NIO CEO William Li: Mass-Market Brand to Achieve Capacity of 500,000 Units

On Wednesday evening, Chinese new energy vehicle manufacturer NIO officially unveiled its first large five-seat SUV, the ES7, priced from 468,000 yuan ($69,828). Despite the rather high price, NIO has made it clear that it is already promoting a new brand with a lower positioning. Firm CEO William Li said that NIO would launch a new brand to enter the mass market, emphasizing “mid-to-high-end.”

William Li said on Thursday that NIO is now speeding up the development of its 200,000 yuan-plus models. NIO recently signed an agreement with the Hefei Municipal Government for the second phase of its Xinqiao plant, in preparation for these models under its new mass-market-oriented brand, with a planned capacity of 500,000 units.

William Li said that NIO‘s mass-market-oriented brand would offer a power-swap version, to compete against the Tesla Model 3 and Model Y, but the price is 10% cheaper.

He added that according to the current plan. NIO is going to deliver the new brand for the mass market in the second half of 2024, which will feature the next generation NT3.0 technology, and the price of the main end product will be in the range of 200,000 yuan to 300,000 yuan. It will have a convertible architecture and carry NIO‘s own battery. Li said the product will be very competitive.

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In addition, NIO previously stated that work on the new brand for the mass market is progressing well, the core team has been built, the strategic direction and development plan are clear, and the first products have entered the critical development stage

NIO‘s revenue in Q1 2022 totaled 9.91 billion yuan, compared with 7.982 billion yuan in the same period last year, and the market expectation was 9.804 billion yuan. The net loss amounted to 1.782 billion yuan, compared with 4.875 billion yuan in the same period last year, and the market expected a net loss of 2.231 billion yuan.

NIO delivered 5,074 vehicles in April 2022 and 7,024 vehicles in May 2022. As of May 31, 2022, the cumulative delivery volume reached 204,936 vehicles.