As of January 2021, NIO's market value broke through the $90 billion mark. However, in the past few years, WEILAI has experienced a series of setbacks and difficulties such as the failure of a number of financing plans, sharp layoffs, executive departures, and the bottoming of the company's stock price, and today WEILAI has crossed the line of life and death and regained the favor of capital.
In Li Bin's own words: "We were actually punched to the ground by someone with one punch from the left to the right, and then we got up again, and we were beaten to the ground and got up again." But we stood still. ”
At the beginning of 2020, Weilai Automobile, which only came out of the "ICU", encountered greater challenges: Tesla cut prices, capital grabbed the beach new energy vehicle market... What is the magic weapon for Weilai Automobile to deal with it? What is the "happiness trouble" in Li Bin's mouth? From "controversy" to "contention", how did Weilai do it?
Let's then look for answers on Saturday, February 6, at 10:20 p.m., in the second episode of the fifth season of CCTV Finance's "Meet the Big Coffee".
Porsche factory is not as good as JIANGHUAI factory?
Weilai Automobile uses its strength to interpret that Chinese manufacturing is not lost to Europe and the United States!
In the fourth season of the "Meet the Big Coffee" program, Li Bin was questioned by many people because of a sentence that "the Porsche factory is not as good as jianghuai's automobile factory".
In this episode, Li Bin specially took the host Shi Xiaonuo to visit the factory of Weilai Automobile in Hefei. The factory was originally a swamp, and in just 20 months, it was completed from completion to production. Walking into the factory, you can see that the internal equipment is advanced and orderly.
Inside the factory, a series of honors won by NIO Are displayed: NIO ES8 in 2019 J.D. Power ranked first in the list of China's new energy vehicle quality, has surpassed BMW, Tesla and other well-known car brands (this list comes from one of the world's most professional and authoritative market research companies, but also one of the most authoritative lists in the automotive industry), WEILAI ES8 won the European Body Award, becoming the first Chinese high-end brand shortlisted for the European Body Selection Conference...
In Li Bin's view, this series of honors are indicating that Chinese manufacturing has reached a very high level, and the spring of domestic electric vehicle brands has arrived.
"Explainer" Li Bin deliberately explained the "Porsche" meme: "I visited the Porsche factory more than twenty years ago, and I felt that there was a big gap between us and Europe... Now, Made in China has really reached a very high level in many ways. ”
Tesla cut prices, Weilai sales rose,
Why does Li Bin have the courage to say that "Weilai Automobile does not reduce prices"?
In 2020, new energy vehicles ushered in rapid development, Xiaopeng, Ideal, Weima and other new car-making forces have made efforts, and Tesla, the leader in new energy vehicles, has reduced the price from more than 400,000 yuan to more than 200,000 yuan. In the face of all these challenges, Li Bin has a "happy trouble": Weilai Automobile's production capacity is not enough. To buy a NIO car, users have to wait for two months or even longer.
Li Bin said that in 2020, the sales volume of Weilai Automobile doubled compared with 2019, but the automobile supply chain is complex and involves a lot of parts, so the expansion of production capacity will take a certain amount of time. Li Bin, who has experienced many storms, said bluntly that he should "be more stable."
The most interesting thing is that Tesla's price reduction, the first price reduction, has an impact on Weilai's sales, and then the price is reduced, and the sales of Weilai Automobile will increase.
In the face of the "price strike" from opponents, Li Bin said that Weilai Automobile does not reduce prices, because he believes that price reductions are emotional harm to old users, "We must be grateful to users who have chosen us, and we must treat them well." This is the bottom line of a business, and the bottom line of each business is not the same. ”
Li Bin also said that the price of a penny is a penny, "the price of eating tuna is definitely not the same as eating crucian carp." Li Bin would rather spend the funds on building power stations and improving services for users, because "there will always be users in the world who recognize your value, as long as they don't make black money." ”
Weilai is praised by users as the "Haidilao" in the automobile industry,
Li Bin only gave Weilai's user service 50 points...
Owners who have bought Weilai cars are full of praise for the service of Weilai Cars. There is feedback from car owners that when Weilai is the most difficult, the service is not discounted. The industry once called Weilai Automobile the "Haidilao" of the automotive industry.
