Last month, NIO announced its financial results for the fourth quarter and full year of 2023. Compared with the year-on-year increase of 12.9% in revenue, the annual gross profit margin of 5.5%, and the annual net loss of 20.72 billion yuan are extremely dazzling. In particular, the loss of more than 20 billion yuan has given many automobile and financial media "headline" inspiration.
In this topic, we will start with a collection of NIO cars and talk about the story of NIO.
Introduction of Chengpin
Friends who are familiar with the development of NIO should know that at the beginning of its establishment, NIO also engaged in racing. That's right, it's a world-class Formula E championship, also called Formula E. The current Formula E event, although not as influential as F1 in China, is undoubtedly the top event for electric vehicles.
From the teams participating in 2024, it is not difficult to find that DS, McLaren, Jaguar, Maserati, Porsche, Nissan and other factory teams have participated, with a total of 11 teams and 22 drivers participating. In terms of scale and drivers, there are more than F1. In terms of the design of the car, Formula E adopts an all-electric architecture with no emissions, and the overall racing style is more aggressive.
In the case of Chengpin introduced in this issue, this is a model of the car of the NIO Automobile Factory Team in the first FE event. In 2015, NIO's Brazilian driver Nelson Piquet won the first Formula E Drivers' Championship, which was also the first time that a Chinese team won the championship in an international racing competition. Even if the performance of the NIO team was mediocre later, this "champion" honor was enough for NIO to blow for a lifetime. That's four years before Lynk & Co won its first WTCR World Cup championship in 2019.
Looking back at this NIO FE car, the overall livery is the familiar lake blue and dark blue color combination, which is the style of the original NIO car. The use of a large number of carbon fiber materials can greatly reduce the weight of the body. Of course, the car model will not use carbon fiber, which is reasonable, after all, the cost is there, and it is only the black paint of the carbon fiber texture.
Compared with the F1 car, the advertising sponsors of this NIO FE car are a little less, which may be the reason for the first FE race, and the commercialization is not good enough, and the most on the body is the NIO logo of NIO.
NIO's FE racing cars are made of Michelin tires, and the relevant logos and logos can be seen on the front wing, rear wing and tires. The shape of the wheels is very shiny, but it has a retro style.
The NIO logo on the rear wing is very conspicuous, and it is not certain whether the NIO FE car has a DRS function. In short, it's just good to look good.
There are not many places where the vehicle can be moved, and the overall workmanship can only be said to be decent, and the details are not very exquisite, but it is still a car model worth collecting for the extraordinary significance of Chinese motorsports and NIO.
Sales in 2023 will not surpass Lexus
I still remember that Li Bin, chairman and CEO of NIO, said in public that "sales will surpass Lexus". As we all know, Lexus is in the first echelon of domestic second-tier luxury car brands, and if sales can surpass Lexus, it means that the distance with first-tier luxury car brands is closer. Such bold statements are naturally unprecedented challenges for NIO, which has been established less than 10 years ago.
In the past 2023, NIO's sales will be 160,000 units, a year-on-year increase of 30.7%, and Lexus's domestic sales will be 181,400 units, a year-on-year increase of 3%, and there is still a gap of 21,800 units. Although NIO has significantly improved in terms of sales, it is much bleaker in the face of the actual completion rate of only 64% for the whole year. The sales volume did not meet the target, which to a certain extent, also exacerbated the company's losses.
If NIO can make further progress in sales, it will contribute more to profits, and the company will have a greater chance of turning losses into profits. The sales price of Weilai's main models is more than 300,000 yuan, and a large part of consumers are screened out in terms of price.
As of press time, NIO has announced its second brand, which is called "Ledao", not the "Alps" as previously rumored. Whether it is positioning and pricing, it will be further explored, and it is expected to face the market of 20-300,000 yuan, shouldering the heavy responsibility of brand volume. In addition, in 2025, NIO will also launch a third brand for the market of less than 200,000 yuan to further enrich the market segment.
The controversial battery swap mode
What is the difference between NIO and other brands of cars? If you want to say "battery swap", there is certainly no controversy. When NIO was founded, domestic battery technology was not as mature as it is now, especially in terms of battery capacity and charging efficiency, the range of pure electric vehicles was not as long as it is now, and the fast charging technology was not so efficient. In order to dispel the anxiety of car owners, "battery swapping" is indeed a great idea, because there has never been a commercial success before.
When "battery swapping" becomes the standard service of NIO, in order to make "battery swapping" more convenient than refueling, it is necessary to lay a battery swap network across the country and even around the world. For a new car manufacturer, this is an "infrastructure" investment that cannot achieve profitability in a short period of time, which undoubtedly greatly increases NIO's operating costs.
The cost of NIO's battery swap station is very high, it is said that it requires one or two million, plus the daily site rent, electricity costs, personnel costs, maintenance costs, etc., and it is a continuous and growing fixed cost. In the early days of NIO's establishment, the number of owners was limited, and for many old car owners, it was obviously difficult to make a profit with such a service investment. The reality is that the "infrastructure" investment of a company alone can serve car owners and social value is very limited, and its business model is not healthy.
Not long ago, NIO reached cooperation agreements with Changan Automobile, Geely Holding Group, JAC Automobile, and Chery Automobile on battery swap business. Although the official did not disclose too many details of the cooperation, we can imagine that such cooperation can reduce the financial pressure of NIO to a certain extent, and at the same time, more and more brand models will also realize "battery swapping" and join NIO's battery swap network. Whether it is such cooperation or alliance, it will naturally be beneficial in the long run.
To this day, NIO's battery swap mode is still ahead of its time. As of January 2024, the number of battery swap stations in the country is 3,624, and another 1,000 new battery swap stations will be invested by 1.5-2 billion yuan this year. Except for charging piles. NIO's mobile charging vehicle is also the first of its kind in the industry. I have to say that NIO's obsession with charging and replenishing energy is admirable. With such over-investment, what else do consumers have to be picky about?
Finally pulled
This year marks the 10th anniversary of NIO's birth. In the automotive industry, a brand that celebrates its 10th anniversary does not have a long history, but among the new forces in car manufacturing, NIO has always been the focus of everyone's attention, and it has never lacked topicality.
Ten years on, just like the name of NIO, from the very beginning of its creation, it has been a brand with a great vision for the future of human mobility. From the first Formula E championship and the industry's first battery swap mode to a service experience that far exceeds industry standards, NIO is writing its own way of being a unique Chinese high-end brand. For consumers, the first model of NIO's second brand "Ledao", which will be launched in the third quarter of this year, is still worth looking forward to.