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Fast Reading

■the first model of nio’s second brand, ledao l60, regards model y as its biggest competitor.

■ ledao’s sales volume is related to whether nio can swim further and faster in the fierce competition.

■li bin predicts that the ledao brand can achieve break-even when the monthly delivery volume reaches 20,000 to 30,000 vehicles.

author丨hong zhangli, wang yajun

in the tenth year of the company's establishment, nio issued a declaration of war to tesla.

on september 19, the first model of nio's second brand, ledao l60, was officially launched. this is a medium-sized household pure electric suv. that night, ledao announced the prices of two versions of the model: the standard version is 206,900 yuan (43,000 yuan cheaper than model y), and the long-range version is 235,900 yuan. if the baas battery rental service is adopted, the price of l60 will be as low as 149,900 yuan. both versions will start nationwide delivery on september 28. the price of the ultra-long-range version has not been announced because the battery is still under planning.

starting from mid-august, qinghua, the user manager of ledao, drove the first mass-produced l60 car and conducted a live test for 36 days, 20,000 kilometers, and passed through 73 cities.

on the same day that snow leopard finance arrived in hefei, qinghua also drove back to hefei, and li bin "went 60 kilometers out of the city to meet him."

in an interview before the launch, ledao president ai tiecheng said bluntly, "(ledao l60) is completely comparable to model y." on the day of the launch, he emphasized that "ledao l60 has surpassed model y in terms of underlying technology."

li bin (left) and ai tiecheng

in the past two years, a long list of domestic models that want to compete with model y can be drawn up: xiaopeng g6, zeekr 7x, zhiji ls6, avita 07, lantu zhiyin, zhijie r7...

however, despite the siege, the position of model y has not been shaken. according to guojin securities' calculation, in the first half of this year, in the suv market of 200,000 to 300,000 yuan (including fuel vehicles), tesla won 23.8% of the market share with model y, ranking first, exceeding the sum of the second and third place.

compared with model y and its challengers, battery swapping is the biggest difference of ledao l60, which li bin described as the "battery swap version of model y". at present, ledao has 304 available battery swapping stations, and will provide more than 1,000 battery swapping stations by the end of this year, and more than 2,500 by the end of 2025.

ledao l60

snow leopard finance saw at the scene that during the product presentation that lasted more than two hours, it was mainly ai tiecheng who took the lead, and li bin did not go on stage directly to "preach".

compared with model y, ledao l60 emphasizes two selling points: one is comfort, and the other is saving money.

ledao believes that in the family market, comfort is an important consideration for consumers in their car purchase decisions. when reviewing the car-making process, ai tiecheng said that his requirement for the team is to "make big dishes and main dishes" and focus on the high-frequency needs of family users. for example, improve the chassis's isolation rate and equip it with an intelligent and comfortable brake system. for another example, the wheelbase of ledao l60 is 60mm longer than that of model y. a longer wheelbase means a more spacious interior space.

in the advertising poster, a deer stands in the rear space of the l60. source: ledao automobile official

in ai tiecheng's words, ledao l60 has been focusing on power consumption since day one: it is 26 kg lighter than model y, and the active air intake grille on the front and the fastback design at the rear are both conducive to reducing wind resistance. the power consumption per 100 kilometers is 0.4kw lower than that of model y - enough to keep a 25-watt light bulb lit for 16 hours continuously.

in terms of intelligent driving technology, ledao l60 has chosen the pure visual solution like tesla. however, tesla fsd has not yet entered china, and an additional fee of 64,000 yuan is required to activate it.

ledao l60 faces a vast market with an annual sales volume of more than 3 million units. li bin hopes to deliver 20,000 units in the remaining four months of this year, and the medium- and long-term goal is to achieve a gross profit margin of 15%. only when the monthly delivery reaches 20,000 to 30,000 units can the ledao brand achieve a break-even point.

ledao's sales volume is related to whether nio can swim further and faster in the fierce competition. after 10 years of establishment, nio has occupied a place in the high-end pure electric market. it urgently needs a brand with a lower price than nio to sell more cars in a larger market.

high-end and low-end is a common strategy of automobile companies, that is, launching high-end models first, and then launching low-priced models when the market is more receptive. tesla also takes the route of high-end and low-end.

as early as three years ago, nio had already taken action. in the earnings call in august 2021, li bin revealed for the first time that he was planning to enter a lower price range with a new brand.

li bin likes to compare car manufacturing to a marathon, and he has prepared three cards for this purpose. nio, ledao and firefly cover the price ranges of 300,000 to 800,000 yuan, 200,000 to 300,000 yuan, and less than 150,000 yuan, respectively, forming a full-line layout for the high, medium and low-end markets.

ideal and xiaopeng also launched lower-priced mass-market models this year. at the end of august, xiaopeng launched the mona m03 with a starting price of less than 120,000 yuan, and ideal launched the ideal l6 with a starting price of less than 250,000 yuan in april.

on the morning of the second day of the press conference, weilai ceo li bin and ledao president ai tiecheng had a closed-door sharing with the media. the following is an excerpt from the conversation (the content has been excerpted):

q: are you satisfied with the current order volume of ledao? what is the production capacity planning?

