Exclusive dialogue With Li Bin: Accidentally being on the hot search, I will not leak when I speak in the future

Recently, Photon Planet participated in Tencent Technology's 2021-year-end planning and had an exclusive dialogue with Li Bin, founder, chairman and CEO of NIO. In the dialogue, Li Bin talked about why he did not cooperate or merge with Xiaopeng Automobile in the most difficult time of 2019, and also responded to the controversy about his "how nostalgic he will buy a gas car", and also talked about his views on Apple's car.

"I don't know how I accidentally got on the hot search again." In fact, my original intention is that in the past two years, the products of electric vehicles have become more and more abundant, and there are good products in different price segments. In addition, more and more infrastructure is being built, and there are fewer and fewer places to worry about buying electric vehicles today compared to previous years. ”

Li Bin said that it may indeed be a bit thunderous because of the interception of that paragraph, but he still hopes that everyone will consider electric vehicles when buying a car. In general, there are more and more reasons to buy electric vehicles.

Talking about Apple's car, Li Bin said that Apple has been preparing for this matter for a long time, and now everyone feels that it is getting closer and closer, and some companies in the current industrial chain have also begun to move according to their requirements.

"I think [Apple's car] is a positive thing, for the industry itself, everyone has more products to choose from, and it is definitely more intense from the perspective of competition alone."

Here are the main contents of this dialogue:

Question: Can you use a key word to describe Niolai's 2021?

Li Bin: If you have to find a key word, I think the word "preparation" is more accurate. 2021 is indeed a year for us to lay the foundation for the development of the next few years, and the size of the team this year, whether it is research and development, or the investment in user service personnel, has increased more.

We also have a lot of infrastructure, substations, service centers, ANDI centers, and we have begun to enter the global market and start delivering vehicles in Norway. We announced that we will enter 25 countries around the world in 2025, and the launch of new products of NIO has also begun to accelerate.

At the beginning of the year, we released ET7, and on December 18th, we released ET5, and the market response was very positive, so 2021 is a year for us to lay the foundation for the development of the next few years, and it should be more appropriate to use "preparation" or "laying the foundation".

Question: Because 2021 is also the only year since the release of the NIO ES8, there is no new car delivery, what kind of mood is it for you?

Li Bin: It is indeed a bit of pressure, because the cars we are delivering now, ES8 was released in 2018, which is still the intelligent technology of our first-generation platform.

Then we released ET7 in early 2021, announcing that the second generation of technology platform is about to be put into mass production, starting from ET7, all cars are based on the second generation of intelligent technology platform. In the middle, because of 2019, it has abandoned part of the generation and a half of research and development plans, making this year a little more passive.

Question: Can you describe your competitive predictions for this industry in 2022, and what do you think will be an "X" factor for next year in this industry?

Li Bin: When I was in 2019, I put forward a point of view, before 2019, for Weilai, it was a stage of team training, and our team formation, brand release, and business model began to have initial prototypes. From 2019 to 2023 and 2024, we call it the qualifying stage, the team is formed, trained, and begins to pass the group stage, the qualifiers, and win the qualification to participate in the final competition. I think almost in 2024, 2025, the whole industry will enter the final stage.

In 2021, we also see a lot of technology companies, like Huawei, Xiaomi, Apple, their plans in the automotive field have become more and more clear, from 2022 everyone will definitely be working hard, so I think the final real final of this industry is almost in 2024, 2025 this time period. What may be a more fundamental change in the industry landscape will be seen more clearly at that time.

Question: In response to Xiao Peng's previous darkest moment, right? He recently said on the CCTV program that in the most difficult time, no investor wants to see him, is it the same for you? Could it be seeing more?

Li Bin: Yes, that's for sure.

Question: When you talked about so-called mergers or similar cooperation in 2019, why didn't you talk about it in the end, was it because of the report or some other reason?

Li Bin: No, in fact, I saw Xiao Peng also said, I told him at that time, the two of us in the intensive care unit, may hang up at any time, I said you are almost at the door of the intensive care unit, originally we all still have some strength, and then a little toss the two strength is gone, maybe both people hang up.

But Xiaopeng is indeed a very good company, they have done a very good job in many aspects, and our relationship is also very good.

Question: With the release of ET5, the price segments of the next few new forces have become more and more similar, does that mean that everyone's relationship is not the same as before?

Li Bin: Fortunately, in fact, we are competing with each other, and the media are willing to put it together to write, but in fact, from the perspective of business, there is still a big difference in the market segment where we are located, like our average selling price is more than 400,000 yuan, they are definitely lower than us.

