Whip Bull reported today
Recently, NIO announced its delivery data for December and the whole year of 2023.
In December 2023, NIO delivered 18,012 new vehicles, up 13.9% year-on-year, and for the whole of 2023, NIO delivered 160038 new vehicles, up 30.7% year-on-year.
In this year of crazy price war and "life and death" of new energy vehicles, it is not easy for NIO, which adheres to the high-end strategy, to hand over this report card.
Especially in December, most companies are under great pressure to achieve their goals, and various car companies have launched a new round of price reduction promotions in order to achieve annual sales. According to the data of the China Passenger Car Association, in mid-December, the overall discount rate of the passenger car market was about 19.9%, which was further increased compared with November.
However, NIO has always insisted on "not fighting a price war". "We only do high-end, do not fight price wars, ensure that the service is leading, in line with the expectations of users, we have always done this, nothing has changed. Li Bin, founder, chairman and CEO of NIO, said.
What makes NIO's sales report card in 2023 even more valuable is that it still maintains its advantage in the high-end pure electric market.
According to the data, in the third quarter, NIO ranked first in China's electric vehicle market with an average transaction price of more than 300,000 yuan, with a market share of more than 45%, and from July to November 2023, in the Shanghai market with an average transaction price of more than 300,000 yuan, NIO surpassed BMW, Mercedes-Benz, and Audi for five consecutive months, regardless of power form.
"In the market of more than 300,000 pure electric vehicles, NIO's market share has never been lower. At the previous media exchange meeting, Li Bin said.
On the premise of not participating in price wars and exchanging price for volume, NIO not only delivered 160,000 new vehicles and occupied the high-end pure electric market, but also completed the upgrade of all products this year, announced 12 full-stack self-developed technologies, built 1,000 new battery swap stations, and returned to double digits in gross profit of vehicles.
At the beginning of 2024, traditional car companies, joint venture vehicles, and new forces will be pulled to the same starting point, and the battle in the new energy market will be more intense.
NIO's basic disk
In 2023, the price war will be fought from the beginning of the year to the end of the year. Tesla took the lead in launching a price war, and brands such as BYD, Xpeng, and Wenjie followed suit.
At that time, NIO publicly stated that price reductions would hurt old users, and NIO would never reduce prices.
At present, NIO has 8 models on sale, and the average price of the products is more than 300,000 yuan. In addition, at NIO Day 2023, NIO's intelligent electric executive flagship ET9 was officially unveiled, with a price starting at 800,000 yuan, benchmarking Mercedes-Benz S and BMW 7 Series.
What supports the price is the ability to match the product and service.
In 2023, NIO will complete the generational switch of all products, and successively deliver the all-new EC7, all-new ES6, ET5T, all-new ES8 and all-new EC6 models throughout the year, becoming the first smart electric vehicle brand in the world to complete the vertical switch of technology platform.
The ET9 is "the crystallization of NIO's full-stack technology layout and world-leading technology", including the embodiment and achievements of NIO's 12 full-stack technology layouts, including the self-developed intelligent driving Shenji chip, the self-developed global 900V high-voltage architecture, the Tianxing intelligent chassis system, and the flagship-level safety standard. It can be said that the ET9 is a concentrated embodiment of NIO's full-stack technology layout, and will define a new standard for "high-end" intelligent pure electric technology in the next five years.
"NIO's background is technological innovation," Li stressed. NIO has no hesitation in investing in the field of technology, and NIO has made high-quality investment in R&D, with the largest amount of R&D investment and the number of patents among new forces.
In the third quarter of 2023, NIO's R&D investment was 3.04 billion yuan, exceeding 3 billion yuan for four consecutive quarters. Since 2016, NIO has invested nearly 40 billion yuan in R&D.
As of the end of November 2023, NIO has a total of about 7,700 patents pending and granted worldwide, far exceeding that of other emerging brands. It can be seen that NIO's technological layout in related fields has led the industry, and these capabilities are precisely the technical standards that define the next generation of high-end smart electric vehicles.
For tram owners, range anxiety is an unavoidable topic. The industry solves the anxiety of battery life, one relies on fast charging, and the other is battery replacement.
Therefore, in addition to insisting on investing in the self-developed global 900V high-voltage architecture in the technical field, NIO has also accelerated the layout of the battery swap business.
NIO is currently the car brand with the largest number of charging piles and battery swap stations in the Chinese market. In 2023, NIO completed the "1,000 battery swap station construction task", building 1,035 new battery swap stations and laying out 1,322 new charging stations.
At the same time, NIO is also actively opening up cooperation with third parties, and in 2023, it has announced battery swap cooperation with Changan Automobile and Geely Holding.
