Sinking by the Gemini? Nio revealed: it is actually a large 5-seat SUV ES7, benchmarking BMW X5L

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Author| Pan Tao Editor| Luo Lijuan

On February 15, 2015, NIO held an all-weather marketing workshop. It is also after February last year that WEILAI has held the event again.

According to NIO, during the Spring Festival, NIO made 190+ live broadcasts nationwide; NIO Radio played 364,700 New Year concerts; and launched on the NIO APP: six new year topics #New Year Dress Award#, #Year of the Tiger Family Portrait Award#, #National Chinese New Year's Eve Dinner Award#, #NianWei Photography Contest#, #Creative Fuzi Contest#, #Yingcai god creative yuanbao competition#, which received 100,000+ user participation and 10,000+ UGC.

During the 2022 Spring Festival holiday, NIO users interacted with NOMI 8,054,435 times, initiated 69,978 navigation "home" commands, and chatted with NOMI 355,202 times, "Hello" and "Happy New Year" were the most talked about topics.

During the Spring Festival, the popularity of Weilai stores has not decreased. NIO has a global layout of 384 stores, and during the 2022 Spring Festival holiday, a total of 1,107 activities were carried out in the national cattle house, an increase of 63% over the week before the Chinese New Year's Eve, and 690,000+ people entered the store.

In addition, in the on-site media interview session, Qin Lihong, co-founder and president of WEILAI, mentioned that the previously hotly discussed "Gemini" is the code name of WEILAI ES7, and the new car will be released in mid-April this year and delivered within the year, positioned as a medium and large 5-seat SUV, benchmarking BMW X5L.

Subsequently, including ISSUES such as NIO's production capacity and infrastructure expansion, Qin Lihong, Wei Jian, senior vice president of user operations of NIO, and Ma Lin, senior director of corporate communications of NIO, responded one by one.

The following is the dialogue between the media, including all-weather technology, and Qin Lihong, Wei Jian, and Ma Lin, which has been collated:

About NIO Life, private stake sharing

Q: NIO Life's products are doing very well, many co-create with users, and now many other car companies are mentioning the concept of user co-creation, almost all high-end products are related to user co-creation, and they are launching these products and services. What are the advantages of NIO? What pits are likely to be faced by others next? What do you think about this and what is the difference?

Wei Jian: I don't judge others, I only say Weilai. The seriousness of Weilai's doing this love can be felt by everyone. Including last year, we had a special night in Shanghai Fashion Week to release new products, Shanghai Fashion Week is not anyone who wants to go, more than 500 designers around the world are doing this thing,

We're not doing it in a gimmick, we're serious, and we have our own independent IP. As an independent sub-brand, NIO Life is still very good without the blessing of car companies, and I even think it is a plus for our car companies.

We never think about what we're going to do, we just want to do it. If you understand NIO, the mission of NIO, the mission of a company is why a company is created, NIO's mission is to "create a pleasant lifestyle for users", so this is closely linked to NIO's mission, we are mentioning in the mission to create a pleasant lifestyle for users, so NIO Life is an important part of us.

Q: During the New Year, I drove the ES6 to change the power all the way, and found a problem, there are some batteries in the replacement station with 4-5 pieces, what data is this ratio based on? In addition, 100 degrees and 70 degrees, 75 degrees of batteries, the approximate proportion of power exchanges during the Spring Festival, who is more and who is less?

Wei Jian: This is decided by the algorithm, how many blocks should be distributed, how to distribute, and there is data to calculate.

Q: From other industries to the automobile to do the overall architecture, how did you build it in the first place? The intermediate process will inevitably face some trade-offs, can you share it?

Wei Jian: I don't think I deliberately built anything, from a very early age, WeiLai thought it very clearly. Weilai's integrated business model, user enterprise model is very firm, on this basis, we continue to do it well.

Because the model design is not necessarily able to land, such as the enthusiasm of employees, before the media asked me that you are now more and more people, so many power stations, how do you ensure that employees can be very good to the user service? The pressure of recruitment is too great, what if you recruit people who are not attentive to users? Now this is not really a major problem, why? Our front-line employees, they are actually easier to provide quality service.