But Li Bin himself gave WEILAI Automobile only 50 points (out of 100 points). Because he feels that "satisfying users is the purpose of Weilai, not any means." On the road that is good for users and car owners, Weilai has no end.
At an internal employee meeting, he asked employees with a heart-to-heart question, when Weilai Automobile was the most difficult in 2019, who was more determined than the owner of the car and the company's employees? "We pay our employees, but the owner of the car buys our car, and if something goes wrong with the company, he suffers actual property damage."
Mr. Li said he was "very upset" that so far, no company salesperson had fought for greater benefits for customers in front of him. And Li Bin himself has long led by example, getting along with the owners of Weilai like relatives.
He will log on to the Weilai APP every day, send big red envelopes to car owners, and regularly participate in car friends meetings to "listen to the most original and true voice in business logic."
What is it like to grow up with a brand?
Many car owners have experienced the process of fighting wits and courage with their families before buying Weilai cars, but once they are driven, they rarely regret it. There are also owners who have bought two Weilai cars in a row and asked Li Bin: "Why does Weilai have such a big charm?" ”
Li Bin's answer was warm and sincere: "Technological progress will bring emotional experience... (Buy a WEI CAR), car owners are willing to watch it grow. Nowadays, it is impossible to have a mature car brand that will give car owners a chance to grow with it, and Nio can. You watch how it overcomes difficulties little by little, and you watch it grow and even become a part of its growth. ”
It is probably this sense of achievement and value that makes Weilai's car owners make a lot of warm moves: Weilai Auto Show Day, there will be hundreds of car owners present as volunteers to help Weilai sell cars; in the most difficult time of Weilai, users did not abandon it, but actively helped Weilai sell cars and pulled it back from the edge of the cliff.
Why does Li Bin think that WEILAI's listing is "unsuccessful"?
In 2018, WEILAI Auto landed on the New York Stock Exchange, and when everyone cheered for THE LISTING OF WEILAI, only Li Bin himself felt that the listing was not successful. He revealed in "Meet the Big Coffee" that Weilai Automobile plans to raise 2 billion US dollars, and finally only 1.1 billion, the original funds raised should be enough for Weilai to "burn" for two years, but now, it is only enough for one year.
What makes Li Bin even more uncomfortable is that on a public occasion, an American fund investor openly said that you are all liars. Compared with the last time Li Bin took the easy car network to the United States to successfully list, Li Bin felt that "an era is over." But even if the rhythm is disrupted, Li Bin's confidence in entrepreneurship is still as firm as ever.
Li Ning for the Nio bus platform,
Li Bin revealed his small goal: there is one of three points in the world
This left-behind child who came out of Dabie Mountain began to have a tossed entrepreneurial life from the counterattack to Peking University. He has experienced four ventures, making three companies listed companies.
In Li Bin's view, each of his entrepreneurship has its own difficulties, but he basically does not suffer from gains and losses, and always takes "how big things" as a mantra. He said that he didn't care much about the stock price of Weilai Automobile, because the mood always followed that, and there was no way to continue to start a business.
At a NIO DAY of Weilai Automobile, Li Ning gladly "stood" for Weilai Automobile. As the founder of the national tide sports brand, Li Ning has some "pity for Li Bin". Li Bin revealed to Li Ning the development direction of WEI: "The market we are targeting is the market of Mercedes-Benz, BMW, and Audi... See if there is a chance to achieve one of the three points in five years. Li Ning gave Weilai encouragement and also shared his entrepreneurial secret: "Entrepreneurship, living is a great victory." ”
Indeed, the road to entrepreneurship is not easy, on the one hand is flowers and applause, on the other hand, cliffs and failures. For this entrepreneurship, Li Bin has a big dream, such as Weilai Automobile can "three points of the world" with BMW, Mercedes-Benz and other first-line foreign brands, but also has a calm mentality: "Many people have asked me whether I want to start a business, in fact, it is very simple, you have to think, if you fail, what should you do?" If you fail and you're still willing to do it, do it. ”
On the track of new energy vehicles, the road ahead is still full of unknowns and dangers. At the end of the show, Li Bin said the only thing he could do was "look forward, go forward"... For more stories about Weilai Automobile, on February 6, at 10:20 pm on Saturday, the second episode of "Meet the Big Coffee" broadcast by CCTV Financial Channel continued.