Can swappable batteries and being 100,000 RMB cheaper than the Model Y be the key to NIO's turnaround with its "low-cost" strategy?

On September 19, NIO's second brand, Lixiang, officially launched its first model, the mid-sized all-electric SUV Lixiang L60, with an official starting price of 206,900 yuan, a reduction of 13,000 yuan from the pre-sale price of 219,900 yuan, and a 43,000 yuan lower price compared to the Model Y rear-wheel drive version (starting at 249,900 yuan). Like NIO's main brand, Lixiang also supports the BaaS battery rental scheme. With this scheme, the starting price of Lixiang L60 further drops to 149,900 yuan, making it 100,000 yuan cheaper than the Model Y.

Although Lixiang is priced lower than NIO's main brand, NIO's management has emphasized on multiple occasions that Lixiang should not be simply defined as a mid-to-low-end brand, but rather as a brand that emphasizes household attributes.

Prior to the launch of Lixiang L60, the lowest-priced models under NIO were the ET5 and ET5T, starting at 298,000 yuan. For NIO, entering the 200,000-300,000 yuan market with Lixiang L60 will face more intense competition. The new car will not only challenge the sales champion in the same segment, Tesla Model Y, but also compete directly with models such as IM Motors LS6, BYD Song L EV, and ZEEKR 7X.

Selling 20,000 units per month is the passing line, Lixiang focuses on "volume for profit"

Before the official release of the new car, Times Finance visited the Lixiang booth in a core business district in Beijing. It was evident that the brand awareness of Lixiang was higher than expected. Even before the official price announcement, consumers had already started visiting to see the car. Times Finance overheard a group of young people passing by saying, "I know, this car is NIO's second brand."

Compared to the redundant autonomous driving capabilities, Lixiang, targeting the household market, emphasizes more on space and comfort.

The overall length, width, and height of Lixiang L60 are 4828mm×1930mm×1616mm, with a wheelbase of 2950mm, providing larger storage space and more spacious rear seating compared to the Model Y (length 4750mm×width 1921mm×height 1624mm, wheelbase 2890mm). The front seats can be folded flat to connect with the rear seats to form a reclining mode, which is a major selling point of the new car.

Lixiang L60 has eliminated the higher-cost LiDAR and adopted a pure visual autonomous driving solution, as well as removed the electric suction doors and instrument panel. The vehicle features a 17.2-inch central screen, a 13-inch HUD head-up display, and an 8-inch rear screen as the core of interaction, based on NIO's self-developed SkyOS operating system.

In terms of range, the new car is equipped with a 900V high-voltage platform, offering three battery options: standard range of 555km, long range of 730km, and a future ultra-long range battery pack of 1000km.

Both in terms of price and configuration, Lixiang has shown sincerity. However, whether the market will accept it remains to be seen.

According to NIO's Chairman and CEO, William Li's plan, Lixiang L60 should maintain a steady increase in sales volume and will not sacrifice gross profit for market share. Additionally, Lixiang will share some battery swapping networks and service systems with NIO's main brand, but Lixiang's service system will be more lightweight In short, NIO excels in technology and services, while Aito excels in delivery volume, which in turn benefits NIO. The management team also expects Aito to become the key to NIO's turnaround.

Li Bin previously revealed at the Aito brand launch event that whether it is sharing fixed R&D costs or sharing manufacturing costs, Aito's entry is very beneficial for NIO, helping the entire company increase profitability.

In the first half of this year, NIO achieved revenue of 27.35 billion RMB, a year-on-year increase of 40.6%; gross profit margin was 8.0%, an improvement from 1.3% in the same period last year; net loss was 10.23 billion RMB, a 5.1% narrowing year-on-year. Roughly calculated based on net loss/number of deliveries in the period, NIO's net loss per vehicle in the first half of the year was about 117,000 RMB.

NIO has been investing heavily in R&D, with R&D costs reaching 6.083 billion RMB in the period, the highest among the "NIO Little Three". Aito inherits NIO's self-developed vehicle operating system, intelligent cockpit, and battery swapping technology, avoiding secondary investment in R&D costs.

Li Bin stated in a media interview in June this year that Aito's gross profit margin target is set at above 15%. From a breakeven perspective, if Aito can achieve monthly sales of 20,000-30,000 vehicles, it can achieve breakeven.

At the Aito media face-to-face event held on September 20th, Li Bin stated: Aito's production capacity is also ramping up in an orderly manner. Production capacity will reach 5,000 vehicles in October, 10,000 vehicles in December, at least 16,000 vehicles in January 2025, and production capacity will increase to 20,000 vehicles in March.

However, when asked by the media whether Aito can achieve breakeven when production capacity exceeds 20,000 vehicles in March next year, Li Bin did not give a positive response.

Launch a new SUV every year

A multi-brand strategy is not only an important means for companies to establish brand image in the market, but also a key strategy to achieve business goals. Companies penetrate different segmented markets with brands or products of different positioning, forming synergy while sharing risks. Tech giants like Huawei and Xiaomi have previously proven the feasibility of this approach.

Among the new forces in the automotive industry, Li Auto and XPeng have already ventured into the market.

In April this year, Li Auto's first model priced below 300,000 RMB, the Li Auto L6, was launched with an official guide price of 249,800-279,800 RMB. With highlights such as spacious interior, comfortable configuration, and standard four-wheel drive, the new car gained popularity in the market, with deliveries in the first half of the year accounting for nearly half of Li Auto's total deliveries in the period. As of September 19th, Li Auto L6 deliveries had exceeded 100,000 vehicles.

Just 4 months later, on August 27th, XPeng's second brand MONA launched its first model, the MONA M03, with a price range of 119,800-155,800 RMB, attracting attention from both inside and outside the industry. Official data shows that the new car reached over 10,000 pre-orders in 52 minutes and 30,000 orders within 48 hours. On September 14th, XPeng Chairman He Xiaopeng announced on his personal social media account that MONA's production capacity had been expanded twice within 10 days, hoping to achieve new car deliveries as soon as possible At the media face-to-face event, Li Bin mentioned the situation of the orders at Lelut when he said that even after expanding the servers by 5 times, they were still a bit slow. However, as per NIO's usual practice, they do not disclose the number of orders, in short, just one sentence, explosive orders! Lelut's President, Aitiecheng, then added, "Although personally I really want to talk about the number of orders publicly, the company indeed does not allow it."

According to data from the China Passenger Car Association, from January to August this year, the market share of SUVs and sedans priced above 300,000 RMB each exceeded 42%, while the market share of SUVs and sedans priced below 300,000 RMB was only 6.6% and 3.5% respectively. Despite the presence of strong products in various price segments below 300,000 RMB, with the increasing demand for personalized products among young consumers, new products with unique highlights still have the opportunity to stand out.

Lelut is also preparing to "seize the opportunity". According to Li Bin, Lelut will deliver a 6/7-seater mid-to-large SUV in the third quarter of 2025, and then maintain the pace of launching an SUV every year thereafter