From another point of view, the automotive industry is not a winner-take-all industry, in fact, the competition in the automotive industry is not so bumpy (together) than Internet companies. I think the real challenge now is to convince traditional gasoline car users how to think about electric vehicles, because everyone still has more or less misunderstandings about electric vehicles.

From the perspective of stock, China's nearly 300 million vehicles, the proportion of electric vehicles 2% -3% is still very small, so how to let more users consider electric vehicles, is our common goal, there is no special competition.

Question: At the most difficult time in 2019, you are watching "Long March", what are you mainly watching in 2021? Are there any recommendations?

Li Bin: I still read a lot of books this year, and I recommended Huntington's "Clash of Civilizations" some time ago. I actually re-watched it, and I think it's still a lot of feelings, because now the changes in the global environment, all companies, even if you don't have international business, will have some impact. In fact, we have been affected since 2018, including our financing and changes in the capital markets. Entering the global market in 2021, we are more aware of some of the pressure in this regard. For example, every country has a very strict policy on data regulation. How to achieve some local policies and regulations, in fact, there are great challenges to the development and research and development of a company. So this year I read a little more books on this subject.

Question: Is there anything that has left you especially unable to sleep this year? Supply chain?

Li Bin: Yes, the supply chain is an industry-wide problem, not our company, in 2021, the global automotive industry is facing supply chain challenges, chips and the epidemic has brought a lot of supply chain uncertainty. As a company like us, chips are used more, and there must be more pressure, but the good thing is that we have been solving various challenges since 2019, and in 2019 we have no money, how to guarantee supply at that time, last year was just a little better and encountered the epidemic, this year there is a chip problem, overall we are coping well.

Question: Because of this industry-wide lack of chips, has there been any new thinking for you?

Li Bin: There are definitely still some, such as how to ensure the security of the supply chain, and in such an increasingly volatile market, how to ensure that the company runs as smoothly as possible? I think the company's operating mechanism and ability to deal with this kind of emergency situation is definitely more demanding than before, and we have a lot of such emergency teams internally since the end of 2019, which is what we have been doing.

On the other hand, because we use more than 1,000 chips in our cars. If a chip can't be supplied, my car can't be delivered, how to ensure that you can have some chip replacement capabilities, such as this chip is out of material, can I have an alternative chip to use. This kind of rapid response and research and development, testing, quality, is a whole ability, I think these challenges are quite big, we have formed some of our own capabilities around this aspect this year.

Question: Is it possible to be like some of my peers, such as handing over the car first, and then finally making up for some missing things?

Li Bin: We thought about it, but in the end we still didn't do it, we felt that every company has a different strategy, and we are not doing this thing at the moment.

Question: Everyone goes to grab chips, and some of the founders of their peers have to go drinking, will you go?

Li Bin: We're also working. However, I don't drink very well, but I definitely want to seek the support of a partner.

Question: Will it change some of your thinking about whether to build your own supply chain?

Li Bin: I think it is very important to talk to the supply chain partners about how to pull through this long-term plan.

So one of the very important things we have this year is that we and our supply chain partners will discuss the long-term planning of 3 years, 5 years, because the supply chain is a very long chain, and the preparation cycle is also very long. If we don't align long-term planning, we are prone to mismatches. So we actually did a very important thing this year, that is, we and our partners are to open our long-term strategic planning, let everyone know how our products are planned, what kind of demand our production capacity is, not to discuss 1 year thing, we hope to discuss 3 years, 5 years of things, so that when they go to match production capacity, they can have a pre-preparation, so that everyone's efficiency can be higher.

Question: In the long run, are car companies referring to some of the layouts of BYD and Great Wall in the supply chain?

Li Bin: The strategy of each company is different, I think the automotive industry is still a very complete division of labor and cooperation system of the industry, which things to do by themselves, which things to do to partners, I think each company has a different strategy.

Question: Not long ago, your remarks about "I can't understand why everyone still buys oil trucks" are quite controversial on the Internet, do you have anything to say?

Li Bin: I don't know how I accidentally got on a hot search again. In fact, my original intention is that in the past two years, the products of electric vehicles have become more and more abundant, and there are good products in different price segments.

In addition, infrastructure is also built more and more, not only like Weilai itself to charge and replace the power station, but also includes a lot of third-party companies, including the State Grid, star charging, special calls, etc., many companies Their infrastructure is more and more extensive, many of the original electric vehicles can not go to the place, now can go, we also deployed a lot of this destination charging route this year. I think there are fewer and fewer places to worry about buying an electric car today compared to previous years.