Why is the Spring Festival closing different from others? Because we have repeatedly stressed to all employees that being good to users is our purpose, never our means, many company means are to sell more cars, more cars are our means, from Bin Brother (Li Bin) to the following executives will appreciate the good behavior of users, condemn the bad behavior of users, front-line employees are very easy to feel, from the heart to do.

For example, this year there are a lot of movie parties, Weilai will rent a theater, invite our users to see the movie, before watching, we will first talk about this year's power station layout, there are some users who do their own business or do designers, take some of their own products as prizes, everyone draws together, the participation is very high, this connection may be more difficult in other companies, because you may be able to learn in form, but from the bones, from the concept of the user's enterprise to grow these things, in fact, it is very difficult.

As a person with a lot of experience outside the automotive industry, what is very good for me is that there is not much inertia of the car company, and I deeply understand Weilai, because I am also a user. As a user, I have a very strong user perspective, and I know what users need.

Q: Just showed the 600,000 people who entered the store in the 7 days of the Spring Festival, what is the comparison with the average level of the industry? What is the significance of these 600,000 people entering the store for WEILAI?

Wei Jian: For these data, WEILai is not a logic from the goal to the completion of the goal. Here can be shared, the first is that it is definitely much higher than the week I was a year ago, the New Year may not have passenger flow in the traditional car companies, because they are open in these places in poetry and far away, you said that I really want to go to the New Year, may not go, but if you go to the movies, you will always go to the mall, so our traffic during this time is relatively large.

What does it mean to us? We certainly feel good and there will be support for our entire delivery, but it's not a milestone event. We for the quality of the reception to enter the store to pay far attention to the number of stores, Weilai hopes to provide users with a full experience beyond expectations, as for how many people come to the store, it is natural, it is impossible for users to enter the store, we do not let in, at this time we require overtime, present their best side in front of the user, although the amount of reception in the store is very large, but still to maintain the best state to make users satisfied.

Q: After reading the Spring Festival report, compared with the previous data that found that this year specially added a private pile sharing, our APP has been tried in 2018 and 2019, and then there is no following, is the private pile sharing behavior specially operated by Weilai during the Spring Festival, or is it continuous?

Ma Lin: In fact, this project has been running for more than a year, and private pile sharing is currently a thing encouraged at the national level, because the power capacity in many communities is limited, how to improve the utilization rate of private piles, for the personal interests of users, or our country for the popularization of smart electric vehicles, has a very big help.

We will have some operational activities in stages to promote user participation, he will participate in it after seeing it, for example, our family pile is now a shared pile in our community basement, many users are very welcome. I believe that the degree of sharing will be higher and higher, we will provide different activities next, so that more users can participate in it, and I hope that other brands can join in, only in this way can we make everyone's experience better and better.

At the same time, in the construction of charging piles, we have 7 kilowatts, 11 kilowatts of piles, we are also doing promotion work with many communities, can we install piles in the community, and then we use some ways to operate. The most headache in the community is the occupation of the oil truck, see if you can solve this problem through the operation of the way, and do a public pile of the Weilai brand in the community. In the power-up system, our service to non-Weilai brands is very much, Weilai's supercharged pile during the Spring Festival, whether it is a private pile sharing or a supercharged pile, is very good for the popularity of the entire smart electric vehicle.

Q: During the Spring Festival, many car owners reported that the time for the new forces to build cars and deliver cars is relatively long, and Weilai ET5 and ET7 are also in this situation, from the perspective of user companies, which users will be willing to wait so long to buy a car? From this perspective, do you think auto companies are starving marketing, or is there a lot of room for improvement? Many charging piles can not be charged by other brands, will they open up these charging piles to share?

Wei Jian: Weilai's charging pile, other brands can be charged. Our big principle is to first meet our own users, as a user enterprise, I am a user of Weilai, this charging pile is particularly sought-after, my users are not used, but also to others to release, this thing is definitely not right, because I am a company, I am with more than enough ability to serve other brands of users. Some piles can be opened, and some piles alone can only be given to Weilai, I think they can all be understood.

