NIO Li Bin's 2023 "Addition and Subtraction"

Reporter Xia Zhibin and Quartz Jing reported from Shanghai

NIO Day 2023 showed off the "muscle" technology, the live broadcast measured 150kWh ultra-large battery pack, and answered 140 questions in more than two hours...... Looking back at 2023, Li Bin, the founder, chairman and CEO of NIO, may be one of the busiest car company leaders.

Behind the hands-on action, it is not only Li Bin's responsibility as the helmsman of the enterprise, but also the situation of the intelligent electric track. If you count from the establishment in 2014, NIO has gone through 9 years on the road of making cars. In the 9 years since its establishment, NIO has been questioned by the outside world several times, and its fate has hung by a thread, but Li Bin, as a serial entrepreneur, can always pull NIO back from the edge of the cliff safely.

In 2023, "involution" will become a high-frequency word in the entire automotive industry, both in terms of price and value. The head pattern of "Wei Xiaoli" will also change in 2023, and the ideal will open a considerable gap with Weilai and Xiaopeng in terms of sales.

From the initial era of mechanization to the era of vigorous electrification, the automotive industry is gradually entering the era of intelligence. Automobiles have long been separated from the simplest transportation attributes and have become a space for intelligent mobility, and the integration of electronic consumption and automobiles has accelerated.

In such a competitive context, NIO needs to break the stereotype that NIO is only a good service. In September 2023, at the NIO IN 2023 NIO Innovation and Technology Day, Li Bin incarnated as the CTO (Chief Technology Officer) of the enterprise to release NIO's technology dry goods, and NIO released its flagship mobile phone, NIO Phone.

Then, at NIO Day 2023 held on December 23, 2023, Li Bin once again represented NIO to show off his "muscles" and released four core technologies: self-developed intelligent driving chip, self-developed global 900V high-voltage architecture, Tianxing intelligent chassis system, and flagship-level safety standards.

Li Bin, founder, chairman and CEO of NIO, was interviewed by the media. Interviewee/Courtesy photo

"NIO's background has always been technological innovation, and from day one, our team has been determined to do positive research and development. At the media exchange meeting on December 24, 2023, Li Bin said to reporters from China Business News and other media.

Do technical additions

When it comes to NIO, many people's first impression is that user operations are doing well. The trust of users is the cornerstone of NIO's survival, but such a first impression also brings disadvantages to NIO, many people only know that NIO has good user service, but dilute NIO's technical strength.

In Li Bin's view, the foundation of NIO is technology and products, and the efforts made by enterprises in products and technologies, especially technological innovation, should not be ignored just because they are doing well in enterprise services. "It's like we can't forget that our charging is also the most resolute car brand in the country, with the most installed charging piles and the widest coverage of charging piles because we have done a good job of battery replacement. ”

The reporter noted that at NIO Day 2023, NIO's intelligent electric executive flagship ET9 was officially unveiled. According to the introduction, NIO ET9 brings together the latest technology research and development achievements, and defines the executive flagship in the era of intelligent electric vehicles with technology, integrating flagship appearance, innovation space, world-leading driving experience, intelligent technology, efficient energy replenishment and all-round safety standards. "Dare to think, promising", ET9 is a "most decent, most comfortable and safest" intelligent electric executive flagship designed for a new generation of high-end business users.

In Li Bin's view, the executive flagship has always been a technology flagship, and ET9 is the crystallization of NIO's full-stack technology layout and world-leading technology, including 17 world-premier technologies, 52 class-leading technologies, and 525 patents have been applied.

Taking the intelligent chassis system as an example, NIO ET9's "SkyRide Intelligent Chassis System" integrates the three core hardware systems of steer-by-wire, rear-wheel steering and fully active suspension for the first time, and is currently the world's only fully intelligent chassis with wire-by-wire.

The reporter noticed that in addition to releasing the full drive-by-wire intelligent chassis, Li Bin also released NIO's first self-developed intelligent driving chip - Shenji NX9031 at NIO Day 2023. It is the industry's first to adopt the 5nm automotive process and has more than 50 billion transistors.

According to NIO, from the perspective of comprehensive capabilities and efficiency, a self-developed chip can play the role of four flagship chips, realize the close combination of computing power and its own algorithms, and share cross-domain computing resources in intelligent driving and cockpit, bringing ultimate security and ultimate efficiency.

Not only that, in view of the characteristics of the industry of "long car cycle and fast intelligent iteration", NIO will take whether car owners can continue to enjoy the upgrade of intelligent software technology after buying a car as the primary consideration. It is worth noting that NIO's intelligent driving chips and underlying software are designed by themselves, and it will be more timely and convenient to upgrade intelligent driving technology in a long cycle, and based on computing power redundancy, it will be the top domain control in the next 5 years, and continue to bring users a safe and efficient intelligent driving experience.

NIO, led by Li Bin, is becoming a practitioner of technology addition. Li Bin told reporters: "ET9 is not only the crystallization of NIO's own technological innovation, but also the epitome of China's smart electric vehicle industry from a big automobile country to an automobile power, which is not only the achievement of NIO, but also a small milestone in the process of the entire smart electric vehicle industry in the process of participating in the global smart electric vehicle competition." ”

Before NIO Day 2023, Li Bin also measured a 150kWh ultra-long-range battery pack. After 14 hours, the battery pack used 97% of the battery power and had a range of 1,044 kilometers, demonstrating NIO's battery pack technology.

Expand the circle of friends

Battery swapping has always been a business that NIO has spent a lot of energy on layout, and it has been questioned by the outside world. However, under the encouragement of national policies, the number of car companies that have deployed battery swap business has increased, and the battery swap mode is increasingly favored by new energy vehicle users.

