AutoBeta(AutoBeta.net)01/19 Report--

According to 36 krypton reports today, Zhou Xin, vice president of NIO, took over the whole vehicle engineering, and Danilo Teobaldi, vice president of vehicle engineering, was transferred to European vehicle chief engineer, in charge of European vehicle engineering. The personnel change also means that NIO may develop a special vehicle platform for the European market.

Relevant data show that Zhou Xin graduated from Fudan University and is one of the founding fathers of NIO. Previously, he served as a senior manager of General Motors China Co., Ltd., executive director of Lear, business manager of McKinsey and Qoros Automotive Co.,Ltd. Executive Director, Executive Director of Qoros Automobile Purchasing, Human Resources and Government Affairs. He joined Ulay Motor Co., Ltd. in 2015 and was promoted to Executive Vice President in 2019, responsible for the product and project management team, as well as assisting CEO in coordinating the product R & D team and reporting directly to Li Bin. Danilo Teobaldi, vice president of vehicle engineering, once worked at Quan Ji and joined NIO in 2015, where he is mainly responsible for vehicle integration and preliminary engineering. In October 2019, Roger Malkusson, vice president of vehicle engineering, retired, and Danilo Teobaldi took over the position of vice president of vehicle engineering.

This time, Danilo Teobaldi transferred to be in charge of the European car market, we can see that the European market is still an overseas market that has attached great importance to. In the past two years, Xilai has embarked on a journey into overseas markets. As early as 2021, Xilai began to enter the overseas market, and in May 2021, it announced that it had officially entered the Norwegian market. Its medium and large SUV ES8 was officially delivered in September 2021, and the medium and large car ET7 officially entered the Norwegian market in 2022.

After Norway, NIO once again expanded the territory of Europe. In September 2022, Li Bin and Qin Lihong, president of Xilai, spent several days driving 2500 kilometers of ET7 in Europe and sharing their experiences in Europe. On October 7, 2022, Ulay announced at the NIO Berlin 2022 event in Berlin that it would enter four European countries, namely, Germany, the Netherlands, Denmark and Sweden, and launch three models, namely, ET5, ET7 and EL7. On November 22, 2022, Xilai officially announced the prices of ET5, ET7 and EL7 models in Germany, including ET5 selling price of 6.19-70900 euros (about 45.48-520900 yuan), ET7 selling price of 8.19-90900 euros (60.17-667800 yuan), and EL7 selling price of 8.59-94900 euros (63.11-697200 yuan). On January 17th, it was reported that NIO ET5 was ready to ship to the European market, and the first batch of vehicles was expected to be delivered in March this year. According to the plan, NIO will enter 25 European countries and regions by 2025. Li Bin has said that he plans to enter the US market by 2025, and sub-brands aimed at different markets around the world will also be listed one after another. NIO will become a global car brand and will become one of the top five automakers in the world by 2030.

The personnel changes may also be related to the slow pace of NIO planning and vehicle technology and projects. A few days ago, Li Bin issued a full letter saying: the market competition is unprecedentedly fierce, 2023 will be a crucial year for the new power of car building, and whether we can seize this last window directly determines whether we can enter the next stage of the competition. Xilai is also ready to deliver five new NT2 models in the first half of the year, NT3 research and development will be fully launched this year, various innovative businesses will usher in key points, and user delivery and services in the European market will also be further accelerated. In addition, some media reports from the relevant cooperation departments said that the pace of the vehicle technology and project is still slow, and even the "800V verification coordination is also somewhat disjointed". It is understood that the 800V voltage platform can support ultra-fast charging technology, effectively improve the energy efficiency of electric vehicles, and is regarded as the next key technology highland in the industry. The first mass production node of the industry is 2023, while NIO plans to launch it in 2024.

As a matter of fact, in 2022, the life of Xilai Motor is not satisfactory. Due to the impact of the epidemic in March 2022, supply chain partners in Jilin, Shanghai, Jiangsu and other places stopped production, resulting in a sharp drop in delivery in April 2022, when only 5074 new cars were delivered that month. Due to the requirements of epidemic prevention and control in October 2022, production at the F1 and F2 plants in Hefei were shut down one after another, resulting in the loss of at least 2000 to 3000 vehicles in October. In addition, according to the latest financial report released by NIO, it is still in a state of loss, with revenue of 13.002 billion yuan in the third quarter of 2022, an increase of 32.6% over the same period last year. The net loss of NIO in the third quarter of 2022 was 4.111 billion yuan, an increase of 392.1% over the same period last year, and the gross profit margin per bike fell to 16.4% from 18% in the same period in 2021. Due to the influence of the epidemic in the supply chain, the production capacity of NIO can not go up, and the loss is also increasing, and NIO has to seek a solution in the predicament.

Xilai Motor has chosen to enter overseas markets, and using electric cars as an export may be an opportunity. At present, the electric transformation process of traditional car companies in the European market is still relatively slow, which also provides a favorable opportunity for NIO to enter the European market. However, Xilai Automobile will also face great challenges, such as brand recognition, after all, traditional car companies have established a strong brand effect in the global brand. For the domestic market, the competition in the domestic new energy vehicle market has become white-hot, and the relatively stable pattern of Wei Xiaoli has been broken, with pressure from BYD and Tesla, and the rise of new brands such as polar krypton and Mengjie. Under this background, we may only be able to enter overseas markets to expand market share.

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