The delivery of NIO ET5 and ET7 is actually not related to the Spring Festival, because of the release of ET7 and ET5 as a whole, when ET7 began to be released from NIO Day in January 2021, we are talking about 2022, delivery in March, and delivery next month, so there is no problem of delay and delay; and ET7 is a milestone innovation, if you really know a lot about the automotive industry, it is indeed using a lot of new technologies in the mass production car. At the beginning of March, users can experience this car very closely, and I believe that there will be many surprises that everyone can't think of.

As for how long to wait, it turns out that some are indeed willing to wait, we have a large number of orders, including recent deliveries, the biggest pressure is that many users are asking when they can deliver the car, this is really a lot of pressure on Weilai, this is not hunger marketing, we have not yet reached the level of hunger marketing. We are doing this with all our might, but this is really difficult, of course it needs to be improved, I hope it doesn't take so long in the future, I hope to be able to pull the entire production capacity to a very high level, so that all users can enjoy not waiting for a long time.

Ma Lin: Charging piles are like this, individual charging piles, may be because of factors such as property, to make an appointment, etc. For Weilai users charging pile is free, but for other brand users is charged, there is a lock is to prevent the oil car occupancy, some people will misunderstand this can not be used.

Q: How can NIO mobilize more resources for 24/7 service? Now that all parties are very concerned about new energy, will WEILAI work with more partners to inject better resources to serve users?

Qin Lihong: In the past two years, there have been many capital market events, and many friends have asked about various rumors. I think that for the development of a company, in such a complex domestic and foreign situation, the first must be to do a good job in all possible risk prevention, will not put the company in danger. Second, we welcome all kinds of possibilities, and do not rule out all kinds of possibilities, which are subject to the official announcement of our listed company.

Benchmark BMW, reveal the "Gemini"

Q: WEILAI has now benchmarked BMW in a new generation of products, I especially appreciate this courage and statement, what is the logic behind this?

Qin Lihong: In fact, it is not about courage. I came here today just before there was a meeting, looking at some of the market conditions of the year. Of course, BMW has a longer history than Weilai, and I think BMW is a very good and respectable brand, there is no doubt about it. I don't mean to belittle BMW today, you are all media teachers, we must stand in a good position. But in the matter of high-end new energy vehicles, I think we and BMW are not latecomers.

I just saw the statistics of last year's annual insurance data, last year in the high-end brand electric vehicles above 300,000 yuan, of course, there are three definitions, more than 300,000, high-end brands, electric vehicles, Weilai's share in China accounted for 40.8% in the last year according to the insurance company's insurance number, the first half of the year is 37%, the second half of the year is more than 44%, of which behind us is Tesla, of course, Tesla's overall sales are several times that of Weilai, but Tesla's average open fare is less than 300,000, It has more than 300,000 invoiced vehicles six or seven thousand less than our Weilai; BMW is more than 20,000 units, a good job, in the BBA, Mercedes-Benz is about 6,000 units, Audi is more than 2,000 units.

The automotive industry is very complex, in the early stage of the development of electric vehicles, everyone put all electric vehicles together to rank and share, I think in the early stage of the market is reasonable. But last year, the penetration rate of new energy in China has reached about 14%, of which more than 20% in December, and basically around 20% in the fourth quarter, which is no longer a niche market. In such a booming emerging market, and then put different price points, different market segments of the car together, I think this methodology should be iterated.

We may want to cluster the same market segments of the car together for comparison, we Weilai from the beginning of the benchmark is BBA, our founder Li Bin had a year in an interview with CCTV said, the future and BBA together, high-end brands have one of the world, there may be many people with different views. So in the case that today's oil cars still occupy the mainstream, this sounds more arrogant, but if we recognize that electric vehicles are a new market that is constantly evolving, and will gradually occupy the mainstream in the future, I think at the age of three, some of our current trends can already see some trends, this trend may not be forever, but I think it may determine the direction of the next few years.

I am very impressed that three years ago, all people, whether it is partners, users, investors, or media friends, including peers, are asking us that you are just a little window period, and when the BBA does electric vehicles, you will die very crisply. One of the key factors in BMW's more than 20,000 risks last year was because its IX3 fell by about 70,000 in the Spring Festival last year, which is unprecedented in the entire automotive industry, so it sells better than Mercedes-Benz and Audi.

