Many people don't know that today is actually a holiday - the International Day of Families.
The holiday was established by the United Nations in 1994 to raise global awareness of the value of family.
As the family is the place where norms and values are learned, these values can be passed on from one generation to the next through appropriate climate action and sustainable living education.
However, despite the noble intentions of the United Nations, the impact of the International Day of Families does not seem to have lived up to expectations, and I would not have known about it if it had not been for the Ledao Symposium, after all, there is no holiday.
Just now, NIO's Ledao brand announced the pre-sale price of its first product, the Ledao L60, at 219,900 yuan, which is 30,000 yuan cheaper than the starting price of the competing Tesla Model Y.
Li Bin, CEO of NIO, first explained the meaning of "Ledao" at the beginning of the press conference.
Ledao, that is, "the road of happiness", "every road you walk with your family, is a happy road." Li Bin said.
The brand logo of Ledao is an upward road, and its brand color is called "Dawn Orange", which is the color of the early rise of the sun. It can be found that Ledao is a family-centric brand.
Making family life better is the mission of Ledao.
After giving a basic introduction to the Ledao brand, Li Bin invited today's protagonist - Ledao L60.
The needs of the family have been thoroughly pondered by Ledao
Although Ledao only officially announced today, its appearance is no secret, and Ledao also took the opportunity to announce the design lead of the L60, Raul Pires, vice president of design.
Pires began his design career at Skoda, where he became a champion of Octavia, Crystal Edge and Speed Pai. Pires then moved to Bentley, where he remained for 12 years. During this time, he designed the first generation of the Continental GT and established the next generation of Bentley's design language, as well as the Flying Spur, Continental GT Convertible, Azure Series and the legendary Brooklands.
And on today's protagonist Ledao L60, what he wants to express is: Way Up. The "Booming Sunrise Lights" located in the front and rear of the body are inspired by the brand meaning of Ledao, that is, the road up.
Every family wants their life to flourish.
With a length of 4,828mm, a width of 1,930mm, and a wheelbase of 2,950mm, the Ledao is longer, wider, and more spacious than the Tesla Model Y. How big is it?
Even if a family of five travels with a full load, it can also achieve "one box per person".
In order to show the huge riding space of the L60, Ledao also called a pair of twins with a height of 183cm, and at the same time crossed Erlang's legs in the front and rear rows.
In terms of rear knee room, the L60 is 3.5 times that of the Model Y and 7.5 times that of the Toyota RAV4, according to Ledao.
Why compare these two cars? Because they represent two eras:
Since its release in 1994, the Toyota RAV4 has been the world's best-selling vehicle in the era of gasoline vehicles, with a total of 1.009 million units sold; Since its release in 2019, the Tesla Model Y has been the world's best-selling vehicle in the EV era, with a total of 1.189 million units sold.
"Everyone's yearning for a better life in their families is the same," Li said. Paying attention to home use and pursuing space are the common denominators of these two "sales champions".
Li Bin also came up with a "family car value formula", as shown in the figure below:
In Ledao's view, family fun includes all-round safety, comfortable space, intelligent cockpit, battery life supplement, driving experience, and intelligent driving; The cost of buying a car, the cost of energy replenishment, the cost of maintenance, the cost of time, the cost of insurance, and the residual value are covered.
The L60 is a car built according to this formula.
At the top of the list is security. The L60 adopts a steel-aluminum hybrid dual-cabin body, with the passenger compartment protecting the safety of the family in an all-round way, and the chassis protection cabin is responsible for protecting the core components.
In particular, the L60 is made of submarine-grade 2000MPa ultra-high-strength steel for several key components, which can withstand a weight of 20 tons per square centimeter.
In a 70% rear offset crash test at 90km/h, the L60's passenger compartment remained intact, the high-voltage system automatically powered off, the door handles popped smoothly out, and the doors opened smoothly.
It should be further noted that the energy of the collision is 4 times higher than that of the national standard when tested at a speed of 90km/h.
Li Bin said that the reason why Ledao attaches so much importance to the results of the rear collision is because "although the AEB performance is very good, you can brake, and the person behind may not be able to brake".
With safety ensured, Ledao set out to optimize the in-cabin entertainment system.
The Ledao L60 solves the slot of the previous NIO model's main vertical screen, and replaces it with a 17.2-inch 3K retina screen with a bezel of only 5.35mm, a display area 125% of the Model Y, and a resolution of 225% of the Model Y. There's also a 13-inch head-up display and an 8-inch rear entertainment screen.
The only pity is that the NOMI on NIO is gone.
In terms of energy consumption, which Tesla is best at, the Ledao L60 has also achieved a new breakthrough, with energy consumption of only 12.1kWh per 100 kilometers, lower than the Model Y's 12.5kWh.
The difference in energy consumption is also reflected in the range, with the CLTC range of the L60 rear-wheel drive version being 555km, which is just 1km more than the Model Y. The L60 Long Range has a CLTC range of 730km (Model Y Long Range has a range of 688km). In addition, Ledao will also launch a 1000-kilometer ultra-long-range battery pack in the future.
