 360kW. In comparison, the maximum horsepower of the Audi Q5L is only 190Ps and the total power is only 140kW. The NIO ES6 smart cockpit has functions such as automatic speech recognition control system, mobile APP remote control, OTA remote online upgrade, facial recognition, rear LCD screen, and rear central control system, while the Audi Q5L only has automatic speech recognition control system and mobile APP remote control two smart cockpit functions.

While the star models are leading the way, NIO’s product matrix is also becoming increasingly complete.

At present, the NIO brand except ET5 and ET5T, the other models are priced at more than 300,000 yuan, positioning in the high-end pure electric market. Among them, NIO ET5, ET7, ET5T, ET9 together constitute NIO’s car matrix, covering the B-class to C +-class market; NIO ES6, ES8, EC6, ES7, EC7 together constitute NIO’s SUV matrix, covering the medium to large market. Among them, 2024 NIO ET7 Executive Edition has been listed at the Beijing Auto Show. This car is positioned as an intelligent electric high-end executive sedan, starting at 428,000 yuan. With the official launch of the 150kWh ultra-long battery pack service, 2024 ET7 Executive Edition will become the only pure electric executive sedan in the same class with a battery life of more than 1000 kilometers.

But in the 200,000 mainstream home market, NIO also did not let down its guard and launched the LODO brand in the first half of the year. At present, LODO has released its first product, and the market response is enthusiastic. In the more affordable price range of 100,000-200,000 yuan, NIO’s third sub-brand, Firefly, will also be launched in the first half of next year.

The three major brands complement each other. Driven by a broader price range, a more complete product matrix, and the effect of star models, NIO is expected to experience another increase in sales.

Polish the service signboard and create a supplementary "moat"

User service has always been the golden signboard of NIO, and the construction of supplementary infrastructure has become a symbol of NIO user service level. Recently, there have been frequent reports of NIO’s supplementary capabilities.

On June 13, NIO’s first batch of fourth-generation power exchange stations was officially put into operation. Compared with the previous generation of power exchange stations, the power exchange speed was increased by 22%, and the fastest power exchange took only 2 minutes and 24 seconds. The power exchange experience is very close to that of fuel vehicles. In addition, NIO’s fourth-generation power exchange stations can also support multi-brand shared power exchange. From the expansion of power exchange Moments to the implementation of multi-brand shared power exchange functions, NIO is mastering more and more power exchange standards has the voice over.

Not long ago, NIO Power once again received 1.50 billion yuan strategic investment from Wuhan Guangchuang Fund and other institutions, which will be used for technology research and development, manufacturing, operation and maintenance, and charging and swapping infrastructure building in the fields of charging, power exchange, energy storage, battery service, energy Internet, etc. The introduction of 1.50 billion yuan strategic investment not only provides funds for the rapid development of NIO Power, but also optimizes the capital structure of NIO Power.

In the field of power replacement, NIO’s leading position has become an industry consensus. As of June 19, NIO has built 2,435 power stations and 22,685 charging piles across the country, including 804 high-speed power stations and 1,666 high-speed overcharging piles. It is the car brand with the most power stations and charging piles in the country.

At present, NIO has reached a strategic cooperation with GAC, Changan Automobile, Geely Holding Group, Chery Automobile, Jiangqi Group and Lotus to jointly promote a larger-scale, standardized and unified energy infrastructure network, and use C-end user resources to improve the "penetration rate" of the power exchange and charging network. In addition, NIO has also carried out all-round power exchange cooperation with Sinopec, CNOOC, Shell, State Grid, China Southern Power Grid, Wanneng Group, Zhongan Energy and other energy and power enterprises.

From the entry of a number of car companies to the injection of state-owned assets, the outside world’s attitude towards NIO’s power swap Moments is changing from initial skepticism to acceptance. From serving oneself to serving external customers, supplementation has become a "moat" for NIO.

Focus on the future, refresh the technology base color

As a household enterprise, in the minds of many people, NIO’s service seems to have become its duty. But since 2023, NIO Li Bin has repeatedly emphasized that technology is the base color of NIO.

In 2023, NIO announced 12 major technological innovations, covering key technology fields such as chips and in-vehicle intelligent hardware, battery systems, operating systems, intelligent driving, and intelligent cockpit, showcasing a full-stack self-research layout at the bottom.

In 2024, NIO will further apply AI technology to the car chassis, adding 4D comfort piloting function to the intelligence system Banyan 2.4.0 version. The 4D comfort piloting function opens up the intelligent chassis domain, intelligent driving domain and intelligent cockpit domain. Users can get on the car to open the navigation, combined with real-time vehicle sensor capabilities, and the cloud bump layer to the car, which can predict road bumps, potholes, etc., through intelligent suspension feedforward adjustment, improve ride comfort and safety, and is not affected by external environments such as weather. More stable and reliable.

The 4D Comfort Pilot feature is just the tip of the iceberg of NIO’s technological prowess.

NIO’s 2024 models launched this year integrate one of the latest Qualcomm Snapdragon 8295 cockpit chips and four NVIDIA Orin X intelligent driving chips, which greatly improve the CPU computing power and AI computing power compared with the previous generation 8155. Since April 30, NIO has fully pushed intelligent driving functions. On June 19, NIO Pilot Assist NOP/NOP + users have accumulated a mileage of 1 billion kilometers, and became the first pilot auxiliary driving product in China with a total mileage of more than 1 billion kilometers. Recently, NIO also obtained the access qualification for L3 autonomous driving.

According to the plan, in the second quarter of this year, the first lidar-specific driver chip "Yang Jian" developed by Weilai will be mass-produced and loaded, which can greatly reduce the power consumption of lidar. This year, the second chip "Shenji" developed by Weilai will also be unveiled. This chip is a super computing power autonomous driving driver chip, with nearly the sum of Nvidia’s four chips, and the cost is less than half, which plays an extremely important role in improving vehicle functions and reducing costs.

Since its establishment, NIO has never been stingy in investing heavily in technology research and development. According to NIO’s first-quarter financial report, NIO invested up to 2.86 billion yuan in R & D in the first quarter of this year alone, "far ahead" compared with friends. For NIO, R & D investment is also a long-term strategy. It is also based on the continuous deepening and long-term dedication to products, services and technologies that has brought about a stable recovery in NIO’s sales.

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