But I think in the increasingly fierce competition, Weilai still has a foothold in the high-end pure electricity. Of course, the competition in the entire market has just begun, we are still running in a relatively advanced position, which is related to the original intention of the establishment of the entire company of Weilai, including the strategy and business model that Weilai has been adhering to in recent years, and there are also certain stage results.

Q: Now that we know the delivery dates of the two new ET5 and ET7 cars, is there another car this year? Is there any news about this new car? Is there a delivery target for sales this year?

Qin Lihong: First of all, the second question, this year's delivery target I said is not counted, the supply chain is decided, how much to pay. As for the final amount, we will definitely work with brother companies, including upstream and downstream brother companies, including our peers to gain a foothold in a very complex supply chain environment.

Of course, from the perspective of vehicle production capacity, everyone knows that the first factory of Weilai in the NeoPark Xinqiao Intelligent Electric Vehicle Industrial Park will be put into operation this year, and we will definitely go up a relatively large step, so the specific number, I said it does not count.

As for the other car. Indeed, this time Weilai is very rare, the confidentiality work is quite good, maybe now that the New Year has passed, I think it is appropriate to talk about it.

NIO is now tentatively scheduled to be in mid-April, will officially release a new car to be delivered within the year, ET7 everyone knows that the arrow is on the string, And delivery will begin on March 28. When ET5 was released at the end of last year, it also said that it would be delivered near the end of this year.

There is also a car is the "Gemini" that has been rumored for a long time in the past, in fact, it is the code name of a new product, Andrai uses constellations to code the new product, this product is called Gemini "Gemini". This new model is officially named ES7, is a product between ES8 and ES6, the specific positioning is a medium and large five-seat SUV, we all know that Weilai ES8 is a medium and large six-seater, seven-seat SUV, ES6 is a medium-sized five-seat SUV, ES7 officially called a medium and large five-seat SUV, folk commonly known as "big five-seater", in the comfort of the pursuit of a more extreme point, but also equipped with Weilai NT2.0 platform, more specific information left until April revealed.

ES7 is a bmw X5L competition, X5L is also a heavy new car that everyone is looking forward to in the first half of this year, we also looked at the entire market, maybe Weilai ES7 and BMW X5L will become the two large five-seat SUVs that everyone is most looking forward to this year, respectively, in the traditional fuel and emerging electric two markets to make efforts, we hope to be able to work together with the excellent BMW X5L to meet the different needs of users.

Q: WEILAI has always emphasized that it is a user enterprise, in the service of users, WEILAI has invested far more energy and resources than other car companies, in this matter, how does WEILAI think about the problem of efficiency and cost?

Qin Lihong: These two questions are actually very simple, and everyone feels that Weilai has done a lot of things as if the cost cannot be stopped. When we look at the third quarter of 2021 financial report, we can see that the total expense of MARKETING and services of NIO accounted for 20% of our sales revenue. What level is this?

You can compare the total cost of financial sales services of other high-end brands in parallel. But other brands also have a piece in their OEMs' financial reports, that is, the cost of dealers, because we are a direct operating system, so all of our things are in it, most of the matters can be compared, we are equivalent to doing one more energy business, just like the refueling business.

If we take out the financial reports of other high-end brands and dealer-related costs, we can see that our efficiency is actually very high, and in the process of optimization year by year, we don't have to worry about it.

Q: In 2021, NIO has a lot of layouts in offline stores and charging facilities, will NIO continue to maintain this rhythm in 2022?

Qin Lihong: This year is still the same as last year, we want to maintain a relatively high pace of infrastructure investment.

Our store is Wei Jian in charge, Weilai this year's cattle house may open more than 100, the specific number wait until the end of the year to report to everyone, because there are many unknowable factors in the process of opening the store, more than 100 are definitely going to open. In addition, there is a replacement power station, and Weilai expects to build more than 1,300 by the end of this year, which Li Bin has already announced. By the end of last year it was more than 770, meaning we still have at least 600 more to open.

