Nio and others welcomed reinforcements

Over the past two years, Li Bin and his Nio have not had an easy time, and the huge business layout has also made the market skeptical about its financial situation. Now, this series of huge layouts has finally ushered in a key turning point.

On May 9th, Nio's 500,000th mass-produced car rolled off the production line. Li Bin said this is a significant milestone, but more importantly, Li Bin teased about the second brand "LeDao". With LeDao joining after Nio's years of capabilities in battery swapping and technology, they now have a new force to boost sales.

Li Bin mentioned that the new brand will debut on May 15th, with the first model "L60" targeting Tesla's Model Y, focusing on the 250,000-level household smart pure electric SUV market.

A source close to Nio revealed to Wall Street News that there is great confidence internally in LeDao. Nio's CEO, Qin Lihong, even described LeDao as a rich second generation, saying, "Who else has a thousand battery swapping stations waiting for them when they launch their first car? LeDao's maturity in many systems exceeds imagination."

Li Bin also pointed out that when he first entered the car manufacturing industry, it was clear internally that the company's system capabilities needed to be established first, accumulating in technology, battery swapping network, talent, and organizational capabilities, before making a preemptive strike. "If we were to directly participate in the mass market competition from the beginning, it would be too difficult."

Based on this foundation, Li Bin chose the family as a breakthrough point and brought in Ai Tiecheng, who had previously organized Shanghai Disney, as the president of LeDao.

"To make cars, our engineering team, whether it's the whole vehicle or the three electric and three intelligent systems, is no problem. But to understand the detailed needs of family users, we need a reliable warm-hearted man to lead," Li Bin said.

Ai Tiecheng revealed that he has been with Nio for nearly 4 years, starting in 2015 with contact with Nio, and has a deep understanding of the company and brand.

Li Bin jokingly said that "Tiecheng" is an important factor in his "pointing the way". Ai Tiecheng also said that his Weibo name is "LeDao Tiecheng", a homonym for LeDao is bound to succeed.

It is clear that Li Bin has high expectations for this sub-brand, which will become the accelerator for Nio to reach a million units. Li Bin stated that Ai Tiecheng and Qin Lihong will lead their respective brands, compete head-to-head, and boost sales.

In fact, swept along by the turbulent market environment in the past two years, Nio has been on a roller coaster ride. Until the first quarter of this year, it was hovering around tens of thousands of units, until it surged back to 15,000 units in April.

Li Bin candidly told Wall Street News, "Two years ago, when Nio's second-generation platform was delivered, it was supposed to soar, but it was stuck in place. At that time, ET5 had 90,000 orders, but they couldn't deliver."

This year, with the gradual establishment of system capabilities and the ability to generate revenue, Nio has stabilized its course in the rapids. Li Bin firmly believes that this year will be a turning point in user mentality, a watershed before the outbreak of high-end pure electric vehicles Leador is a brand that has emerged from this gradually mature system. In addition to being able to share R&D and infrastructure capabilities, Li Bin pointed out that the car is highly competitive in terms of cost and performance, and will be 10% cheaper than Tesla. It will be the touchstone to test Nio's quality.

Li Bin admitted that in the market for family cars priced at over 200,000 RMB, there are excellent products such as Xiaomi, Li Auto, and ZEEKR. There are indeed some concerns about whether Leador itself is competitive, and the bigger challenge is whether "there will be any impact among brothers." Qin Lihong explained that as Nio moves towards multiple models, multiple brands, and multiple countries, the challenges and requirements are high.

For Li Bin, the most important thing for Nio this year is to do well in execution, avoid mistakes, and wait for the formation of systematic capabilities to unleash tremendous power. Whether Nio can enter a explosive positive cycle as desired, perhaps the market will provide an answer after Leador's first model is delivered in the fourth quarter