On the evening of May 15, the first model of Weilai's second brand Ledao, L60, was officially unveiled, with a pre-sale price of 219,900 yuan (paying a deposit of 2,000 yuan can be used to buy a car for 6,000 yuan, but the configuration of different models has not been announced), and the official positioning is positioned as a family smart electric mid-size SUV, which will be officially launched and delivered in September. More than 2 months ago, Weilai Automobile and Xiaopeng Motors successively announced their second brand plans, and this time, Li Bin took the lead, and Ledao Automobile took the lead in the front of the stage. Needless to say, the importance of Ledao is for NIO, but in the current situation that the automotive industry has been so "rolled", can the market still tolerate Ledao? 01
How to be happy?
The L60 is 4,828 mm long, 1,930 mm wide, 1,616 mm high, and has a wheelbase of 2,950 mm. In terms of range, the Ledao L60 consumes 12.1 kWh of electricity per 100 km, which is known as the industry's lowest energy consumption of a medium-sized SUV, and will provide three different battery packs of 555km, 730km and 1000+km. The vehicle has a full-range 900V high-voltage architecture and is equipped with a fully self-developed 900V silicon carbide main electric drive system. At the same time, Ledao L60 also claims to challenge the ultra-low wind resistance of the world's mass-produced SUV, with a drag coefficient of 0.229 at 120km/h.
At the press conference, Li Bin constantly emphasized that Ledao should define a new standard for family cars, and at the same time launched the "family price formula" aimed at redefining the cost-effective standard of family cars. Li Bin introduced that the core of the new standard is to maximize the value of family user experience and optimize the cost of car ownership throughout the life cycle.
Ledao's family price formula includes car purchase cost, energy supply cost, maintenance cost, time cost, insurance cost, as well as safety, comfort, intelligent cockpit experience, endurance, additional services and intelligent driving technology. Through this scientific calculation method, Ledao has come up with the ideal price range for a model suitable for family use. At the same time, Li Bin said that at present, NIO has 2,415 battery swap stations, 44146889 the number of battery swaps, and 22,449 charging piles, 39018175 the number of charges. The Ledao brand was launched at this time, and I was very confident. "Happy family and good family" undoubtedly carries the great hope of NIO. Previously, at the 500,000th production car off the assembly line held at the second factory of NIO (the second advanced manufacturing base) in Xinqiao, Hefei, Li Bin once said: "Ledao means a new process for NIO from 1 to 10, or even from 1 to 100 (the establishment of the NIO brand is from 0 to 1). Because we want to enter a wider market, serve a wider range of users, and provide users with mature technology, services, and more cost-effective solutions. NIO has huge advantages in defining the products and providing services of the second brand based on the accumulated R&D investment, the system capabilities of the entire company, and the service system (including charging and swapping). "The repeated statements not only show NIO's confidence in Ledao, but also reflect NIO's expectations for the second brand. Li Bin introduced at the press conference that the Ledao brand had been planned at the beginning of NIO's establishment and began to enter the implementation stage at the beginning of 2021. NIO currently has 2,415 battery swap stations, with more than 44 million battery swaps and 22,449 charging piles. Li Bin said that NIO's infrastructure has made some achievements and can serve more users. However, whether Ledao's performance after listing can be in accordance with the wishful thinking of NIO's plan and conquer the city in the home market, and orders are pouring in, remains to be tested by time and consumers.
02
High hopes were pinned
Once upon a time, NIO ranked among the top three in the delivery list of new power brands, and in April 2024, NIO already has three brands in front of it: Ideal, Wenjie, and Zeekr, and NIO's sales of 15,620 in that month have opened a big gap with the level of about 25,000 units at the top of the list. Looking at NIO's annual report, NIO will sell 160038 units in 2023, a year-on-year increase of 30.7%, but NIO's gross profit margin will drop from 10.4% in 2022 to 5.5% in 2023, and gross profit will also decline by 40.7% year-on-year, further expanding operating losses and net losses. NIO in 2023 can be said to have sold a lot and lost a lot.
