[Text/Caiquan Society& Dao Brother Says Car Ma Jianyu] Weilai, which is still in the ranks of "new cars", released its second new brand on May 15 - Ledao. But this is not NIO's arrogance or whim. Li Bin, founder of Weilai, said in an interview with "Caiquan Club & Daoge Talking Car" and other countries that since 2020, Weilai has planned the Ledao brand, which is a matter of course. He stressed that "Ledao is undoubtedly crucial to NIO."
As the second new brand under NIO, Ledao's focus on the family car market is different from the core users of the current NIO brand, and its positioning in the mainstream market complements the high-end market where NIO is located. Of course, as a brand for the home user market, Ledao has a significantly wider user base, so it is also seen as the key to NIO's overall sales boost.
But it doesn't stop there. Li Bin mentioned that whether it is the sharing of fixed costs for R&D, including the reduction of costs in some supply chains, and the sharing of manufacturing, the emergence of Ledao actually has a lot of benefits for NIO. It can help the whole company to increase profitability. In addition, Qin Lihong, co-founder and president of NIO, also mentioned in an interview, "Your pressure does not come from within, it comes from the outside." If pressure can be sensed from within in advance, it will undoubtedly increase the sense of urgency and level of the entire company."
In other words, the relationship between the two brands is not only to share the expenses of the enterprise and use the resources of the enterprise, but also to form a mutually reinforcing relationship within NIO. Of course, the premise of Ledao's role is that it can have certain achievements in the market, and about the future, Ai Tiecheng, senior vice president of NIO and president of Ledao Automobile, mentioned a sentence that may be the key to the success of Ledao Auto - "I think it is very important to do anything, do things well, and focus."
Multi-brand strategy Ledao and NIO achieve each other
At the Ledao Automobile brand press conference, Li Bin said that Ledao's advantages are based on the long-term R&D investment of NIO in the past and the company's overall system capabilities, including the company's service system and charging and swapping system, which provide stronger advantages for the launch of Ledao. At the same time, Ai Tiecheng also mentioned that Ledao L60 will be able to enjoy the service of more than 1,000 battery swap stations of NIO from the beginning.
The image of Ledao Automobile's "rich second generation" was suddenly highlighted, after all, like Zeekr, Lantu, etc., Ledao Auto can enjoy the fruits of Weilai's ten years of entrepreneurship and practice "take-it-ism". But in fact, Ledao Automobile is also achieving NIO, of course, the "NIO" here refers to this car company.
Regarding the benefits that Ledao Automobile has brought to NIO, Li Bin mentioned that Ledao Automobile has brought many benefits to NIO, among which the cost sharing of R&D is a great benefit. At present, NIO has more than 11,000 R&D engineers, and in the past two years, NIO has invested more than 24 billion yuan in technology research and development, built 12 full-stack technology layouts, carried out comprehensive self-research in multiple fields, and has a large number of industry-leading technologies and patents in the R&D fields such as vehicle global operating system, intelligent hardware, intelligent system, intelligent application, three-electric system, and vehicle engineering.
Although these achievements have given Ledao Automobile the confidence to "take it", from another point of view, this is also a manifestation of the realization of NIO's R&D results to improve efficiency. The same role is also reflected in the production, Li Bin said that Ledao L60 will be produced in the second factory of Xinqiao Weilai, if the single production of Weilai, it will definitely not be as high as the production capacity utilization rate of the two brands together, so that the manufacturing cost of the bicycle will also be significantly reduced.
It is worth mentioning that, according to Li Bin, Ledao Automobile is not a big burden for NIO at present, and it is almost able to earn money to support his family. According to Li Bin, Ledao will not be listed independently, and in the past few years, NIO has taken into account its capital needs, including R&D, marketing, marketing expenses, and sales expenses. At the same time, although the pre-sale price of Ledao L60 is only 219,900 yuan, it still has a good gross profit. "We won't do anything like selling one car and losing one, it's definitely a good thing that multiple people can earn money to support their families," Li Bin said.
Of course, the most taboo of the multi-brand strategy is "internal friction", and NIO has also considered this, in addition to the distinction between brands and user groups, NIO also sees the importance of internal competition. Qin Lihong said that it is an important topic to deal with the mutually reinforcing relationship between many brands. After a moderate involution, everyone may have some pressure, but this is a good thing, the pressure does not come from the inside, it comes from the outside. And Li Bin said bluntly: You are PK internally, but you are still PK external? Although the market positioning and price range of the two brands are different, everyone's execution and execution efficiency can still be PK.
How does Ledao make a positive difference? The answer is: focus
In fact, whether it is to share the cost of R&D and manufacturing of NIO, to make money for the big family of NIO or to stimulate internal vitality, the premise of Ledao Auto to play these roles is a good sales result.
It is certainly an advantage that Ledao Automobile can carry out a rapid layout with "take-it-ism", but if Ledao Automobile wants to win in today's market with serious involution, it is obviously not enough to rely on these. So, how does Ledao plan to spell out a bright future? "I think Ledao has a great advantage, from a strategic point of view, we are particularly focused", Ai Tiecheng gave this answer.
From the perspective of brand positioning, Ledao is aimed at mainstream family users. Judging from the information revealed at the press conference, as a model specially built for family users, Ledao L60 has carried out a number of "specific developments" for the needs of family users, for example, its energy consumption per 100 kilometers is only 12.1kWh, which is lower than Model Y, and is the world's lowest energy consumption of medium-sized SUVs; The design concept of long axle and short overhang also maximizes the vehicle's passenger space, and the vibration isolation rate is increased to 96% through the Ledao Xingyun Comfort Chassis......
In Ai Tiecheng's view, another advantage of focus is that you can really focus on the core needs of users. He gave an example, when Ledao Auto conducted user research, it was found that the use rate of large screens by users was very high, but it was limited to the main driver. Therefore, Ledao Auto chooses to make the central control screen the largest and best. "Keeping an eye on home users, focusing on their core needs, and making the most suitable products is what Ledao wants to pursue."
In fact, there are such examples, and now the "finalized" Ledao L60There is a design plan before, Li Bin said that its first-generation shape is very good, but considering the space, drag coefficient, etc., it was still denied. Because of this, there is a L60 with a long shaft and short overhang and the lowest energy consumption. Space and energy consumption are closely related to the core needs of home users.
It is worth mentioning that Ledao Auto also brought a standard in the brand release process, that is, maximizing the experience value and optimizing the cost of car ownership. In terms of experience value, Ledao L60 provides high-frequency and high-perception experience value for home users around six aspects: all-round safety, space comfort, intelligent cockpit, battery life and energy supplement, driving experience, and intelligent driving. In terms of the cost of owning a car, compared with fuel vehicles, it can save 10% of the purchase tax and tens of thousands of energy replenishment costs in the whole life cycle of the car. At the same time, through the rechargeable, replaceable and upgradable energy replenishment system, Ledao L60 has low maintenance costs and time costs that other brands do not have.
Among them, in terms of the cost of owning a car, Li Bin also said a thought-provoking point that the residual value of electric vehicles is a very important reason for the battery including its life. In his view, the car is a long-term product, and due to the chemical characteristics of the battery, there will be shortened mileage and difficult after-sales and maintenance problems over time. Manufacturers can't just give a warranty period, and feel that they are responsible.
Li Bin explained that the core of NIO's battery swap includes long-life battery design and long-life battery operation, which is an important guarantee for the residual value of electric vehicles. "A car is a product that will be used for 15 years and is related to the safety of people's lives, and it would be a dereliction of duty not to think about it far," Li Bin said. And this is also a reflection of the optimization of the cost of owning a car by Ledao Automobile.