On the one hand, Chinese brands shine at the 2024 Beijing International Auto Show, and their influence at home and abroad continues to expand; on the other hand, the price war in the auto market continues to spread, bicycle profits continue to decline, and “new energy vehicle companies lose money” has become a problem for many Industry insiders are worried about huge challenges.

Statistics from the Passenger Car Market Information Joint Conference show that in March this year, retail sales of passenger cars in my country reached 1.687 million units, a year-on-year increase of 6.0%; the market penetration rate of new energy vehicles in March reached 42.0%, of which the penetration rate of pure electric vehicles was 25.4%. From January to March this year, the penetration rate of new energy vehicles was 36.7%, of which the penetration rate of pure electric vehicles was 21.3%.

However, according to incomplete statistics, in 2023, 6 of the 18 major domestic listed car companies (including traditional car companies and new forces) will suffer losses; the other 12 profitable car companies will have a total profit of only 96.3 billion yuan, and the total profit of all Not even as good as Toyota.

At the recently concluded 2024 Beijing International Auto Show, Li Bin, the founder, chairman and CEO of NIO, talked about his judgment on the healthy development of new energy vehicles in China in an interview with reporters. He believes that the current fierce competition in the new energy vehicle market is like a “marathon on a muddy road” and only the strongest companies can ultimately win.

Smart electric vehicles are a historic opportunity for Chinese brands to break through

“If we want to sum up the experiences and lessons learned in the past few years, the most important thing is to return to the original intention. Smart electric vehicles must start from the user’s interests and provide users with an experience that exceeds their expectations. At the same time, they must also improve the company’s systematic efficiency to promote sustainable development. “Technological innovation.” Li Bin said frankly that this is what Weilai requires of himself, “It seems easy to say, but it is very difficult to do. There are indeed many things we have to do, and we must be consistent with our words and deeds.” ”

At this Beijing International Auto Show, NIO unveiled eight of its 2024 models and launched a high-end intelligent pure electric executive sedan, the 2024 ET7, with a starting price of 428,000 yuan.

Li Bin said that as an epoch-making smart electric high-end executive sedan, it will be a new masterpiece of China’s high-end automobile brands. According to reports, the computing power of the 2024 NIO ET7 Executive Edition has been further upgraded, while the smart cockpit applications and smart driving capabilities have been fully upgraded. The control experience and various performances supported by AI technology reflect the leading level of China’s high-end intelligent manufacturing. .

In recent years, Chinese brands have continuously launched million-dollar luxury models to seize the high-end car market. Auto analyst Bai De believes that in the era of fuel vehicles, traditional luxury car brands represented by Mercedes-Benz, BMW, and Audi generally have a history of hundreds of years. They have strong technological accumulation and brand accumulation in the high-end car market.

“In the past, it was very difficult for Chinese brands to shake their position in the high-end executive sedan market. But with the tide of vehicle electrification and intelligence, Chinese brands have ushered in a historic opportunity to break through.” Bai De analyzed. , only by continuously promoting technological innovation can the time cycle for brand improvement be shortened.

NIO, which has been working hard on this track for 10 years, is an excellent window to observe this trend.

The latest statistics show that in April this year, NIO delivered 15,620 new cars, a year-on-year increase of 134.6% and a month-on-month increase of 31.6%. So far, NIO has delivered a total of 495,267 new cars and is about to usher in the milestone of 500,000 new cars rolling off the production line.

“Since its inception, NIO has insisted on positive development and self-research of core technologies, and has continued to increase investment in R&D and team building to maintain technological leadership.” Li Bin said that since 2016, NIO has invested in R&D Already close to 40 billion yuan, it is the company that invests the most in R&D among the new forces. As of the end of March this year, NIO had approximately 8,700 pending and authorized patent applications worldwide, far exceeding that of other emerging brands.

At this Beijing International Auto Show, in addition to its new cars, NIO also comprehensively displayed 12 full-stack technology layouts for the first time, including automotive chips and on-board intelligent hardware, battery systems, battery swap stations, electric drive and high-voltage systems, vehicle engineering and overall Vehicle global operating system, etc. Among them, the battery swap station display area, the first self-developed lidar main control chip “Yang Jian” and other exhibits have become the check-in spots for many visitors.

“Competition among car companies ultimately depends on product competitiveness. Users buy your car because of the product, not because of the traffic.” Li Bin said that business operations must return to the essence of automobile products and services. As market competition continues to evolve, Intensifying, NIO’s continued investment in technology, infrastructure, service systems, etc. will gradually transform into strong competitiveness.

In the field of new energy vehicle energy replenishment, as of April 24 this year, NIO has deployed a total of 2,404 battery swap stations and built 21,969 charging piles. It is worth mentioning that in order to solve the pain point of “difficulty charging in high-speed service areas” when new energy car owners travel long distances, NIO has deployed 790 high-speed battery swapping stations on highways across the country and built “7 vertical, 6 horizontal and 11 large city clusters” high-speed battery swapping stations. power network, and plans to open up a high-speed power swap network of “9 vertical, 9 horizontal and 19 large urban agglomerations” in 2025.

It is understood that as of April 25, NIO has provided users with more than 42.7 million battery swap services, and the current average daily service is nearly 70,000 times. On average, a car departs from the battery swap station with a full battery every 1.2 seconds.

Say goodbye to the “quick victory theory” and insist on reducing costs without reducing quality

Qin Lihong, co-founder and president of NIO, said that in the first quarter of this year, NIO ranked first in China’s pure electric market with a transaction price of more than 300,000 yuan, with a market share of 32.68%. From July to December 2023, in all market segments in Shanghai where the average transaction price exceeds 300,000 yuan, NIO’s sales have surpassed BMW, Mercedes-Benz, and Audi for six consecutive months, marking the first time that high-end new energy vehicles have achieved positive sales in sales. Defeated traditional fuel-powered luxury vehicles.

He believes that on the one hand, Chinese automobile brands must avoid being disturbed by the “quick victory theory”, and on the other hand, they must maintain their composure in the fierce market competition.

“Today’s automobile market is very complicated. Different brands are competing for costs while adhering to their own value, quality and experience. But we should not go astray – it may appear that we have lowered costs, but in fact we have lowered quality.” Qin Li Hong told reporters that market competition should promote strong competitiveness among enterprises and should not lead to chaos. If product quality problems bring safety risks to consumers, it will severely damage market confidence and even lead to the collapse of the smart electric vehicle industry. Dilemma.

Li Bin said that smart electric vehicles are a historic opportunity for China to transform from a major automobile country to a powerful automobile country. “China became the world’s largest automobile exporter last year, and its lead over the second place is likely to become larger and larger. In fact, China’s new energy vehicle industry’s lead will become larger and larger.”

In his view, the automotive industry is not a fleeting industry, but a marathon on a muddy road, with a time lag from input to output. “If you don’t invest today, there will definitely be no hope in the future. Weilai’s investment today started two or three years ago, and now we are increasingly seeing its competitiveness.” Li Bin emphasized that we must respect the development laws of the industry and finally be able to The company that wins the market competition must be a company with truly systematic competitiveness.

“The so-called system capabilities mean that we must not only be leading in technology, products, and services, but also be leading in operational efficiency.” Li Bin said that NIO will work hard to improve operational efficiency next, in terms of research and development, supply chain, manufacturing, quality management and Improve overall efficiency in sales and services.