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netcom interview alpine, the second brand of nio that many users have been looking forward to for a long time, has finally entered the chinese pure electric market with the identity of ledao. its first model, ledao l60, was officially launched amid the anticipation of many users.

after experiencing another relatively difficult period in 2023, nio seemed to have suddenly awakened in 2024. except for the "spring festival month" in february, sales in the other three months exceeded 10,000; since may, monthly sales have stabilized at more than 20,000 vehicles.

if you look at the absolute numbers alone, they may not be particularly amazing, but if you add in the labels of pure electric, car price over 300,000 yuan, and new force, it is indeed not easy for nio to achieve such results.

ledao's mission is to increase sales. regarding the ledao brand, li bin once publicly stated: "we will make whatever models sell well, and we will work with whichever cars sell well."

starting at rmb 206,900 including the battery and rmb 149,900 for the baas version, this nio "hope of the whole village" excited the media, guests at the press conference and online users with such a price that many people placed orders immediately after the price was announced.

after the press conference, li bin, founder, chairman and ceo of nio, and ai tiecheng, senior vice president of nio and president of ledao automobile, communicated with some media including netcom news, and further shared information such as the sales forecast, target market, and channel layout of ledao l60.

ledao is well prepared and aims to sell 20,000 copies per month

publishing a "battle report" after releasing a new car has become a standard practice for many car companies. however, from a rigorous perspective, unless a third-party authority issues a certificate similar to "order volume certification", otherwise, as long as a number is announced that it is expected to be delivered within half a year, no matter what the "battle report" number is, it has no practical significance, after all, "outsiders" can never verify its authenticity. if the data at the beginning is not good, it can be completely covered up by increasing production capacity, which is "what you say is what you get".

under such "evil trends", nio insisted not to carry out similar publicity, which was an iron rule set by li bin internally. this also seemed to tell users that nio is rigorous and pragmatic in car manufacturing and will never do any "small moves" to mislead consumers.

however, the popularity of ledao l60 this time is indeed worthy of li bin and ai tiecheng's pride.

"in a word, the orders exploded, and the server capacity was expanded five times. i specifically asked them to expand the capacity five times that day, but there was still a little lag at five times."

li bin showed his tactful self-congratulations and the order status of ledao l60. he also revealed that in order to ensure production capacity, weilai's vehicle factory has started a double shift system.

"we will definitely have no problem producing 5,000 units in october, 10,000 units in december, at least 16,000 units in january next year, and 20,000 units in march."

although the order volume after the press conference was not announced, he released the production schedule to tell everyone that ledao will reach a monthly sales level of 20,000 vehicles in half a year. this is also the target direction that li bin specified internally as early as the first half of 2022.

ai tiecheng also added: "we have been discussing this with all supply chain partners since the first half of 2022, including their planning and their downstream supply chains. this is not something we are preparing for today. we have been preparing for more than two years since 2022."

speed ​​is of the essence in war. if we want to increase sales rapidly, we cannot do without the rapid advancement of channel layout. after all, in the eyes of most users, they will only consider buying if they can afford it.

in ai tiecheng's view, stores are a brand touchpoint and a user recognition touchpoint, so ledao will open stores at a very fast pace. at the same time, since the ledao brand is mainly aimed at the mass market, the rapid layout of channels will not only be reflected in first-tier cities, but also in second- and third-tier cities.

he revealed that before the launch of ledao l60, the number of stores nationwide had reached 120. it is conservatively estimated that by the end of 2024, the number of stores nationwide will exceed 200.

li bin aims to replace le dao and aims to "support his family"

for a long time, nio has only had one nio brand, and has continued to firmly cultivate the high-end market of more than 300,000 yuan. although it has relatively few direct competitors, it has also been criticized by the industry. because the ceiling of high-end pure electric vehicles is relatively low at this stage, it is difficult for nio to make a big improvement in the short term.

li bin also admitted that in the overall chinese auto market, the proportion of new car sales in the high-end market above 300,000 yuan has indeed declined this year.