A：the orders have indeed exploded. the order server has been jammed even after it has expanded five times. we are still doing our best to increase production. we can guarantee 5,000 vehicles in october, 10,000 in december, 16,000 in january next year, and 20,000 in march.

q: how is the construction status of ledao store network?

A：we once opened 105 stores on the same day, and new stores have been opened almost every day since then. this year, we will open more than 200 stores. we will stick to direct sales in the chinese market because the most important asset is the user relationship. the closer and shorter the relationship, the better.

q: from june to august, the domestic market size of cars priced above rmb 300,000 has declined. does nio feel the pressure? will you mainly rely on ledao to support your family in the future?

A：this year, the proportion of the high-end market above 300,000 yuan has indeed been declining. the consumer environment is under pressure. many brands have lowered their prices to the 300,000 yuan range, which has also reduced the pressure. there are also many very good electric vehicles in the 200,000 yuan range, so there is great pressure above and below 300,000 yuan. from this perspective, within the 300,000 yuan range, weilai's share can be stabilized, prices are stable, and gross profit margins are increased, which is very strong.

the price of ledao is between 200,000 and 300,000 yuan, and it is a large model y with fine decoration. the product positioning is "family happiness and good housekeeping". ledao still has a gross profit at this price, and it is not selling the car at a loss. ledao is the first car of nio that "every function has been evaluated for user returns". in simple terms, it has given everything that should be given, and there is no waste if there is no extra.

compared with tesla, ledao is two orders of magnitude lower in brand, but its product strength is stronger, and it is 43,000 yuan cheaper than the same-level car. even without considering taxes and fees, the price is more cost-effective than the same-level traditional fuel vehicles such as rav4 and tiguan. we hope that ledao l60 will become the biggest challenger to the mid-size fuel suv.

q: what is ledao's future product plan? will ledao and firefly make extended-range models?

A：ledao plans to launch a new car every year, and next year there will be a medium-to-large suv with 6 to 7 seats. the extended-range model has indeed seen a high growth in china, but nio and ledao still insist on pure electric models.

q: how to differentiate the usage scenarios of nio es6 and ledao l60?

A：if you are asking the question of "choose between weilai and ledao", the two have different functions and configurations. if you have enough money, choose weilai. weilai is in the high-end market, and ledao is designed for the mass family market, providing value-for-money services. they want to provide the best services in their respective markets.

ledao's sales team has sold nearly a thousand nios. only about 3% of nio owners have made a reservation for ledao, and most of them are additional purchases, buying another family car. in fact, the company's internal thinking is not that complicated, just like toyota and lexus, volkswagen and audi, each has a separate customer base.

q: will ledao and nio’s sharing of battery swap resources cause interference to each other?

A：don't worry at all, nio's battery swap station is based on distributed thinking, and the larger the network, the better the experience. in the future, as more and more cars are built, the battery swap station network will become denser and larger.

q: what is the overseas strategy of ledao and firefly? will they enter other asian markets?

A：we will actively prepare to enter the global market. from the high-end perspective, 90% of the market is in china, the united states and europe, and the nio brand has little motivation to enter the other 10% of the market. the potential market for ledao and firefly will be wider. southeast asia is undoubtedly a very important market and we will actively consider it. the japanese market is special, with local brands accounting for more than 90%, but the battery swap method is very beneficial for us to enter the japanese and korean markets, so we will seriously consider it. the cost of ledao and firefly brands is lower than that of the nio brand, and we will rely on these two brands to enter overseas markets.

q: how do you view the internal competition in the domestic automobile market?

A：making cars is a marathon on a muddy road, with many ups and downs along the way. now we have entered the final stage of the qualifying round, and the competition is fierce, but we will not be insinuating or suspicious of others. we are involved in products and services, but not indiscriminately. we have made many mistakes in the past, but we have learned a lot and have many lessons. we will get better and better in the future.