Per reporter: Li Xing Per editor: Pei Jianru
"I can't understand at all, why do you still buy oil trucks now, in addition to being able to smell some gasoline, what else is good?" Listen? A few days ago, a remark by Li Bin, chairman of Weilai Automobile, has aroused widespread concern.
In fact, on December 19, Li Bin said in "NIO DAY 2021" that in the next 10 to 20 years, the competition between the two camps of new energy vehicles and traditional fuel vehicles will become the mainstream. "By 2030, the penetration rate of smart electric vehicles in China will exceed 90% in new car sales." Li Bin said in an interview with the "Daily Economic News" reporter.
Image source: Photo by reporter Li Xing
Li Bin said frankly that with the changes in the domestic market environment, to be a competitive and sustainable new car manufacturer, at least more than 40 billion yuan of capital reserves are needed.
The goal is to turn "BBA" into "NBA"
A few days ago, WEILAI released its fifth brand new model , the medium-sized intelligent electric coupe ET5, which was priced at 328,000 yuan before subsidies and 258,000 yuan before subsidies for models using battery rental schemes.
So far, in addition to the three SUV models on sale, NIO already has two sedan models, ET7 and ET5, and will officially enter the market next year. "The two cars target different consumer groups, compared to the ET7, ET5 is more sporty and younger." Qin Lihong, co-founder of Weilai Automobile, said that the competitors targeted by ET5 are Tesla Model 3 and BMW 3 Series.
Tesla's official website shows that Tesla's domestic Model 3 standard version model is priced at about 255,700 yuan, and the high-performance version is priced at 339,900 yuan. The new BMW 3 Series starts at 293,900 yuan.
"With a close price, ET5 will have certain advantages in terms of cost performance, sense of technology and the whole experience of the entire service." Qin Lihong thinks.
Based on this, WEILAI proposed a new goal of turning the "BBA" (Mercedes-Benz, BMW and Audi) market pattern into an "NBA". "We pay more attention to the comparison relationship with the mainstream traditional fuel luxury models such as the 'BBA'. As WEILAI enters the high-end market and forms an alternative to high-end mainstream luxury fuel vehicles, we should be able to turn the 'BBA' pattern into an 'NBA' in the future. Qin Lihong said.
Li Bin said that Weilai's competitors are not Tesla, nor Xiaopeng and Ideal, but compete with traditional fuel vehicles on behalf of new energy vehicles. The era of "you enter and I retreat" competition between new energy vehicle brands is far from coming.
It is reported that after completing the layout of the SUV market and the sedan market, Weilai also plans to enter the MPV market, and the launch time of the model will depend on the situation. According to the plan, in 2022, WEILAI products and system-wide services will be officially landed in Germany, the Netherlands, Sweden and Denmark. By 2025, NIO will enter more than 25 countries around the world.
"There is no future without R&D"
After experiencing the trough period in 2019, WEILAI embarked on a rapid development channel, and its sales volume has also continued to rise. Official data show that from January to November this year, NIO delivered a total of 80,900 new cars, an increase of 120.4% year-on-year. Up to now, NIO has delivered a total of 156,600 new vehicles.
However, Weilai, which has been established for 7 years, is still in a loss. According to the financial report released by NIO in the third quarter of 2021, the total revenue of NIO in the third quarter was 9.805 billion yuan, an increase of 116.6% year-on-year; the net loss in the third quarter was 835 million yuan, narrowing by 20.2% compared with the same period last year and expanding by 42.3% compared with the previous quarter.
For the company's loss status, Li Bin explained: "This is because we have to invest in the future. If we don't invest now, we can quickly make a profit, so that in a year or two, we are likely to be 'finished', but what is the point of this? ”
Image source: Daily Economic News Infographic
In Li Bin's view, whether a company is competitive or not is not necessarily related to its short-term sales volume, and ultimately depends on the long-term and sustainable operation ability of the enterprise.
Previously, Li Bin had said that a start-up company needed at least 20 billion yuan of funds to build a car. Today, Li Bin said that this number needs to be doubled again to 40 billion yuan. "The high investment in the automotive industry is not only in terms of fixed assets, but more importantly, in the research and development and service system." Li Bin said that if you really want to become a competitive and sustainable company, you need enough capital, otherwise you will have to take a very large risk.
According to Li Bin, WEILAI is still doing capital reserve work, and currently has more than 50 billion yuan of reserve funds. "The purpose of corporate financing is to increase investment in research and development." Qin Lihong said that intelligent electric vehicles are a large, mainstream, long-term track, in this emerging track, enterprises must invest heavily in research and development, without research and development there is no future.
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