NIO https://www.nio.
cn/about
According to Autohome, NIO 2023H1 sales were 54,429 units, an increase of 7.09% year-over-
year.
NIO models are divided into ES (SUV), EC (coupe SUV), ET (sedan) three series of seven
models, covering the medium-to-large-sized and medium-sized SUV, medium-large-sized and
medium-sized sedan and coupe market. Among them, ET5 is the highest-selling model, with sales
of 30,038 units in the first half of the year, accounting for 55.19% of the brand's sales. NIO's entire
products switch from the NT1.0 platform to the NT2.0 platform, and the products of the new
platform were comprehensively upgraded in terms of appearance, interiors, comfort
configurations, and intelligence. From January to April 2023, the industry's competitive landscape
deteriorated, and the company cleaned up its inventory of NT1.0 platforms while the NT2.0
platforms were upgraded. Only ET5, ET7, ES7 three models using NT2.0 platform were on sale,
resulting in delivery less expected, sales in April were 6564 units, -37% MoM.
Among the models sold by the brand, the sales of ES6 rose sharply in June, which is very
noteworthy, with 4,677 units sold in June, accounting for 43.77% of the month's sales. The all-new
ES6 was launched on May 24, pulling this model's sales up sharply with its overall improved
performance, lower price, and shorter delivery time.
Brand Highlights
1. Customer Service
NIO takes customer service as its core concept and enhances brand recognition through the
satisfactory car-buying process experience and one-stop after-sales service. NIO's full-process
service broadly consists of car-buying/pick-up service, car-using service, and community service.
The car service consists of owner's rights and worry-free service. In terms of owner's rights and
benefits, the first owner of NIO enjoys free lifetime warranty, free lifetime roadside assistance and
free lifetime Telematics service. The annual fee for "Worry-Free Service" is about RMB 12,000,
which includes insurance, compensation, repair and maintenance, etc. During the maintenance
period, NIO also provides mobility scooters and door-to-door tire repair services.
2. Offline Space + Online Space
Through the creation of "offline space" NIO House and "online space" NIO App, NIO Life, and
points system, we guide car owners to participate in community activities and enjoy community
services to enhance user stickiness. NIO House, as NIO's offline experience store, is located in
landmark buildings, and each NIO House provides various functions such as showroom, office,
reading, leisure, growth, party, urban culture service, etc. NIO App is responsible for further
establishing social links, and users can communicate with each other, organize activities, and
publish daily routines in NIO App; NIO executives personally interact with users in the App and
guide them to participate in the brand co-creation. NIO Life products can be exchanged for points,
shaping brand identity. Throughout the whole community operation, there are two sets of points
systems. Ordinary points can be exchanged for goods or services in a variety of scenarios, such as
surprise mall, car mall, NIO Center, one-click power-up, and destination travel. The "NIO value"
can be used to vote on major events within the community.
3. Energy Services + Switching Technologies
NIO Power is a charging solution based on mobile Internet. It has a wide network of charging and
power exchange facilities and relies on NIO cloud technology to build an energy service system
that can be charged, exchanged, and upgraded to provide vehicle owners with all-around power-
adding services, realizing the concept of "charging at home and exchanging power outside".
(1) Home scenario: NIO launched 7kW home charging pile, 2.0 small size and strong function, the
first pile of rights and benefits come with the car, 20kW home fast charging pile in NIO's charging
map, is the main force of the destination charging, that is, B&B, tourist attractions, shopping
district and other activities more than 2 hours of the scene. NIO's CEO, Bin Li, in the 2022 NIO
DAY, said that by December 2022, NIO has installed more than 160,000 chargers for the users.
has installed more than 160,000 home charging piles for its users, and the percentage of NIO
users' home charging pile installation should be the highest among all brands.
(2) Outdoor Scenario: According to NIO's official website, as of May 2023, NIO has built 2,604
charging stations, 1,417 power exchange stations, and is compatible with more than 710,000 third-
party charging piles. To make charging more convenient than refueling, NIO plans to add 1,000
new stations and 10,000 charging piles in 2023, with a total of more than 2,300 stations and
24,000 charging piles. According to NIO's "Continuous Improvement Plan", by 2025, NIO Power
will have built 4,000 power exchange stations globally; the coverage rate of "Power Zone Rooms"
is targeted to reach 90%; and a nationwide high-speed power exchange network will be opened;
NIO Charging Vehicle is a complementary solution to the existing charging network, and
customers can book charging service through NIO APP. The charging vehicle can increase the
range of ES8 by 100 kilometers after 10 minutes of charging.
