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after sales exceeded one million in 2021, they fell to 830,000 vehicles in 2022 and then fell to 710,000 in 2023, a 30% drop from 2021.

this year, niu electric finally managed to increase its sales, but it is now in a dilemma of increasing revenue but not profits. according to the financial report, in the second quarter, niu electric achieved revenue of about 941 million yuan, a year-on-year increase of 13.5%; its net loss was 24.9 million yuan, more than 10 times the net loss of 1.9 million yuan in the same period last year.

in just three years since its listing, niu's market value has fallen by 96%.

debut at the peak

niu electric vehicles is the last entrepreneurial venture of li yinan, former executive vice president of huawei, successor to ren zhengfei, and former cto of baidu.

in 2014, 45-year-old li yinan started a "two-wheel electric vehicle" business with a core team from global companies such as bmw, microsoft, and huawei.

only one year later, niu electric released its first electric vehicle, the n1. once released, the product attracted numerous attentions. li yinan, wearing jeans, impressed users with his sense of technology and design.

in terms of technology, niu electric directly replaced the lead-acid battery with the panasonic 18650 ternary lithium battery, which is the same as tesla's at the time, and has a longer battery life. at the same time, it launched an intelligent car system that can check the vehicle condition, positioning, and alarm functions through the app. in terms of design, it supports humanized designs such as mobile phone mounting brackets and usb charging ports. the appearance is simple and generous, and it is highly recognizable.

niu electric has made a great success in the field of two-wheeled electric vehicles with homogeneous products through product technology updates and outstanding designs. although the cost is high and the price is expensive, it has still gained a group of fans. in the first year of the product's launch, niu sold 80,000 units. the sales doubled to 190,000 units the following year, and 340,000 units were sold in 2018.

with its excellent market performance, niu electric entered the nasdaq in just four years. by 2021, niu electric's sales exceeded one million vehicles. in the same year, niu electric's stock price hit a record high of us$53.38 per share, and its total market value exceeded us$4 billion.

overtaken by no.9

the turning point happened in 2021.

this year, niu electric launched its new energy brand niutron and introduced its first self-propelled new energy vehicle nv. with a usd 500 million series a financing, niu electric rushed into the new energy vehicle market where the opportunities have become slim.

the production qualification has not been obtained, and it can only be manufactured by mars stone technology (renamed from niu innovation energy) and dacheng technology. interestingly, dacheng technology has been reported to have stopped work and production and was burdened with huge debts since 2019. soon, this crazy attempt ended abruptly. due to delivery difficulties, niu electric had to return the intended deposit of the pre-ordered users. in just over a year, ziyoujia became another new car-making force to fall after weimar and tianji.

because niu electric was distracted and started to engage in the four-wheel electric vehicle business, its two-wheel vehicle business was overtaken by ninebot.

ninebot entered the two-wheeled electric vehicle field in 2019, several years later than niu electric. but as soon as it debuted, ninebot targeted the high-end market where niu electric is located.

in 2020, ninebot's two-wheeled electric vehicle sales were about 100,000 units, while niu's electric vehicle sales were 600,000 units, a gap of about 6 times. but in 2021, ninebot's two-wheeled electric vehicle sales soared to 420,000 units, while niu's electric vehicle sales maintained strong sales of 1.038 million units.

in 2022, the sales of two-wheeled electric vehicles of ninebot and niu electric stood at the same starting line for the first time, both reaching 830,000 units. however, in the price range above 5,000 yuan, ninebot showed its advantage. among the top 10 models in the market, ninebot won eight of them. this year, niu electric also suffered its first loss since its listing, with a net loss of 49.5 million yuan attributable to the parent company.

since then, ninebot's sales have reached 1.46 million units in 2023, while niu electric's sales have further shrunk to 710,000 units. this year, niu electric's revenue fell by 16.2%, and its net loss attributable to the parent company expanded to 222 million yuan.

the gap widened again in 2024, with niu's sales of two-wheeled electric vehicles reaching 285,000 in the first half of the year, while ninebot's sales in china reached 1,198,400 in the first half of the year. in the high-end field of two-wheeled electric vehicles, ninebot has completely surpassed niu electric.

the industry divides high-end and low-end products into medium-end and medium-end products, with 4,000 yuan as the boundary. products above 4,000 yuan are medium-end and products below 4,000 yuan are medium-low-end. in fact, some of niu electric's products are also medium-low-end products with relatively affordable prices. however, niu electric, which focuses on high-end products, does not care about the medium-low-end market at all.

after being fiercely suppressed by ninebot in the mid-to-high-end market, it is unrealistic for niu electric to rely on price cuts to increase sales and compete with yadea and emma roll in the sub-4,000 yuan range. niu electric has been suppressed in all aspects.

in the capital market, the share price of niu electric reached a record low of $1.56 per share in february 2024. as of the close of september 13, niu electric reported $1.79 per share, with a total market value of only $139 million. if calculated based on the historical high of $53.38 per share created on february 16, 2021, the share price of niu electric has fallen by 96.6% in the past three years.

even so, niu seems determined to continue to cultivate the high-end market. at the niu 2024 new car launch conference, niu launched three new cars. the electric motorcycle nx hyper version has a unified price of 29,980 yuan, the electric bicycle nxt has a maximum price of 12,499 yuan, and the x3 has a unified price of 24,980 yuan.

quality problems continue to emerge

the price is getting higher and higher, but quality problems are emerging one after another. in recent years, the high-end niu electric has repeatedly failed random inspections and had product quality problems.

"kuaima financial media" learned that from may 2023 to date, niu electric's related products have been on the list of unqualified products announced by local market supervision departments seven times, among which the "charger and battery (battery tamper-proof)" project has the highest frequency of unqualified products. electric vehicles with unqualified chargers and batteries are at risk of being modified, which can easily cause safety accidents such as spontaneous combustion.

according to data released by the national fire and rescue bureau, in the first five months of 2024, there were 10,051 electric bicycle fires in my country, causing 35 casualties. subsequently, beijing, nanjing, guangzhou and other places carried out centralized inspections of safety hazards. the safety hazards of two-wheeled electric vehicles seriously threaten people's lives.

on the black cat complaint platform, there were 3,193 complaints about niu evs, mainly focusing on after-sales service, discrepancies between publicity and reality, and discrepancies between vehicles and certificates of conformity.

at the 2022 "315 consumer rights day" gala, some niu electric vehicle stores were publicly named for providing decoding devices that illegally increased the speed limit.