Whether it is the layout of the supercharge pile or the destination charging pile, it will maintain a relatively high growth rate. Our basic idea is that this speed should be maintained for a few more years, until the electric vehicle in the experience of charging and replacing is at least about equal to the refueling experience of fuel vehicles, and in local places, local scenes, and even beyond the experience of fuel vehicle refueling, I think this construction will slow down.

Now is a huge industry in the ascendant, I want to make a resolute investment in the early stage to improve the user experience, so as not to let the early choice of electric vehicle friends suffer losses, this is our basic starting point.

Q: Is NIO's moat still a user? Because there are many other brands now, whether it is some new forces, and some traditional car companies are doing customer relations, will the moat of Weilai be broken soon? On this issue, does Weilai have any killer skills?

Qin Lihong: In the past, in the present, and in the future, weilai's moat is all users.

We are indeed very happy to see that the concept of NIO's user enterprise, including many concepts and practices of community operation, has received a lot of response from peers, and I have always felt that one thing being responded to by peers is the highest praise, at least it shows that we are doing the right thing.

But please don't worry, the moat is not a boundary river, my moat dug wide and your moat has nothing to do, each has a good way for their own users, our family harmony does not mean that neighbors want to quarrel, home harmony is the best. Objectively speaking, we feel that the level of service users in the entire automotive industry is compared with many other industries, there are still many places to learn and improve, and we especially hope to see the users of the car, especially those who bravely choose electric vehicles, get the best service, I think only in this way, the emerging industry will develop.

So I am very happy, but also very welcome to come together to do a good job of user service, we are actually in an open and honest exchange with many companies, in this regard, we are not stuck and conservative, we also learned a lot of valuable experience and nutrients from other companies, but also thank them.

Q: Nio Center resumed construction last year, from the perspective of Ping-efficiency ratio, the efficiency of NIO May not be so high, how do we consider the collocation of NIO Center and NIO Space?

Wei Jian: We don't look at the ping-efficiency ratio, and it doesn't have to be high. To take a simple example, there are many scenes in weilai center where our users drag their friends to drink a cup of tea, a cup of coffee, a cup of special drink, and then the following is a test drive, and then buy the car, so it is not necessarily not high.

In fact, Weilai has been talking about adopting a different marketing model than others last year, and we have improved our entire brand influence by being good to existing users. Weilai had more than 90 marriage proposals in niuwu last year, and all of them were successful, for this person, these two marriage proposals took place here, and the relationship between him and Weilai's cronies and family is completely different.

Another point, just now Lihong also said, we have been recognized by everyone for Weilai is a high-end brand, it is not a matter of price, our average price last year was more than 440,000, such a price performance is recognized by everyone. I drove Weilai's car out, I think it is very face-saving, there are many very complicated factors behind this.

Q: If you want to know the turnover of NIO Life during the Spring Festival, what is the level of gross profit margin now?

Qin Lihong: NIO Life's separate turnover and profit margin, Weilai generally does not announce it to the public, but what can be told to you is that during the Spring Festival, in terms of turnover, it is relatively low, and it is not the same as general shopping malls.

However, we have a lot of giveaways during the Spring Festival, and during this year's Spring Festival, the first major complaint from users about us was that we could not receive the Fuhu Mug, which was very popular. Therefore, for NIO Life, the main role is still an organic and important part of the lifestyle advocated by NIO, a component of NIO's system capabilities, and can become a relatively independent business by the way.

The NIO Life team has been established until now, and it has been 4 years by March this year, but it has achieved a very big leap forward, and its gross profit margin will be higher than that of our car. The high gross profit margin is mainly due to the thrifty channel cost and marketing expenses, that is, compared with other consumer goods, we may not know that there are many consumer goods and food throughout the life cycle of the gross profit margin is above 70%, although the manufacturers that produce it are not very profitable, because the middle circulation channel is too long, plus inventory. And Weilai is direct sales of private domain traffic, coupled with a strategy of almost zero inventory, so Weilai shares the saved gross profit space with users.

This year, and beyond, NIO Life will continue to play an important part of the lifestyle that NIO advocates, and I hope that its gross profit will feed itself.