Figure NIO Charging Map Figure NIO 3.0 Generation Switching Station
Currently, it takes more than 1 hour to fill up the battery of mainstream BEV models, while it
takes only 4 minutes to change the battery once at NIO's power exchange station, solving the
problem of slow charging of new energy vehicles. According to NIO's official announcement, as
of May 2023, more than 60% of the user's total power additions will come from power exchange.
In March 2023, NIO's 3.0 power exchange station made its debut and was officially put into use in
April. NIO's 3.0 power exchange station has comprehensively improved its experience and
efficiency compared to the 2.0 and has continued to explore the functions of the power exchange
station, launching a path planning function based on the high-speed NOP, which allows it to
automatically add power exchange stations along the way. The company has also continued to
explore the functions of the power exchange station and introduced a path planning function based
on high-speed NOP, which can automatically add power exchange stations along the route.
The company's over-advanced strategic layout, depreciation and operating costs of the power
exchange station led to losses, followed by the construction of stations at a steady pace, as well as
the third generation of power exchange stations unattended and other ways to gradually reduce
operating costs. The cost of the company's exchange station mainly consists of battery,
infrastructure, and labor costs. With the expansion of revenue and the steady speed of station
construction, it is expected to reduce the subsequent loss. Originally, a station needs 1-2 people to
guard it, but now we are trying to be unmanned, and gradually reduce the labor cost.
XPENG MOTORS https://www.xiaopeng.com/
2023H1 XPENG sales were 41,435 units, with overall sales growing slowly, -39.9% year-on-year.
Since 2020, XPENG has released four BEVs one after another, namely the B-segment sedan P7,
compact SUV G3, A+ sedan P5, and middle-large SUV G9. The midsize coupe SUV G6 will also
be launched in June 2023. Since 2023, due to the declining competitiveness of the old model, sales
of the new model G9 have gradually declined to a flat level in the first half of the year, and the
new model G9 has not been a hot seller. The P7, launched in 2021, has long been the company's
mainstay, with intelligent features that have helped XPENG enter the mid-to-high-end market. As
competition in the 200,000 RMB+ BEV market intensifies, the P7i, as an upgraded model of the
P7, has been technologically upgraded in terms of power, range, intelligent driving and cabin.
With the upgraded XNGP (Navigation Guided Pilot) experience, P7i sales have been steadily
rising, and the sales share in June also reached 60.28%.
Brand Highlights
XNGP
In October 2022, XPENG launched its 2.0 assisted driving system, XNGP (Navigation Guided
Pilot), which is built on high-precision maps provided by Gaode. Enabling the perceptual
capability of XNet deep visual neural network, it can realize full-scene assisted driving. In March
2023, XNGP has achieved the first stage goal, mainly opening urban XNGP in four cities with
high-precision map coverage: Shanghai, Shenzhen, Guangzhou, and Beijing, and also enhancing
the intelligent assisted driving capability in other areas without high-precision map coverage
across the country. In 2024, the evolved XNGP system will not rely on high precision maps and
will seamlessly connect to various scenarios such as highway, city, and underground parking lots
in every city in the country, realizing the assisted driving experience without any breakpoints from
the starting parking space to the ending parking space. XNGP is ahead of its domestic counterparts
for more than half a year, and the pre-sale G6 is the key work of XPENG, whose Fuyao
architecture comprehensively integrates XPENG's expertise in the fields of power replenishment,
intelligent system, and vehicle intelligent manufacturing. The G6 is the key work of XPENG,
whose rocking architecture comprehensively integrates XPENG's core technologies in the fields of
power supplement, intelligent system, and vehicle manufacturing, redefining the standard of high-
end intelligent electric vehicles. Meanwhile, G6 is equipped with 800-volt high-voltage and 3C
fast-charging batteries, with a range of up to 755 kilometers, fast charging speed, large space, and
support for the XNGP system. The model has an advantage over its counterparts in all aspects and
is expected to become a hot-selling model, forming an inflection point for the company's sales,
and driving the company's sales to achieve a breakthrough in the next phase.
