Reported by Pulsestacks on May 20th
Li Bin's marathon has established another "supply station".
On the evening of May 15th, NIO's second brand, Joyway, was born. This "second son of the family" is highly anticipated, seen as a crucial player for NIO to enter the 200,000-level household vehicle market segment, and carries the key mission of generating profits through volume sales.
Although Joyway's CEO, Ai Tiecheng, stated during a media briefing that pre-sale orders "far exceeded expectations," the feedback from the capital market was not ideal. On the 15th, NIO's stock fell by 8%, and as of the 17th, NIO's stock price had not risen.
In reality, in Li Bin's long-distance running route map, NIO's territory does not depend on Joyway's future success, and Joyway is by no means NIO's "life-or-death battle". This is a "strategic move", and behind it lies Li Bin's personal closed-loop thinking.
Levante does not hide its ambition, its very existence is to take down the Model Y.
During the launch event, Aitiecheng conducted a thorough comparison between the Levante L60 and the Model Y using various innovative evaluation methods.
In terms of interior space, the Levante L60 allows a pair of 183-centimeter tall twin brothers to have the freedom to cross their legs, move around freely, and have ample space in the trunk. When it comes to turning radius, the Levante L60 has a minimum turning radius of 5.4 meters, which is smaller than the Model Y's 5.65 meters. In terms of energy consumption, the Levante L60 consumes 12.1 kWh per 100 kilometers, while the Model Y consumes 12.5 kWh per 100 kilometers. Regarding range, the Levante L60 has a standard range of 555 kilometers, just one kilometer more than the rear-wheel-drive version of the Model Y...
Furthermore, targeting Levante's intended users, Aitiecheng also emphasized the slogan "Focus on family users."
"Levante" represents "family joy, household management," while the English "onvo" means "on voyage," symbolizing "every road traveled with family is a joyous journey." The Levante logo, depicting an upward road, signifies the brand's sole purpose: to make family life better.
Additionally, the "rising sun" light and the theme color "morning dawn orange" on the Levante L60 symbolize prosperity and an increasingly better life, hitting the mark precisely with family users.
Ai Tiecheng, a former Disney employee, was invited to share his insights on serving family users and building emotional experiences for brands during an internal user experience design sharing session in 2015. This marked the beginning of Ai Tiecheng's deep connection with NIO, where he witnessed every step of NIO's development and became the 107th user of the NIO Founder's Edition ES8. In January 2021, Ai Tiecheng officially joined NIO, embarking on the journey to establish the second brand team, showcasing his dedication to focusing on family users.
Li Bin and Qin Lihong are confident in him: "Handing over the LeDao brand to NIO's founding users, we are very reassured."
For NIO users and potential users, Aitie Cheng's first appearance on the 15th not only proved his professionalism but also demonstrated his deep emotional connection to NIO and LeDao.
"I hope our family users will be very happy when they see the LeDao brand," Aitie Cheng said. "Buying a car is a very joyful thing for a family. It's only at very important moments that they will buy a family car. So we hope to bring them joy in very important moments in their lives."
Regarding the specific configuration of LeDao vehicles, Li Bin is always closely monitoring the team, focusing on family needs, and creating a "family car value formula" to decide on configurations. "Focusing on family users, focusing on their core needs, and making the most suitable products is what LeDao aims to pursue."
Although in terms of configuration and brand philosophy, Leahead's performance is almost superior to the Model Y, the probability of Leahead's comeback remains uncertain.
In 2023, the Model Y sold 456,000 vehicles in China for the whole year, a year-on-year increase of 44.7%, winning the championship of SUV annual sales. At the same time, Tesla is one of the few brands that dares to ignore price wars, raise prices, and still sell well.
Leahead is not the only one targeting the Model Y. Winning a slice of Tesla's pie not only brings huge market share and profits but also directly demonstrates the surpassing of "brand power."
Although in terms of specifications, Leahead seems to have the upper hand, especially by surpassing the Model Y in aerodynamics and energy consumption through various efforts, but Leahead's brand building, even compared to NIO, is perhaps Li Bin and Ai Tiecheng's most urgent task at present.
"Leahead is a new brand that still needs a process of recognition and understanding," Li Bin said at a media briefing, stating that May was just to make users "familiar" with Leahead, and the actual launch of the L60 will have to wait until September.
According to Ai Tiecheng, this pace is precisely considering the purchase cycle of family users, "Family users need some time to consider buying a car, it takes three to six months," Ai Tiecheng said, "First, you need to get to know this brand. After a few months, September is the right time for the decision-making cycle."
In fact, Tesla is just the apparent opponent of Leahead, but looking deeper, Leahead has other goals in mind.
As a resolutely new electric vehicle, the explosive news on the night of the Leahead L60's debut is that it still adopts the BaaS model, which means that the final price of the L60 may only need tens of thousands.
Looking at Leahead's competitiveness at this point, it suddenly makes the Model Y, Zhiji LS6, Xiaopeng G6, Xiaomi SU7, and others become "atypical competitors." After all, for just tens of thousands of dollars, you can have a product that surpasses Tesla in performance, enjoy NIO's battery swapping service, and not worry about battery life. This undoubtedly adds a heavyweight to one end of the scale for family users.
