To talk about the most "unattainable" of the new forces of domestic car manufacturing, I am afraid that there is no dispute that Wei Lai has come. All along, Weilai insisted on taking the high-end car-making route, and its founder Li Bin even publicly stated earlier: "Weilai resolutely does not sell cars below 300,000 yuan." ”
But later everyone also saw that although the high-end can maximize profitability, it is difficult to compete for market share without going. From the perspective of market sales ranking, from the initial "Wei Xiaoli" to the later "Xiaoli Wei", and then to the sales of brands such as Nezha and Zero Run, which are now the second echelon of the main low-end, Weilai is facing more and more market competition pressure, and it has to lower its noble head.
On May 10, an official announcement from Hefei unexpectedly exposed a new sub-brand of the NIO brand. The announcement wrote that Hefei Economic Development Zone and NIO signed a cooperation agreement on the second phase of the Neo Park Xinqiao Intelligent Electric Vehicle Industrial Park and key core components supporting projects, the project covers an area of 1860 acres, according to the agreement will be introduced into the new high-end brand intelligent electric vehicle products of NIO Group, etc., planned to be completed and put into operation in 2024.
The key information revealed by this announcement is numerous and significant. First of all, it confirms that Weilai itself has indeed planned a new "sub-brand", and also confirms from the negative side that the Weilai brand still insists on doing high-end routes, and this year's models under the banner of "Weilai" will not be cheap in price;
Secondly, the announcement also said that the new product will compete in the market at Tesla, Volkswagen and so on. At present, the core team of the new brand has been completed, and the first batch of products has entered the key research and development stage. As we all know, Tesla's current sales force is located at 200,000 yuan 300,000 yuan Model 3, Model Y and other models, and Volkswagen does not need to say more, so, if there is no accident, the price of Weilai's new sub-brand models is probably also positioned at 200,000 yuan and 300,000 yuan.
The price ceiling is estimated to be difficult to exceed 300,000 yuan, because once it is exceeded, it buys the ranks of high-end luxury models, which is inconsistent with the positioning, on the other hand, it conflicts with Weilai's own models above 300,000 yuan. At present, the cheapest model on sale in Weilai is the UP-to-mass-produced ET5, which starts at 328,000 yuan, and the starting price of the BASS rental battery solution is 258,000 yuan.
Finally, Weilai's new sub-brand is only in the initial stage of construction, and it will take two years to see the specific products listed, which also means that Weilai ET5 will become the main model of Weilai to compete for market share in the past two years, and it is indeed very competitive in the market from the current point of view, provided that users can accept the BASS rental battery solution.
2024 is also expected to become the second outbreak stage of domestic new energy car manufacturing, because there will not only be a sinking of the Weilai sub-brand, but also the mass production release of Xiaomi automobiles, as well as the emergence of more powerful competitors and products such as the ideal pure electric series.
In short, although the announcement states that the goal of Niolai's new sub-brand is to compete with foreign brands such as Tesla and Volkswagen, it seems that it does not take domestic opponents in the eyes. But in fact, from the current market, it can be seen that as Tesla's first-mover advantage in the global new energy market gradually shrinks, domestic is rapidly catching up with the advantages of supply chain, localization, and cost performance, such as facing Tesla's FSD Beta on China's roads, Wei Xiaoli's automatic assisted driving experience has been surpassed, and the hardware configuration and price of other brands have also stabilized Tesla.
Therefore, although Weilai did not say it explicitly, I am afraid that it also knows that by 2024, it will face not only Tesla, but more powerful and more domestic brands. Because in the past two years, it is they who have surpassed Weilai.