It is also in 2023 that NIO's long-established battery swap business ushered in the "spring" and established cooperation with a number of car companies. On November 21, 2023, NIO and Changan Automobile signed a cooperation agreement on battery swap business, under which the two parties will cooperate in promoting the establishment of battery swap standards, the construction and sharing of battery swap networks, the research and development of battery swap models, and the establishment of an efficient battery asset management mechanism.

Regarding the battery swap business, Li Bin said that from the first day of the battery charging and swapping business, NIO decided to open it to the whole industry. Like the Internet cloud service infrastructure, NIO's battery swap network and NIO Energy Cloud have also taken a path of infrastructure first, internal closed-loop, full-scenario verification, and opening to the outside world. After five years of development, NIO's battery swap network and NIO Energy Cloud have accumulated rich experience in R&D, construction, and operation, and NIO's battery swap business is ready to open up to the industry.

Since then, NIO and Geely have signed a strategic cooperation agreement on battery swapping, under which the two parties will carry out comprehensive cooperation in various fields such as battery swap battery standards, battery swap technology, battery swap service network construction and operation, battery swap model development and customization, battery asset management and operation.

The reporter learned that according to the content of the agreement, the two sides will work together to create two battery swap standard systems of "private cars" and "operating vehicles" through the mode of "co-investment, co-construction, sharing and co-operation", accelerate the connection and coordination of the vehicle end, station end, battery end and operation end, expand the scale of the battery swap network, and provide more convenient, safer and more perfect services for users with different needs.

In addition, NIO and Geely will establish an efficient battery asset management system, establish a unified battery swap operation management system, and jointly develop battery-swapped passenger cars that are compatible with the battery swap systems of both parties. This cooperation is in line with the development direction of the country's new infrastructure and new energy, and will accelerate the process of standardization of battery swap technology and the scale of battery swap network, and help the low-carbon transformation of the automotive industry.

On December 22, 2023, NIO's 1,000th battery swap station in 2023 was officially launched at the Shaanxi Museum of Natural History, reaching the plan of building 1,000 new battery swap stations ahead of schedule, which is a major milestone for NIO in the layout of battery swap network infrastructure.

Regarding NIO's battery swap alliance, Qin Lihong, co-founder and president of NIO, said at the media communication conference after NIO Day 2023: "Although we have recently disclosed some contracts, in fact, we have signed more than we have disclosed, and there are more to discuss. ”

It is worth mentioning that at NIO Day 2023, Li Bin also officially released NIO's fourth-generation battery swap station. It is reported that NIO's fourth-generation battery swap stations support multi-brand shared battery swaps, reducing battery swap time by 22%, and equipped with a rooftop photovoltaic system, each station saves nearly 18,000 kWh of electricity per year. According to the plan, in 2024, NIO will add 1,000 new battery swap stations.

Do cost subtraction

NIO will also be favored by the capital market again in 2023. On December 18, 2023, NIO announced that it has signed a new round of share subscription agreement with CYVN Holdings ("CYVN"), an Abu Dhabi investment institution. Under the agreement, CYVN, through its subsidiary CYVN Investments, will make a strategic investment in NIO in cash form totaling approximately US$2.2 billion.

The reporter noted that NIO's announcement showed that after the completion of the above investment transaction, CYVN's shareholding in NIO will increase to about 20.1%. This also means that if the above transaction is completed, Li Bin will no longer be the largest shareholder of NIO.

Regarding the change of the largest shareholder, Li Bin responded to the outside world through the media: "First, when I was listed, I transferred 50 million shares to the user trust, and now the equity table has not been reduced, which means that I am not the largest shareholder in the economic sense; ”

"The two investments add up to $3.3 billion, which should be the record for China's largest FDI equity in 2023. Li Bin said frankly, "Others always say that NIO has strong financing capabilities, but in fact, it is not that NIO has strong financing capabilities, but that investors recognize NIO's investment in R&D, the value of the brand, and the full-stack technology layout." ”

Talking about whether the entry of Middle Eastern capital will change the company's established strategy, Li Bin told reporters: "Our strategic investors are very recognizable to NIO's strategy and the execution of the strategy, this investment will not change our established strategy, and they will only have such an investment based on the premise of the recognition of the established strategy and direction, if they do not recognize us, I think they may not have such an investment." This is definitely a plus for NIO's own development rhythm and all aspects. ”

It is worth noting that Li Bin will also raise the big knife of cost reduction in 2023 and start cost "subtraction". On November 3, 2023, Li Bin confirmed the layoffs in the internal letter "Organizational Optimization and Two-Year Priorities" released by Li Bin, with a layoff rate of 10%. "The next two years will be the most competitive phase of the transformation period of the automotive industry, and the external environment is full of great uncertainties. Li Bin said in an internal letter released.

It is reported that NIO has identified business priorities and formulated specific plans for organizational and business optimization, including ensuring long-term investment in core and key technologies to maintain leading edge in technology and products, ensuring that sales and service capabilities can cope with fierce market competition, ensuring that 9 core products of 3 brands are launched on schedule, merging departments and positions that are duplicated construction, changing inefficient internal work processes and division of labor, eliminating inefficient positions, and postponing and reducing project investment that cannot improve the company's financial performance within 3 years.

Talking about the future pattern of the industry, Li Bin said: "I think by 2035, Chinese auto brands will account for 5 of the world's top 10 auto groups. But each of the five has a different answer, and we will try to be one of them. ”

(Editor: Quartz Jing Proofreader: Yan Jingning)