Li Bin: NIO’s new sub-brand Alps will enter the European market for sale

On October 8, at the NIO BERLIN 2022 media communication meeting, NIO founder, chairman and CEO Li Bin and co-founder and president Qin Lihong discussed the NIO 2022 European press conference The above content has been supplemented and answered. Li Bin said: "NIO's new sub-brand, internally codenamed ALPS, will also go overseas and enter the European market. At the same time, it is hoped that NIO's sales in overseas markets will be one-quarter of the world's. In addition, NIO is developing the next generation Charging and swapping systems, and it is predicted that battery prices will drop in the second half of next year.

Regarding the NIO Subscription subscription car rental model launched in the European market, Li Bin said: "Nio is adopting the subscription model in Europe. Determined by long-term thinking, vehicles will eventually become a service and, ultimately, a consumer product. Users used to have to worry about many things. Weilai hopes to simplify the user service interface and finally turn the car into a service through various attempts. In addition, the European market has a high degree of acceptance of "rights of use" and "subscription models".

In addition, Weilai Europe has just set up a team. We hope that the teams in each location will be more focused. For example, in Norway, we will only sell, not rent, or order, because this market itself wants people to order. Not much. We only sell in Norway. In other places, we mainly focus on usage rights and subscriptions. I simply focus on this. My team can be very focused in the early stage and will not engage in subscriptions and sales. Because of these two Something completely different logic.

When looking at the profitability of the subscription system, Li Bin said: "The subscription pricing mechanism is relatively complex, which can ensure continued positive development and has the opportunity to obtain a higher gross profit margin than buying a car. Weilai is not in Europe. It will be available for short-term rental on a monthly basis, but it is slightly lower than other subscription models on the market." When talking about the implementation of advanced assisted driving systems in the European market, Li Bin said: " Lai started to conduct assisted driving testing in Europe in April 2021. Now there is a large test fleet. The regulations in each country are still quite different. Many underlying technologies are the same, but the specific policies and compliance are different. There is no specific time for the implementation of the ADAS system, and we are still actively communicating with local regulatory agencies." When asked where the competitive advantage with the top three BBA luxury brands in the European market comes from, Qin Lihong said: "We are. There is no heroic spirit of "conquering Germany" or "entering the enemy's base camp". If you want to make luxury cars, Germany is a market that cannot be bypassed. Germany's D-class cars account for a large proportion, and the scale is here. This is what we are based on. Arrangements made based on business rationality, our challenges are part of the plan and must be endured. You do not need to interpret it as an emotional decision. We have also entered many small but high-end markets, such as Denmark. "

Li Bin believes that we are truly catering to and truly following the development trend of smart electric vehicles to build our R&D and supply chain, including a system for all aspects of products. We are truly based on how a brand interacts with users in the mobile social era. A community approach that starts with cars to build all aspects of our entire company's business and our company's mission. We did a lot of things. We didn’t suddenly say on a whim that we are coming to Europe. In fact, we are not. From the first day of our establishment, we have never thought that we only sell cars in China. From the first day of our establishment, we have been preparing to serve users around the world, because We know that if you want to truly become a competitive company, it is definitely not enough to rely only on the Chinese market. This is something that the history of the automobile industry for more than one hundred years has undoubtedly proved. If you want to become the world's leading automobile company, you It is said that success depends only on one country, no matter how big the market is, even if it is an American company, it will not work.

From vision to action, this is how we do things. From this point of view, we have the opportunity to rebuild a future-oriented overall system, from R&D, from supply chain, from service to the entire community. We have nothing to worry about and no baggage to build a completely new system and a new business model in terms of product and service community. This is our biggest advantage.

Some local brands in Germany have previously taken some measures to deal with Weilai’s entry into Europe. Li Bin said: “It is better than no one paying attention. This can make it more lively.

Every company has its own perspective. I know what you are talking about. We respect intellectual property rights and technological innovation very much. If you look at our history in this regard, you will know that we have very high standards in this regard. But it is true that each company has a different perspective, and we will respect the final legal outcome. So this is normal, this is where it is, it’s nothing. ”

Previously, Li Bin and Qin Lihong drove Weilai ET7 to complete a 10-day long test self-driving tour of ten European countries. Qin Lihong said, What we see are opportunities. The electric vehicles we saw on the road Judging from the car, the overcharging experience here is still good, mainly because the technology is good, but the layout is still far behind. There is no layout in the city. For several days, I had to charge in the middle of the night when I entered the hotel. The slow charging piles were not full all night. We also saw that many companies are doing research and development, the infrastructure is about to take off, and the ownership has just reached the early stage of take-off. When we enter Europe at this time, we still have a layout from cars to services. We think there is still a chance.

Finally, when asked when the factory will be put into operation in Europe, Li Bin said: "It mainly depends on the demand in Europe. If the demand is big, we will build it. If the demand is not big, we will build it." It's not economical to build either. This is purely a business decision. Without an increase of 100,000-200,000 units a year, it is definitely not cost-effective to build a factory. ”

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