Li Auto https://www.Lixiang.com/#Li
Li is committed to "creating a mobile home, creating a happy home", from the release of the first
product has a clear positioning, so that consumers will be the brand and household, large space,
long range + intelligent experience and other keywords in depth binding, while good user
experience has contributed to the improvement of the word of mouth, brand awareness continues
to strengthen. The current products are all programmable SUVs, providing users with intelligent,
comfortable, and safe products. After clarifying the brand image, the company has taken the
product as the core to enhance three levels: product safety, product value and product aspiration,
focusing on gross margin performance and linking technology R&D and delivery capability. Li is
targeted at family use, which has high safety requirements; at the value level, the software is
independently researched and developed to satisfy the main needs of users, and the hardware
"Taskmaster" function realizes the whole vehicle linkage; at the aspiration level, Li amplifies the
product features and focuses on space comfort and intelligence to enhance the user perception.
The automotive industry has a huge scale of revenue and needs a long cycle of investment in
research and development and cannot continue to rely on external financing for scale expansion,
so the gross profit margin is a guarantee of healthy development. 2021, Li's gross profit margin
level is maintained at about 20%, and the operating cash flow has continued to be positive.
2018 年发布首款产品 ONE，2022 年 6 月发布为家庭打造的 SUV L9，9 月 L8 正式上市，2023 年 2 月 L7 正式发布，均定位
30 万以上 SUV 市场，公司在 2023 年第一季度 20 万以上新能源车市场销量的市场占有率为 11%。整个 2023 上半年销量稳步上升，上
半年总销量 134986 辆，同比增加 123%。六月销量达到最高，销售 31146 辆，同比增加 139%。
With the release of its first product ONE in 2018, the release of L9, an SUV built for families, in
June 2022, the official launch of L8 in September, and the official launch of L7 in February 2023,
all of which are positioned in the 300,000+ SUV market, the company's market share of 200,000+
new energy vehicle market sales in the first quarter of 2023 were 11%. Sales rose steadily
throughout the first half of 2023, with total sales of 134,986 units in the first half of the year, an
increase of 123% year-on-year. June sales reached their highest with 31,146 units sold, an increase
of 139% year-on-year.
Brand Highlights
1. Urban NOA Intelligent Driving
NOA Intelligent Driving will be upgraded to be applied in urban scenarios, and the system service
is free for life. According to the data on the official website, Li in the intelligent driving
independent research and development investment in high-speed NOA navigation assistance
driving system 2.0, has provided services for more than 280,000 home users, NOA mileage of
more than 140 million kilometers, On June 17 this year, pushing the internal test user city 3.0, the
company expects to cover 100 cities by the end of the year. Li adheres to the route of intelligent
driving for free, AD Max 3.0 full-scene NOA system will be free for life, and continue to bring
high-value products and services to users.
2. Intelligent Cockpit
The vehicle system is an important source of intelligent experience, and the company has
launched three OTA version upgrades for L series models, 4.3, 4.4 and 4.5, since 2023. The
"Sentinel Mode" added in 4.4 has attracted attention, which relies on visual algorithms and
vibration monitoring to realize real-time monitoring of the environment and the state of the
vehicle and protects vehicle safety during parking; the "Little Master" mode added in 4.5 provides
children with exclusive voice experiences, solitaire games and reading content. This mode relies
on visual algorithms and vibration monitoring to realize real-time monitoring of the vehicle's
surrounding environment and status and protects the vehicle's safety while it is parked in the car.
The version iteration has been well received, reflecting the company's keen insight into user needs
and the ultimate pursuit of a good user experience.
3. Electric drive system, battery and charging network
Currently, the company is stepping into a new phase of REEV and BEV, giving 800V ultra-fast
charging solutions, bringing users the experience of "charging in 10 minutes, range of 400
kilometers". 4C ultra-fast charging stations are under rapid construction, and the first batch of 25
charging stations will be opened at the end of May for trial operation, with the target of
completing 300 stations by the end of 2023, covering the Beijing-Tianjin-Wing, Yangtze River
Delta, the Greater Bay Area and the four major economic zones of Chengdu-Chongqing. By the
end of 2023, we aim to complete 300 charging stations, covering the four major economic zones
of Beijing-Tianjin, Yangtze River Delta, the Greater Bay Area and Chengdu-Chongqing, and
expanding to 3,000 charging stations in 2025, covering 90% of highways and major cities.
4. Refined Management
Li initiated a process upgrade of its commercial system in the first quarter of 2023, changing from
a regional management approach to refined management by province, with direct management of
stores at the provincial level and autonomous deployment of key resources. Regarding the sales
and service network, the company said in the first quarter results conference that it will make
adjustments in three aspects, firstly, the product types have become more demanding for the
existing sales stores to be upgraded to be able to display the three models on sale; secondly, it will
build a comprehensive experience center to give customers a better test-drive and test-drive
experience; lastly, the company will learn from BBA's strategy, and its sales network will cover
the third- and fourth-tier cities to increase its market share.