The threshold for purchasing has been further lowered, expanding the user base of Leador, leading to more people using NIO's battery swapping service. On average, a battery swapping station can break even with 60 orders (currently around 30 orders). It can be predicted that with Leador users joining NIO's battery swapping system, the profitability and competitiveness of NIO's battery swapping stations will be significantly enhanced.
This is Leador's "sunny strategy."
Appearing to target the 200,000-level household vehicle market, it actually achieves two goals: boosting sales and benefiting NIO Power, gradually revitalizing NIO's business model on a larger scale.
Established in 2018, NIO Power is another key point in all of this. NIO Power is an energy service system that is "rechargeable, swappable, and upgradable." As of now, NIO has deployed a total of 3,845 charging stations, 2,420 battery swapping stations, and 1,026,824 third-party charging piles worldwide.
Additionally, NIO plans to offer three standardized battery packs that can be used with NIO, Leador, and third-party brands. The battery swapping stations are divided into "exclusive" and "shared" categories, with the first and second-generation stations exclusive to NIO; the third and fourth-generation stations are shared between NIO and other brands. Currently, Leador can access over 1,000 third and fourth-generation battery swapping stations, which can be shared with charging stations and piles.
When it comes to whether Lelutao owners will crowd out NIO owners in the battery swapping experience, Li Bin clearly denies this possibility.
On one hand, the existing battery swapping stations have enough battery slots and operational efficiency. "We haven't filled up all the slots in the swapping stations. Each station reserves 21 or 23 slots. In general, one battery can support around 20 users per day for swapping. In terms of turnover efficiency, one battery is very efficient. So, we have enough capacity to support new users."
On the other hand, "Not afraid of too many people, just afraid of no one." According to Li Bin's logic, the more Lelutao users there are, the faster new swapping stations will be built. "That's just a happy problem. Don't statically think that there's only one swapping station, and it will never increase. We are always planning new swapping stations."
"NIO has never been an opportunist," and Li Bin has always been a long-term thinker.
Whether it's the second brand Lelutao or Lelutao's "solar strategy," these are the results of Li Bin's personal reflections on the future mobility system.
The first mention of the second brand in media reports can be traced back three years, but the idea of multiple brands in Li Bin's mind dates back to the birth of the NIO brand in 2014.
"We have to start from the high-end market," Li Bin said. "When you enter the high-end market, others may not have much confidence in you. Opportunities lie where competitors think you can't succeed, there is a certain window of opportunity."
But after the high-end, "NIO must serve more users." Data also confirms this: nearly 90% of the mainstream price segments in the global market, including the Chinese market, are home users. Therefore, positioning the second brand as "family" became a very natural choice.
In the early days, NIO also tried to collaborate with other companies to launch a second brand. However, with the accumulation of NIO's technology and capabilities, Li Bin decided to "do it 100% by ourselves." Thus, the planning for the second brand started in 2020, launched in 2021, and will finally meet users in 2024.
Similarly, the third brand has also been brewing for 2-3 years and will be introduced to the public within a year. Li Bin describes it as a very interesting brand. Although it is more affordable, its positioning can be understood as "mini to BMW, Smart to Mercedes."
Outside of the brand, Li Bin holds an even bigger stake in the future of electric vehicles.
In fact, the residual value of electric vehicles has always influenced people's purchasing decisions and even hindered the development of electric cars, but it has never been seriously discussed. One of the key reasons affecting the residual value of electric vehicles is the lifespan and limited warranty of the battery.
Before founding NIO, Li Bin was deeply involved in the automotive industry and made numerous investments in the used car sector and automotive aftermarket. "Today, the lifespan of a car is 15 to 20 years, but what about the battery after eight years and 160,000 kilometers? That's why from the first day of NIO's establishment, I said that the car and the battery must be separated. If the car and the battery are not separated, there will be issues."
With this philosophy in mind, NIO introduced the battery swapping model, developed batteries of the same specifications, launched the BaaS battery rental service, and established Weilai Power and the Battery Swap Alliance. The sole purpose is to design long-lasting batteries and ensure their operation, so that even ten or twenty years later, NIO can still bear the responsibility of maintenance for car owners.
Behind this is Li Bin's unwavering commitment to pure electric vehicles. In fact, Li Bin himself has repeatedly stood out due to his remarks on the "battle between oil and electricity," yet this dedication remains unchanged.
"In fact, everyone is very clear that pure electric is the ultimate product. It's just that now, due to infrastructure reasons, some users still need an adaptation process," Li Bin said. "Today, from the perspective of NIO users' practice, we already have 88% of scenarios (56% battery swapping, 32% charging) that are more convenient than refueling. But there are still 12% that are not as convenient as refueling. What we need to do now is to build more battery swapping stations and charging piles, so that everyone can confidently use electric vehicles."
The speed at which China's new energy vehicles are advancing is so fast that sometimes we forget that most of the players on the list are still "very young," and this industry is not yet mature.
As the automotive market repeatedly resets its price bottom line, the new nobility of electric vehicles is still answering the same question, "How to survive."
But as Li Bin said, the completion of the Joy Road is indeed an important milestone in NIO's development process. However, when the path ahead is not a 100-meter sprint but a "marathon on muddy roads," we all need to realize that Joy Road is just an acceleration, and the road ahead is still very long.