It is true that it may be a bit thunderous because of the interception of that section, but I still hope that everyone will consider electric vehicles when buying a car, new energy vehicles do have many of its advantages, of course, there are some shortcomings, this can not be a thing only advantages without disadvantages, but I think like in 2021 China's new energy vehicle penetration rate to more than 20%, 10 of the 2 are new energy vehicles, only 5% at the end of 2020.

This year's change from 1/20 to 1/5 shows that more and more consumers recognize the benefits of new energy vehicles and electric vehicles, of course, this has indeed caused controversy, some words have brought misunderstandings to everyone, but overall, I think it is true that there are more and more reasons to buy electric vehicles now.

Question: Including the previous remarks that you said "more advanced than the Porsche factory" have also caused a lot of controversy, does this mean that your team may make some requirements or restrictions on your speech next?

Li Bin: Right. So you see I'm very nervous in the interview right now, and I'm trying to talk a little bit without leaking.

Question: What is the label you personally most want to tear off?

Li Bin: Do I have any labels? I don't know what the label is.

Question: Say the worst, the good guys, the idealism, and so on.

Li Bin: Nothing, I am what I am. In fact, because you are more familiar with me, I care more about the people who know me and the people who have helped me think of me, in fact, I don't agree with other labels and can't do anything, which is not what I want to change.

Question: So for Weilai's label, do you want to tear it off? For example, everyone will label Weilai with a battery replacement or service, once this label is heavier, you may think that your product will actually be easily weakened?

Li Bin: Yes, I think this is true. Because Weilai is in this industry is power exchange, service and experience, it is easy for everyone to talk about these things when they spread, including media and users. But in fact, when you talk about changing the battery, you may not know that we are one of the brands with the best charging experience, we have also deployed thousands of overcharge networks and destination networks, and the proportion of our home filling and installation is also very high.

For example, when it comes to our services, you may forget that we invest billions in research and development every year, and our ES8 is very leading in technology when it is launched. In 2021, because there is no new product delivery, you may feel that there is some room for improvement in technology, software and other aspects, but we are actually in many aspects of automatic driving, intelligence and so on, research and development investment is very deep.

For example, our NOP pilot assist function is also one of the earliest launches in the industry, of course, Tesla launched earlier than us, we are the first to launch in China, so there are many situations similar to this. Maybe this era sometimes will be a little harder, and it is still a little difficult for you to let people fully understand you. But I think it's okay, leave it to time, we will do our own things well, and we are not in a hurry to tear any labels.

Today, when you look at a thing, the point of view should be a little clearer, and then someone may discuss it, as if if we say that we are all good, then everyone feels a little boring.

Question: When some car companies improve efficiency, they will require the KPI of engineers to save how much money to save on a certain product, does WEILAI not have such a requirement?

Li Bin: We really don't have such a goal, since last year, as the delivery volume has grown, our gross margin has also increased. Now it's almost around 20%, but Tesla is higher, almost at 30%, after all, our delivery volume is about 10,000 a month, and we believe that as the delivery volume grows, the gross margin will also have better performance. There are some things that will manifest themselves over time, and we still have to be a little patient.

Question: Can you tell us what your OKR goals for 2021 and OKR for 2022 are?

Li Bin: Because it involves some of our internal secrets, I won't go into so much detail. We have a working method called VAU (that is, the "Vision Goal - Action Action - Upgrade Promotion" working method) Goal Action Improvement Plan, which is similar to OKR in some spirit, which is our own set of work systems.

I write VAU every quarter, including the VAU that was recently formulated for 2022, after I finished, our colleagues will also align, and then everyone has their own VAU, this method is still very good, we have to look at some of the long-term goals, but also to see if the short-term action plan can match the long-term goals.

Because the world is changing so fast, we need to make connections between goals and actions, and it is very important to make connections between what we do in 2023, 2024 and what we are doing now in 2021.

Ask: Your personal energy is limited, how to ensure that your time allocation ratio? For example, in terms of visiting users, internal management, or other aspects, how do you allocate your time to ensure greater efficiency?

Li Bin: For example, this year I have a lot of time, and I spend more time on the integration of the interview team. There is also the formulation of the entire product and technology route, the formulation of the strategic direction, which is very important work as a CEO. There are also some key business plans to advance, I will spend a lot of time, I will be more involved in the details.