in his opinion, there are three reasons. first, affected by macroeconomic pressure, users' consumption has indeed declined; second, under market pressure, many models of high-end brands such as bba have reduced their prices to below 300,000 yuan; third, in the price range of 200,000-300,000 yuan, many pure electric vehicles with high cost performance and competitiveness have appeared.

after launching the ledao brand and its first model, ledao l60, nio has completed the "one high and one low" layout of brand and product in the pure electric field. nio and ledao each have their own responsibilities and can both "go all out".

ledao brand models are the same as nio brand models in that they are "rechargeable and replaceable" and both offer the option of purchasing a car with the baas plan. however, many people believe that li bin is playing a "financial trick" to make the car price appear to be lower, but the actual cost borne by users is not low.

but in li bin's eyes, this is not the case. he believes that the price of nio models including batteries makes it easier for users to compare with other pure electric vehicles in terms of brand positioning; while the price of the baas model makes it easier for users to compare with fuel vehicles.

in this way, when users purchase nio products, whether comparing them with pure electric vehicles or fuel vehicles, they can easily make comparisons and positioning.

from this perspective, li bin's ambition is not limited to the field of pure electric vehicles. his ultimate goal is to truly make pure electric vehicles replace fuel vehicles. after all, nio's current battery swapping technology and layout are absolutely dominant, and battery swapping and refueling are exactly the same in terms of the speed and convenience of the energy replenishment process.

it is undeniable that the current shortcomings of weilai's battery swapping are still the coverage and density issues. in this regard, li bin is still making steady progress. rome was not built in a day. for a new force with a limited capital chain, it needs to exchange time for space.

battery swapping has been questioned by the industry before, as it requires heavy asset investment and operation, and it is difficult to have a business model before the number of users reaches a certain scale and they develop usage habits.

but perhaps li bin's persistence is not just limited to making money through battery swapping. the opportunity that li bin saw many years ago is to help multiple brands and multiple models seize the pure electric market.

today, the label of nio’s battery swap has been established, and the ledao brand will become a brand that directly “takes advantage” within the nio system.

the baas solution starts at 149,900 yuan, which greatly reduces the cost of picking up a car for users. the monthly battery rental fee is only equivalent to the price of a tank of gas in an ordinary household fuel car. add to that the battery replacement fee of one or two hundred yuan per month, and the daily car use cost is still advantageous compared to fuel cars.

coupled with the relatively low maintenance costs of pure electric vehicles and the high cost of avoiding battery replacement, unless fuel vehicle users use the vehicle to "collect dust" after purchasing it, considering the vehicle pick-up price, vehicle use cost, vehicle experience, and convenience of refueling, the ledao l60 has the strength to compete for the pure electric vehicle and fuel vehicle markets of the same price and level.

even though the price is so affordable to increase sales, the ledao l60 still has gross profit based on nio's technology accumulation over the past decade. li bin emphasized: "nio will not set a price lower than gross profit."

thus, starting from l60, ledao will officially assume the responsibility of “supporting the family”.

final thoughts

"family happiness and good housekeeping" is the origin of the name ledao and also the brand concept, which represents that nio has officially entered the mainstream family user market through this new brand and is "fighting on the ground" in an all-round way.

no matter how the environment changes, no matter how the outside world evaluates, no matter how difficult the internal situation is, li bin always sticks to the general direction he has identified. his seriousness and persistence in car manufacturing, his judgment on the direction of the industry, and his innovation and leadership in products are quite similar to musk.

the difference is that musk's tesla still established the image of a high-end brand through model s and model x, and grabbed market share and made profits in the mass market through model 3 and model y. li bin did it more thoroughly, reducing the pressure on the nio brand, only deepening its presence in the high-end market, and continuously strengthening its position as the leader in high-end pure electric vehicles, while the issue of "supporting the family" was left to ledao. the two brands did not interfere with each other, each performed its own duties, and could help each other.

as the nio brand has entered a stage of rapid growth, the emergence of ledao will undoubtedly bring about a qualitative change for nio. nio's squat has ended, and the suspense has turned to how high it will jump in the future.

(photo/text by zhuo lu)