NIO, Showing Its Wolf Spirit

At the beginning of the "Golden September and Silver October" period, the second-generation NIO platform products have finally been fully assembled and are rapidly entering the transition period mentioned by CEO Qin Lihong.

On September 15th, NIO held a brief online launch event for the new EC6 and quickly started preparations for delivery. As for the price, NIO has shown expected sincerity, with a starting price of 358,000 to 416,000 yuan. Compared to the first-generation platform version, it is 38,000 to 138,000 yuan cheaper. The price of the battery rental BaaS version has dropped below 288,000 yuan.

According to Chairman Li Bin's expectations, the EC6 will join the "5566" lineup (new EC6, new ES6, ET5, ET5T) and become the main force driving NIO's sales, jointly supporting the monthly delivery target of 15,000 to 20,000 units.

In fact, with the gradual release and delivery of this year's NT2.0 platform models, NIO's sales volume has gradually returned to an upward trajectory.

Starting from July, NIO finally reached the milestone of selling 20,000 units per month. Although there was a slight fluctuation in August, it remained relatively stable. NIO has finally overcome the difficult period, which is closely related to its product iteration and the 30,000 yuan price reduction in June.

But the more crucial factor lies in the transformation of Li Bin and NIO's "character". NIO, which has always been "elegant" and "Buddhist", seems to have gained a bit of "wolf-like" aggressiveness and become more enterprising.

Starting from July, there were rumors in the market that NIO was poaching sales personnel from BMW, Mercedes-Benz, and other companies with high salaries, significantly increasing car sales commissions, and adjusting the strategies and structures of the sales department to make a full sprint in sales. In August, NIO's car sales increased, and the monthly salary of some frontline sales personnel exceeded 100,000 yuan.

According to the automotive industry consulting firm "Jelanlu", NIO has shifted the focus of sales KPI assessment to the result level, emphasizing indicators such as leads, test drives, and conversion rates. The elimination cycle has been shortened from the original 6 months to 1 month. The sales commission for produced vehicles has been increased from 800 yuan to a minimum of 2,000 yuan, while the commission for inventory and display vehicles has been increased from 800 yuan to a minimum of 4,000 yuan.

Jelanlu pointed out that NIO's brand orientation is gradually shifting from a service-oriented approach to pursuing high sales volume.

During a conference call on August 29th, Li Bin openly admitted that in June, he discovered that NIO's sales personnel and sales capabilities were lagging behind many competitors. Especially with the increase in (second-generation) models, there was even more of a shortage of manpower. In addition, NIO's weakness lies in the lower-tier markets, while BBA (BMW, Mercedes-Benz, Audi) has 4S stores in almost every city.

Therefore, NIO began recruiting and expanding its sales force in July. Li Bin pointed out that only by increasing the number of sales personnel to around 5,000 can NIO achieve sales efficiency comparable to leading brands.

From believing in creating popular models like the new ES6 to aggressively recruiting personnel and boosting sales, NIO's transformation is evident, showing its "wolf-like" nature. The increase in sales has been immediate, further strengthening Li Bin's determination. This is a stark contrast to him six months ago.

At the Shanghai Auto Show in April, Li Bin stated in an interview, "If NIO were compared to a person, we hope it would be a friend with ideas and taste, without the word 'wolf-like'." Obviously, under the fierce battle of price wars this year, the refined and elegant Li Bin and NIO have quickly moved away from the pursuit of being "small and beautiful" and "small and refined" and returned to the reality of pursuing scale.

Because NIO, which is in its second "ICU exit," cannot relax. Wearing the hat of being the "biggest money burner" in the current highly competitive environment, whether it can stand firm is its biggest challenge.

During the conference call, Li Bin stated that there will be no new models from the NIO brand in the near future. This means that the growth and volume of the second-generation platform are crucial. Looking back, "the NIO first-generation models reached a good sales state after 1-2 years of being on the market," said Li Bin.

Therefore, NIO must maximize the potential of the 8 new models in the market.

With the launch of the new EC6, NIO's 8 second-generation models will form a powerful product matrix. Li Bin is very confident, stating that NIO's current matrix has basically covered 80% of the high-end market's user needs. And according to his plan, when all NT2.0 models are delivered, it will support a monthly sales volume of 30,000 units, and the company's gross margin is expected to return to 18%-20% from single digits.

However, NIO is not the only one targeting the cake of the mid-to-high-end market. Zhiji LS6, Jike 001, Xiaopeng G6, Avita 12, and others are also entering the 200,000-300,000 yuan price range with impressive product strength, competing with NIO.

It can be said that NIO has become aggressive, which is also an inevitable result driven by the law of survival in the market. With this aggressiveness, NIO has to some extent broken free from its own constraints.

Next, can the unleashed NIO completely transform and continue its sales legend? How will the landscape of NIO and other new forces evolve? Perhaps next year will reveal the answer.