Reporter: Li Xing Editor: Pei Jianru
At the recent "NIO Day 2023", NIO's new model ET9 was officially released, with a pre-sale reference price of 800,000 yuan, and the mass production and delivery time of the new car is set for the first quarter of 2025.
NIO's release of a new car more than a year ahead of schedule was regarded by some netizens as a "pie". In response to questions from the outside world, on December 24, Li Bin, chairman of Weilai, responded: "Weilai's flagship model will basically maintain a rhythm of more than a year in advance. Because, an executive flagship model needs a long warm-up period. Compared to Tesla's release of the Cybertruck four years earlier, the ET9 (the cadence) is much faster. ”
Image source: Courtesy of the company
Qin Lihong, co-founder and president of NIO, also said that for ET9, NIO is willing to extend the testing and verification time a little longer. "At present, the ET9 is still missing many elements from the release, such as cruising range, 000 acceleration, vehicle color and basic parameters of the vehicle, etc., which have not yet been announced. Qin Lihong said.
Before the release of the new car, Li Bin once said that "the ET9 will be benchmarked against high-end models such as Mercedes-Benz S-Class, BMW 7 Series, and Porsche Panamera".
In Li Bin's view, the executive flagship model has always been a scientific and technological flagship, and if the company does not have a breakthrough in scientific and technological innovation, it will not be able to support this product. According to the official introduction, the ET9 is equipped with the latest NIO technologies such as the Shenji NX9031 intelligent driving chip, the global 900V high-voltage architecture, and the Tianxing chassis system.
Image source: Courtesy of the company
According to public data, NIO's cumulative investment in technology research and development has exceeded 40 billion yuan. "We are very aware of the boundaries of our business, and in the future we will only focus on R&D, charging infrastructure and service users, and will not enter areas that have nothing to do with smart electric vehicles. Previously, Li Bin said in an interview with a reporter from the "Daily Economic News".
However, in addition to R&D investment, NIO's profitability has also attracted much attention. According to the financial report data, in the first three quarters of this year, NIO lost 15.554 billion yuan, second only to 2018 in the same period.
In the face of the company's continuous losses, Li Bin said frankly that this is due to both the external environment and NIO's own reasons, and the company has been reflecting and reflecting internally, and is continuing to improve.
"The automotive industry has a very long competitive cycle, it's never a winner-takes-all, and it's too early to say who wins. A few years ago, people would not have thought that BYD would have sold 3 million vehicles. Competition is ever-changing, and we should not get carried away because of temporary achievements, nor should we be arrogant because of temporary setbacks. Li Bin thinks.
In Li's view, all Chinese auto companies are new forces in the global market. "The ranking of new forces should put all Chinese car companies together, so that the comparison is more scientific. Li Bin said, "The healthy competition of you chasing me will make China's auto industry better and better, but the vicious competition that attacks each other and has no bottom line will make the current gratifying situation of Chinese auto companies go down the drain."
As for the future competition pattern of the global auto market, Li Bin predicts that by 2035, Chinese car companies will occupy five of the top ten auto groups in the world, and he hopes that NIO can become one of them.
It is worth mentioning that on December 18, NIO announced that it had signed a new round of share subscription agreement with CYVN Holdings, an Abu Dhabi investment institution, under which CYVN Holdings will make a total strategic investment of about $2.2 billion in cash to NIO through its subsidiary CYVN Investments. As early as July this year, CYVN Investments completed a strategic investment totaling about $1.1 billion through private placement of new shares and transfer of old shares.
"People always say that NIO has strong financing capabilities, but this is not the case. This is the recognition of NIO's R&D investment, brand value, and full-stack technology layout by investors. Li Bin said.
Image source: NIO announcement
While accelerating financing, NIO is also investing. "At present, NIO Capital has invested in more than 70 companies, covering batteries, lidar and other fields. Li Bin said.
National Business Daily