Discussion
From 2020 to 2022, the sales of these three new forces are all growing at a high rate, and in 2023,
they will diverge due to different product cycles. From 2020 to 2022, the sales of NIO, XPENG
and Li are all growing at a fast rate, and in the first half of 2023, the sales trend diverged, with the
sales of NIO, XPENG and Li amounting to 54,429, 41,435, and 134,986 units respectively and
+7.09/-39.9%/+123% year-on-year respectively, especially Li's higher growth rate after launching
new models L8 and L7; while NIO's important model ES6 of NT2.0 platform has been listed and
delivered in late May, and XPENG's Fuyao Architecture's first SUV G6 has been opened for pre-
sale on June 9, and the sales are expected to rise in the second half of the year. Overall, the new
forces are in the upward cycle of new products, and Li is expected to maintain the current trend of
good sales in the context of the industry's low boom, with NIO and XPENG seeing a trend of
rebounding sales through the listing of heavyweight new products.
From the previous analysis of the macro market and the help of government policy support, the
new energy vehicle industry is still in a rapid penetration stage, in the new energy vehicle to the
countryside, new energy vehicle purchase tax continuation and other policy stimulus, is expected
to accelerate the replacement of joint venture fuel car market share. 2023, by Tesla price cuts, fuel
car price wars, etc., new energy vehicle industry downturn, the public demand is not high for the
quality of models and the price-performance ratio puts forward higher requirements. Tesla's
intelligent technology is leading. Compared with BYD and Tesla, the advantage of new power car
enterprises lies in the positioning of market segments. Li is committed to "creating a mobile home,
creating a happy home"; NIO is positioned in the new energy luxury car market (300,000 yuan +);
XPENG labeled as intelligent, focusing on the mainstream mass market of the 200,000-300,000
yuan range, precise product positioning makes different types of automobile enterprises. The
precise product positioning makes different types of car enterprises can get considerable profits.
Compared with the traditional forces, the new forces do not have historical baggage, and most of
the founders have Internet background, so they are better than the traditional forces in terms of
product iteration, organizational change, research and development, and transformation speed.
In terms of intelligent driving, the newer forces generally outperform the traditional ones. XPENG
launched XNGP, Li pushed AD Max 3.0, the city NOA navigation-assisted driving system for beta
users, on June 17 this year, as well as NIO's advanced hardware - 4 Orin chips as standard, the
addition of LIDAR, and the forthcoming NOP+ for BEV push this July. In contrast, traditional
forces are mainly focused on high-speed NOA, and have no mass production plans for urban area
assisted driving in 2023.
In the medium to long term, all new forces are likely to achieve good net profit performance. At
present, NIO and Li are positioned in the luxury car market (more than 300,000 yuan), and
XPENG focuses on the mainstream mass market in the range of 200,000-300,000 yuan, with some
differences in the customer groups. Of course, all three have yet to achieve stable profitability,
mainly due to high R&D expenditures for new products and technologies, and high management
costs due to rapid staff expansion. In the future, with the release of more platform-based products,
such as NIO switching to the NT2.0 platform for its entire product line, XPENG switching to the
Fuyao architecture for its G6, and Li launching its range-extended platform "L" series of products
and the subsequent high-voltage pure-electric platform "E" series of products, the cost of vehicle
manufacturing will continue to decrease, and with it, the cost of vehicle manufacturing will be
reduced. Vehicle manufacturing costs will continue to decrease, and with the gradual stabilization
of R&D expenses and personnel management costs, it is expected to achieve good net profit
performance.
Throughout the new energy vehicle market, risks and opportunities coexist:
(1) Macroeconomic downturn, consumer demand is less than expected
Automobile is essentially a consumer product, and the macroeconomic development is strongly
correlated, if the macroeconomic downturn or growth is less than expected, it will affect consumer
confidence and consumer demand, which will trigger a wait-and-see mood for car purchase;
(2) Supply chain shortage
The automotive industry has a long supply chain, from the battery, motor, electronic control and
other parts, and its upstream raw materials and components, such as polyurethane, steel,
aluminum, chips, etc. The production or transportation process may be problematic, and the cut-
off of supply will lead to the overall passenger car sales less than expected;
(3) The company's product launches and orders are less than expected
The company's slow launch of new products, mass production climbing less than expected, orders
decline, may lead to the company's revenue, profit less than expected.
