NIO's cohesion and appeal have always been outstanding in the automotive industry.
Recently, NIO held its annual NIO Day, with over 10000 users coming to Xi'an to participate and over 400000 people watching online. As of now, no car company's press conference has reached such a scale.
At this NIO Day, NIO showcased its research and development achievements in chassis, batteries, battery swapping, chips, and intelligent driving, and launched the first executive flagship sedan ET9, filling the gap in domestic pure electric executive flagship models. It is worth mentioning that the pre-sale price of ET9 has reached 800000 yuan. From this, it can be seen that although NIO has had a difficult year, the heart to strive for high-end products has never stopped.
Impact on the high-end market
After reaching a certain scale in the electrification market, car companies have also begun to seek new breakthrough points in order to gain more market growth, and attacking the "high-end" has become a choice for many car companies. For example, models such as Haobo SSR, Yangwang U8, and Mengshi 917 all have prices of around one million yuan.
In this context, NIO has also launched the high-end product ET9. Unlike other high-end brands, NIO has positioned its products in administrative level models. The reporter learned that in NIO's plan, the ET9 targets products such as Mercedes Maybach, BMW 7 Series, Porsche Panamera, etc. Qin Lihong, co-founder and president of NIO, said, "The ET9 should be the first car for the entire Chinese automotive company to truly enter the most core fortress of international brands dominated by BBA. NIO is a very organized and step-by-step climb with technology as its foundation and the real pace of product launch as its backing."
From a configuration perspective, with a length of over 5.3 meters, a wheelbase of 3.25 meters, four original layouts, 23 inch aluminum alloy wheels, innovative "Sky Island" and "Administrative Bridge" designs The NIO ET9 can completely compete with luxury brand models such as BBA. Li Bin, founder, chairman, and CEO of NIO, said, "As an intelligent electric administrative flagship created by a Chinese brand, ET9 fully demonstrates NIO's research and development capabilities and achievements, bringing the administrative flagship sedan into the era of intelligent electric vehicles, representing NIO's determination, confidence, and enterprising spirit to continue to challenge the high-end market. NIO will continue to provide users with high-quality products and services through technological innovation."
Previously, in the industry's view, NIO had always emphasized service, so the technical aspect may not be a standout point. However, from Technology Day to NIO Day, NIO is sending a signal that NIO is not only a service-oriented enterprise, but also a technology enterprise. On NIO Day, NIO focused on introducing the Shenji NX9031 intelligent driving chip, the full range 900V high-voltage architecture, the Tianxing intelligent chassis, and the flagship safety system, most of which are reflected in the NIO ET9. According to Li Bin, ET9 includes 17 globally first released technologies, 52 leading technologies in the same class, and has applied for 525 patents.
The reporter learned that the Shenji NX9031 is the first intelligent driving chip in the industry to be manufactured using 5nm automotive technology. The chip has over 50 billion transistors. In addition, the Shenji chip can dynamically wake up various subsystems at the microsecond level, combined with the strongest safety redundancy capability, to bring users a safe and efficient intelligent driving experience.
In addition, the ET9 is also equipped with the SkyRide chassis system, which integrates three core hardware systems: wire controlled steering, rear wheel steering, and fully active suspension. It is currently the only fully wire controlled intelligent chassis system in the world. At NIO Day, NIO played a video demonstrating an ET9 test car with a champagne tower on its roof. In the video, there are four layers of champagne towers on the front hood of the ET9, smoothly passing through the uneven road surface. The champagne tower did not tip over and the champagne did not pour out. A netizen said, "One word, 'stable', two words, 'very stable'."
In Li Bin's view, ET9 is not only the crystallization of NIO's technological innovation, but also a microcosm of China's intelligent electric vehicle industry's transition from a major automotive country to a strong automotive power. "I think it's not just the achievements of NIO, but also a small milestone for the entire intelligent electric vehicle industry in participating in the global competition for intelligent electric vehicles," said Li Bin.