In order to achieve the endurance performance of more family users, Ledao L60 is equipped with a global 900V high-voltage architecture, and its 900V silicon carbide main electric drive system has a comprehensive efficiency of 92.3% in CLTC working conditions, and the power volume density is 8kW/L, which is industry-leading.
At the same time, the Ledao L60 has a drag coefficient of Cd 0.229 measured at a speed of 120km/h, maintaining the leading level among midsize SUVs in the world.
Looking at the Ledao L60 beside him, Li Bin showed sufficient confidence, he believes that NIO's research on family needs is deeper than that of its competitors, and it also has a late-mover advantage.
Li Bin said that the Ledao L60 is a flexible SUV with a comfortable ride and easy to drive, with a far smaller turning radius than the Model Y, which has a shorter wheelbase.
The biggest advantage of Ledao is that it is backed by NIO
In the eyes of Qin Lihong, vice president of NIO, NIO is a "founding generation", and Ledao is a veritable "rich second generation".
There are more than 1000 battery swap stations waiting for the first car of any brand just after it was released, and we only climbed to more than 200 two years after NIO delivered it. In many systems, it is more mature than anyone can imagine.
In Li Bin's view, Ledao users need battery swap stations more than NIO users. After all, not everyone can buy a parking space.
The vast majority of urban users live in apartments, so it is difficult for many users, in fact, more than half of the new energy users to have the conditions to install charging piles.
In the 2023 earnings call, Li Bin clarified Ledao's position in NIO's battery swap network. He said that in the future, NIO's battery swap network will be divided into two types: "private network" and "shared network", the former is the private network of NIO users, which cannot be used by Ledao users; The latter is a battery swap network shared by NIO, Alps and other brands.
Up to now, NIO has deployed a total of 2,226 battery swap stations around the world, with more than 9,400 supercharging piles and 11,000 destination charging stations. Today, the battery swap system has been in operation for 5 years, providing more than 32 million battery swaps and energy replenishment services.
Similarly, Li Bin also attaches great importance to the construction of the sales network.
Within NIO, the construction of a sales and service network has a very high priority, second only to technology research and development. Li Bin previously said, "If we don't expand our sales network, then it will not be enough for us to deal with market competition." That's why NIO hired more than 3,000 sales consultants in the second half of last year.
This year, that number will increase dramatically -
Ledao will have a completely independent sales network from NIO, and all sales consultants will focus on Ledao itself, as well as the "family needs" of the target group. In addition, NIO's existing sales capacity will not be affected.
In addition, in terms of intelligent driving and intelligent cabin, it can also inherit the entire mature system of NIO, which is easy to use when released.
Ledao Automobile, we have to let NIO make money
NIO's 2024 is off to a rough start.
Li Bin said frankly in the first quarter earnings conference that although NIO has made progress in many areas, such as the smooth launch of second-generation products, the release of NIO mobile phones, and the cooperation with six major brands such as Changan and Geely, the overall performance has not met expectations. The revenue of 10.7 billion yuan in the first quarter was far less than the expectation of 15.74 billion yuan.
After the release of the earnings report, NIO's stock price fell in response, falling as high as 4% at one point, but the subsequent appearance of the Ledao brand in the earnings call brought new hope to NIO.
Making money is the first priority of Ledao Automobile.
For NIO, in order to cross the profit and loss line and maximize the use of its huge NIO Power energy replenishment network, boosting sales is the top priority, and reaching the threshold of 30,000 units per month is a phased goal.
In the Chinese auto market in 2023, there are only two cars with an average monthly sales of more than 30,000, the Tesla Model Y and the Nissan Sylphy. Sales of these two vehicles also reflect a trend: the rapid rise of electric cars and the decline of gasoline vehicles.
The annual sales of the Model Y are more than 80,000 more than those of the Sylphy, with an average monthly sales of 40,000 units. On the other hand, the former's sales increased by 44.7% year-on-year, while Sylphy's sales declined by -10.6%.
On the rear window is the Ledao L60 that reads, "Better Than Edamame Y."
Without discussing why the Model Y, which resembles a large Model 3, has been so successful, there is no doubt that the small and medium-sized SUVs have the most potential to become popular. At the same time, it also shows that there are not a few groups who are willing to spend more than 200,000 yuan to buy trams.
That's why Ledao targeted their first model at the Model Y.
In order to escort the new brand, Li Bin also invited Ai Tiecheng, who had participated in the preparation of Shanghai Disneyland, to be the president of Ledao, hoping to use his understanding of the needs of home users to ensure the sales of Ledao. Interestingly, Ai Tiecheng is also the owner of NIO's No. 107 Genesis Edition.
Last week, Mr. Ai recalled the past to a group of media outlets in his first public appearance.
In 2020, Brother Bin and Lihong came to me and said, "Alan, we want to create a new brand for mainstream home users." At the time, I thought, isn't this just a tailor-made [job] for me? The job I've always done is to create happiness for families, which is my forte, so I didn't hesitate to come at that time.
The only thing to worry about is that as a new brand, Ledao has the ability to successfully occupy the minds of users like Tesla and be widely recognized.
The bullet has just been discharged, let it fly for a while.
Li Hua (李华)
All those on wheels are concerned, and communication is welcome. E-mail: [email protected]
P.O. Box 8
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