Li Bin said that a rechargeable, replaceable and upgradable energy system is one of NIO's core strengths, and cooperation with third parties can not only expand NIO's core advantages, but also promote the construction of a battery swap network, jointly build a battery swap standard system, promote the high-quality development of the new energy vehicle industry, and promote the low-carbon transformation of the automotive industry.
"Battery swapping is not a burden for NIO, it is the moat of NIO," Li Bin said. Today, NIO has 2,350 battery swap stations, of which 747 are highway battery swap stations.
In the previous review, Li Bin once said that the biggest lesson of NIO this year is the late sales ability, "If we start to follow up from February, in fact, many orders will not be lost".
Therefore, NIO will also strengthen the construction of its sales and service network in 2023.
In 2023, NIO will add 47 NIO Centers, 123 NIO Spaces, 84 NIO Service Centers, and 22 NIO Delivery Centers around the world.
Since July this year, NIO has comprehensively improved its sales capabilities, with an internal target of selling 30,000 units per month and laying sales staff and outlets.
"It takes six months for a user consultant to become a skilled user, and NIO now has a team of 3,000 people. By the second quarter of next year, most of my colleagues will become mature, and I am very confident that the sales will increase after the second quarter of next year. Li Bin said.
The full-stack self-developed technology, the layout of the battery swap and charging business, and the construction of the sales and service system are the three major drivers for NIO to deliver an amazing sales report card in 2023. With these three major promoters, NIO is more confident in preparing for the 2025 new energy finals and continuing to lead the high-end pure electric market.
In 2024, NIO will "sell cars well"
In the "2024 China Auto Market Overall Forecast Report", the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers predicts that the sales of new energy vehicles in mainland China will be about 11.5 million units in 2024, a year-on-year increase of 20%.
"2024 and 2025 will be the two years of explosion in the high-end pure electric market. Next year will be even more competitive. Li Bin predicted.
Indeed, at the end of last year, a number of car brands launched high-end, even luxury versions of new energy models, and after several years of market education, more car owners began to accept and choose new energy vehicles.
In the face of more fierce market competition, in addition to the three major promoters, NIO has also made other preparations.
First of all, in terms of company management, NIO has achieved all-round improvement.
In the first half of last year, due to the decline in gross profit of the whole vehicle, the outside world began to question the model and strategy of NIO, and there were even rumors that "NIO will go out of business".
"NIO will not go out of business, and there is absolutely no possibility of it going bankrupt," Qin Lihong, co-founder and president of NIO, responded.
In the third quarter of 2023, NIO's revenue was 19.07 billion yuan, an increase of 117.4% quarter-on-quarter and 46.6% year-on-year, a record high, and its net loss decreased by 24.8% quarter-on-quarter, narrowing the loss significantly. It is worth mentioning that NIO's gross profit of the whole vehicle returned to double digits of 11%.
In addition, NIO also has ample cash reserves.
According to the third-quarter financial report, NIO's cash reserves reached 45.2 billion yuan, an increase of 13.7 billion yuan from the previous quarter. In December last year, NIO announced that it had received another $2.2 billion investment from Abu Dhabi's sovereign wealth fund, and currently has about 60 billion yuan in cash reserves.
The continuous endorsement of internationally renowned strategic investors and public market investors has provided NIO with sufficient capital "ammunition" on the one hand, and on the other hand, it fully reflects the long-term strategic investment value and strategic leading position of NIO in the industry that are widely recognized by global investors.
Previously, NIO adjusted its five-year strategic plan to two years, whether it is short-term delivery and execution, or long-term R&D investment, with sufficient cash reserves, in the next 1-2 years, NIO's layout and strategy will be more calm, and adhere to the perceptual experience brought by technological innovation, which is an opportunity for NIO.
"Sell cars well", this is Li Bin's expectation for NIO in 2024.
Can this year's NIO repeat or even surpass its achievements three years ago?
2021 is NIO's "best day", with a gross profit margin of more than 20% and positive cash flow. That year, NIO did not develop new cars and focused on selling cars.
In 2024, NIO's models and technologies will still be the ceiling of all departments, and after completing the sales network, will NIO be able to create better results?
"The NIO brand is the foundation of our brand for its products, services and community. Li Bin said that in 2023, on the basis of maintaining a high-end strategy, NIO perfectly solved the crisis and handed over an amazing report card.
According to the forecast of the Passenger Association, the development of new energy in the mainland will maintain a strong growth momentum in 2024. There is reason to believe that in this wave, NIO will also achieve more stable growth with the upward development of the industry.
In 2024, the growth momentum of China's new energy vehicle industry will continue, and it will enter the stage of annual sales of tens of millions of vehicles. In this critical period of big waves, the industry reshuffle will accelerate, some companies will get growth opportunities, and some companies will have a more difficult time. NIO has three major promoters of technology, battery swapping, and sales system, sufficient capital reserves, and a clear strategic rhythm and plan, and should have enough confidence to sprint to the 2025 new energy finals.