However, ET9 is currently only making its debut, and the actual delivery will be in the first quarter of 2025, which also means that NIO will not have any new products launched throughout 2024. This also raises concerns in the industry about whether NIO's sales can continue to rise in 2024, and whether the currently high-end technology will fall behind by 2025. Regarding this, Li Bin said, "The ET9 is China's first product to enter the soul competition of luxury executive sedans, so we will spend more time adjusting and optimizing." Regarding sales, Li Bin further pointed out that the 8 models currently on sale by NIO will be the main source of revenue for the next 1-2 years, and these models will also maintain a leading position in 2 years, with obvious advantages.
Supplementing energy is still of utmost importance
Although the energy replenishment system is an important reason for NIO's losses, NIO still regards it as one of its core competencies.
On NIO Day, NIO officially released the full range 900V high-voltage architecture and 46105 large cylindrical batteries. It is understood that the energy density of a single cell in the 46105 large cylindrical battery reaches 292Wh/kg, and the maximum charging rate reaches 5C. After the battery pack is launched, NIO will have four different specifications of battery packs. The 900V full range high-voltage architecture is matched with the 5C rate battery. It is understood that the architecture includes core electronic and electrical components such as batteries, motors, wiring harnesses, air conditioners, DC-DC, and vehicle chargers. Under this architecture, it can achieve 3 minutes of rapid battery swapping, 5C flash charging, and a range of 255 kilometers in 5 minutes.
At the same time as announcing the changes in the specifications of the next generation battery pack, NIO officially released the fourth generation of battery swapping stations and 640kW fully liquid cooled ultrafast charging piles.
It is understood that the 640kW fully liquid cooled ultra fast charging pile released this time can achieve a maximum output current of 765A, a maximum output voltage of 1000V, a peak charging power of 640kW, and intelligent real-time allocation of charging power within the station.
The fourth generation battery swapping station has also undergone technological iteration, increasing the number of battery positions to 24 and providing a maximum daily service of 480 times. The single battery swapping time has been reduced by 22%, and it can support multi brand shared battery swapping. Meanwhile, the fourth generation power station is equipped with a rooftop photovoltaic system, saving nearly 18000 kilowatt hours of electricity per station annually.
At present, NIO is already the most complete and widely distributed enterprise in China's charging and swapping network. In terms of charging, NIO has currently laid out 20955 charging stations nationwide, covering 307 cities. In terms of battery swapping, on December 22nd, NIO reached a plan to add one thousand battery swapping stations by 2023. Currently, NIO has established 2309 battery swapping stations in China. Among them, there are 745 high-speed power exchange stations, and a high-speed power exchange network has been built in 11 major urban clusters with 7 vertical and 6 horizontal sections.
"Battery swapping is the best way to experience energy replenishment, and there is no one." Li Bin said that NIO plans to add 1000 battery swapping stations and 20000 charging stations in 2024. According to NIO's plan, the focus of 2024's battery swapping station construction will be on serving Alpine projects and sharing battery swapping systems with partners such as Geely and Changan.
In terms of service network, as of December 23, NIO has a total of 145 NIO centers, 335 NIO spaces, 315 service centers, and 62 delivery centers. On this basis, NIO will strengthen its layout in the sinking market.
"Any place where Mercedes Benz, BMW, or Audi have 4S stores is worth visiting," Qin Lihong said. In his view, sinking the market is necessary. NIO has conducted some statistics, and nearly half of the sales of mainstream high-end brands such as Mercedes Benz, BMW, and Audi are contributed by third tier and below cities. NIO did not go into the sinking market before because it positioned itself as a high-end company and needed to work step by step to control the investment pace. But now that market competitiveness is increasing, NIO must also accelerate its network expansion and market sinking speed. Meanwhile, in the process of sinking, it is also a challenge for NIO to maintain its brand style and fully integrate it with styles that are acceptable in various places.
Years of research and development investment have brought technological accumulation to NIO and laid the foundation for its long-term development. With the support of technology and the concept of serving users, NIO will continue to climb. After all, efforts may not have immediate results, but they will never be in vain.