Ledao has been entrusted with the task of significantly increasing NIO's overall sales. What NIO urgently needs is to explore the price range of the brand, exchange price for volume, and win more consumers' choices, so as to improve its dilemma of losing one car and losing more when it sells, and further improve its cash flow. This makes sense from NIO's point of view, in other words, it is the decentralization and generalization of NIO's previous R&D accumulation. "The reuse of software and hardware can expand the scale effect, bring a significant reduction in costs and improve R&D efficiency, and realize the cost reduction of R&D, of which the cost of Ledao L60 will be about 10% lower than that of Tesla Model Y." Li Bin said. Perhaps, Xiaopeng Motors, which is also one of the top three new forces, can also use some of its statements on the second brand as evidence. At the 2024 China Electric Vehicle 100 Forum, He Xiaopeng, Chairman and CEO of Xpeng Motors, said: "Xpeng will soon launch 10-150,000 A-class cars around the world. …… It will bring Xpeng's high-level intelligent driving (and unmanned driving in the future), and at the same time be profitable. ”
In addition, NIO also has a trump card in its hand, which is its own battery swap and energy replenishment system. "There is another difference between Ledao and other pure electric brands. It's hard to have a brand with more than 1,000 battery swap stations when the first car is released. Even the NIO brand itself only had 200 battery swap stations two years after the delivery of the first car. Qin Lihong used this to prove the maturity of Ledao in the system. Shen Fei, vice president of NIO, also said on social media: "In the range of Ledao, the importance of battery swapping is underestimated. Potential users who do not have the conditions for community charging account for a relatively high proportion of the market, and for these users, they can only choose to change the battery or refuel. ”01
Newborn calves are in the way
However, after the release of Ledao, it does not mean that the road is smooth, and there are many crises to overcome. From a macro point of view, the timing of the launch of Ledao may not be the most "suitable". At the moment when the new energy vehicle market has been rolled to the extreme, a large number of brands such as Weimar and Gaohe have taken advantage of the limelight of new energy have either died out or struggled; And the profit level of the whole industry has also "rolled" to a staggering "new low". After experiencing the market cultivation and development in the early stage, consumers have more and more expectations for the "downward exploration" of the price space of new energy products. Can the market still tolerate a new brand? The problem may also come from the inside, how NIO positions and plans its own brand and products. If Ledao's ability to systematize is an advantage, then how to deal with the relationship between the main brand of the same door may be a problem that will "die" if it is not handled well. In the current situation of increasingly fierce price wars, it is a dynamic question whether NIO's main brand can still rely on the current price positioning to stabilize the current sales level. If the sales of the main brand are under serious pressure, is it possible to fight with the same brothers? The proud battery swap station was originally exclusive to the main brand users, so if the Ledao brand assumes that according to NIO's estimates, the sales volume will be high, so will the main brand users have the mentality that their rights and interests will be damaged? How should NIO balance this mentality? If the consideration is high, it will not be able to retain Ledao customers, and if the consideration is low, it will not be able to appease NIO customers.
In addition, the planning of the model is also very challenging. For example, brands that have won in the "family" market segment have chosen to invest in the layout of MPVs, and Ledao's first model has avoided this model and chose an SUV with a fastback style. In addition to these, there are a number of "very good" competitors in front of Ledao. For example, in terms of cost control, BYD stands alone with its own vertical integration skills, and in this price range, it cannot avoid the "encirclement and interception" of BYD products. When it comes to intelligent capabilities and configurations, Huawei's departments are in the limelight. The M9, which was a big seller when it was listed, represents the flagship level of Huawei's blessing, while the M7 and M5 form a very complementary product portfolio; Subsequently, with the listing of Zhijie and Xiangjie, the competition of intelligent selling points is also "close hand-to-hand combat", not to mention the entry of the new Internet celebrity Xiaomi Auto. The internal environment and the external environment are facing a lot of challenges. At this time node of the new brand release, in addition to congratulating Weilai and Ledao, what is more worthy of our next observation is that in such an involuted market environment, what does Ledao have to rely on to survive?
Text: Ma Xin Editor/Layout: Qi Meng
Add a chicken leg to the editor!