In fact, visiting users for me is a more relaxed time, I did not simply treat it as a job, generally also go on weekends, this year because of the weekend to open a variety of meetings, so spend less time in this area, I hope that next year can have more time to visit users around, from their feedback on products and services is very important to me.

If you don't face the user, just look at some cold numbers or words, it is difficult to have such a perception, so I am very willing to see how the user is using our car, what they have to complain about, what suggestions, this is very important for us.

Question: You have also stressed many times before that 2019 is actually the user to save Weilai, but in 2021, there are several negative public opinion events that are actually related to users, how to ensure that they can have a more positive and enthusiastic participation, but also do not have some more negative impact on the brand, is this difficult?

Li Bin: In fact, with the increase of users, the number of employees increases, the scenes also increase, and the various situations encountered will increase, and it is normal for some problems to occur, but this is also a great challenge for us.

We don't feel any particular pressure from an internal point of view, we have to accept that this is a community that is more and more diverse and more diverse, we have different ideas, users have different ideas, which is normal in our view. What is the key, in the matter of serving users, is not loyal to our own original intention, the original intention of becoming a user enterprise.

In solving everything, do we think from the perspective of the user, can the process be more optimized, and can the response feedback be faster? We're looking more internally to see how we can do better.

But we have never been naïve enough to think that every user and everything is satisfactory to us, and indeed we can't do it, but whether we do our best to do better in each of our things is a requirement for ourselves.

Question: Regarding going to sea, how do you rate the months of Weilai going to sea?

Li Bin: Norway has been delivering since the end of September, and the demand is still very good. I had a meeting with the general manager of Norway, I said I don't care much about the amount of delivery, I only care about one thing is user satisfaction, because user satisfaction sounds like it is quite simple, in fact it is quite complicated, such as our products, especially the software can meet the needs of Norwegian users, our users in China complain, we can at least hear, but Norwegian users how can we guarantee that we can hear is a problem.

And whether our entire company's R&D system and service system is ready to support users outside of China, it is much more complicated than imagined, as well as infrastructure, how to overcome cultural differences. So if you want to make users satisfied, in fact, you have to do everything, otherwise you are just a good person, but you mess up everything, which is not true? You just can't have a good attitude.

Every aspect of the business process must match this purpose. From the current point of view, in fact, I have a VAU in the fourth quarter that is Norway's user satisfaction to 4.6 points, and now there is still a bit of a gap, we have to do, there are still many places to improve. But overall, in Norway, 1 in every 4 test drive users will book a car, this proportion is still very high, from the perspective of this indicator, the Norwegian team is still doing very well.

Question: Is there a relatively long-term medium- and long-term plan, such as how much the overseas market should be?

Li Bin: There are definitely some in the long run, but I think these plans are still more internal, and the feeling of being external is what we want to make a declaration. If we look at the high-end market, the world is almost 8 million to 10 million vehicles, but China is the largest market, China accounts for almost 40%, Europe plus the United States accounted for almost 50%, so if you look at it, China, Europe and the United States together account for 90% of the world.

There is no doubt that if we want to be successful in the global market, we must be successful in both the European market and the US market, otherwise you will rely only on the Chinese market and it will be difficult to participate in the global competition.

As a Chinese company, there is a lot of pressure to go somewhere else at the moment. But I think there must always be some companies to do this thing, and if you don't do this, then others will think that no one in China can do it. Although we know that this is difficult, we are willing to bear such pressure and risk and provide our products and services in Europe and the United States.

Of course, we are only starting to take the first small step, in 2022 we may take this step a little bigger, and then it will slowly increase, the difficulty is definitely much more difficult than selling cars in China. We will have a long-term thinking, but also be well prepared, even if we will encounter a variety of problems that will not be encountered in China, we will remain patient and very determined to do this.

Question: Apple is also building cars, what changes do you think will be to the industry or to practitioners like you?

Li Bin: Apple everyone is also paying special attention, it has taken a long time to prepare this thing, now everyone feels that it is getting closer and closer, we also see that some companies in the industry chain have begun to move according to their requirements, I think it is a positive thing, for the industry itself, we have more products to choose from, from the perspective of competition alone, it is definitely more intense, but I think it is meaningful for users and the industry.

Question: So will NIO's goal be to benchmark Apples?

Li Bin: They probably won't push too cheap cars.

Author of this article: Wang Pan, source: Photon Planet, original title: "Exclusive Dialogue Li Bin: Accidentally on the hot search, after speaking to the water without leaks"

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