The car that NIO had high hopes for in terms of sales volume has finally been launched.
On the evening of September 19th, NIO's new brand, Ledao, officially launched its first model, Ledao L60, and plans to start nationwide delivery on September 28th. The manufacturing and quality standards of L60 are completely consistent with NIO, and each car undergoes 5000 rigorous professional and intelligent testing processes before delivery, far exceeding industry standards, "said Ai Tiecheng, President of Ledao Automobile. Although L60 is Ledao's first car, it is actually the 12th model under NIO's intelligent manufacturing system.
Shortly after the launch event of the Ledao L60, Ai Tiecheng announced through the personal video account of NIO founder and CEO Li Bin that "orders have exploded." Although the specific number of orders was not disclosed, it can be seen that the orders have exceeded Ledao's expectations.
Fill the gap in NIO's market
According to current sales data, in 2024, China's automobile market will show a trend of polarization, with significant growth in sales of low-end and high-end models. Mid end cars (priced at 200000 to 300000 yuan) face certain challenges, but the market vitality remains high. Taking Tesla Model Y as an example, its price range covers exactly 200000 to 300000 yuan. The car achieved the top sales ranking in the mid size SUV market in August, with sales reaching 45330 units. The hot sales of Model Y also fully demonstrate the market vitality and consumer demand of this price range.
Based on this, NIO launched its second brand, Ledao, on May 15th and unveiled its first model, Ledao L60, which is fully benchmarked against Tesla Model Y. Ai Tiecheng also stated in a media interview that the Ledao L60 is positioned as a Model Y that can be battery swapping, and its biggest competitor is the Tesla Model Y.
In the past few years, many companies have launched models that benchmark against the Tesla Model Y and outperform it in terms of intelligence, configuration, and other aspects. However, in terms of sales, there is still no model that can surpass this model that has not been iterated for five years.
Nevertheless, the industry still has great confidence in Ledao. The launch of the Ledao brand and the launch of its first model, the L60, undoubtedly injected new vitality into NIO. Automotive analyst Wang Kun told the Huaxia Times reporter that the Ledao L60 not only entered the market with a more affordable price positioning, filling NIO's gap in the entry-level market, but also further enhanced the attractiveness and market competitiveness of the product through its unique battery swapping mode.
Ai Tiecheng also stated, "Many friends say that the reason they like L60 is because it can be replaced, so Ledao has put a lot of effort into battery swapping." According to Ai Tiecheng, Ledao currently has 304 available battery swapping stations. By the end of this year, Ledao will provide over 1000 available battery swapping stations and connect over 23000 self built charging stations and over 1 million third-party charging stations.
Ai Tiecheng also has confidence in the product strength of the Ledao L60. He said, "The Ledao L60 is an intelligent car designed for the next decade." According to Ai Tiecheng, the Ledao L60 uses the 8295P high-performance cockpit chip, with an AI computing power of up to 60TOPS, which can lay a solid foundation for the vehicle's future "constant use and new".
At the same time, the entire LeDao L60 series also comes standard with the OSD LeDao intelligent driving system. Ai Tiecheng stated that the national coverage rate of NOA assisted by the high-speed city navigation of Ledao L60 can reach 99.99%; The delivery of full scene navigation assisted NOA has reached 726 cities, covering over 2700 county-level administrative regions; Intelligent parking is stable, accurate, and fast, with a parking success rate of over 99% and easy entry in less than 40 seconds.
It is worth mentioning that as a new energy vehicle with high market attention, the starting price of the Ledao L60 has reached 206900 yuan, a direct decrease of 13000 yuan from the previously announced pre-sale price of 219900 yuan. This demonstrates Ledao's precise grasp of market trends and flexible adjustment of product strategies. If combined with rental electricity BaaS services, the threshold for L60 can be directly reduced to 149900 yuan.
At this year's Q2 earnings conference, Li Bin stated that while maintaining a reasonable gross profit margin, Ledao is willing to further narrow the distance with consumers through price adjustments, allowing more people to enjoy the fun of intelligent electric travel. Based on this, Li Bin also has great expectations for L60. He said, "We hope to achieve a delivery of 10000 vehicles in December this year, and at some point next year, we can reach 20000 vehicles per month." In terms of production capacity, Li Bin revealed that the production capacity of Ledao L60 can reach 5000 vehicles in October, 10000 vehicles in December, at least 16000 vehicles in January, and 20000 vehicles in March.
From this perspective, in the increasingly competitive new energy vehicle market, NIO has also begun to seek a multi brand strategy to meet the diversified needs of the market. Therefore, the Ledao brand is also an important step in NIO's strategic adjustment, aiming to respond to different consumer groups, expand market share, and enhance brand influence through a richer product matrix.
According to official sources, the Ledao brand will also launch a 6-7 seater SUV next year, which will further enrich Ledao's product line and meet consumers' needs for family travel and diversified car use scenarios. In addition, NIO is actively preparing for a third brand, and this decision will also make NIO's brand matrix more complete, covering a wider range of market segments and consumer groups. NIO, Ledao, and future third brands will each have a clear positioning and jointly form a comprehensive new energy vehicle ecosystem from high-end to mid-range, from personalized to family oriented, from urban travel to long-distance travel.
With the gradual formation of NIO's brand system, NIO will also better respond to changes and competition in the automotive market, "Wang Kun told reporters. In his view, the synergy between NIO's various brands will jointly drive NIO's overall sales and also drive NIO's continued performance growth.
Positive market response
Although the Ledao L60 has just been launched, Ledao's store network has already begun to be laid out. Taking Beijing as an example, so far, Ledao has opened four stores in Beijing, including two Ledao centers and two Ledao experience stores. Recently, a reporter from Huaxia Times visited the experience store located at Wanda in Tongzhou. The store has a relatively small area and only displays one exhibition car.
Since its opening, the store has maintained a high level of popularity, receiving dozens of potential orders every day, especially during holidays when there is a lot of foot traffic that cannot be greeted. The salesperson in the store said that many of the people who come to view the Ledao are NIO owners or friends brought by owners, most of whom have knowledge of the Ledao brand. Therefore, when they come into contact with the Ledao L60, they can quickly capture its unique product charm, and many people place orders decisively after a short experience. As of September 17th, there are over 4000 orders in Beijing and approximately 30000 to 40000 orders nationwide, "said the salesperson.
Behind this phenomenon is NIO's user operation strategy. By building a close user community and an efficient word-of-mouth communication mechanism, NIO has successfully transformed every car owner into a loyal supporter and disseminator of the brand. Data shows that in 2019, 45% of NIO's new car sales came from referrals from old customers, with the highest user referring 50 friends to buy cars; In 2020, the user referral rate reached 70%; In 2021, the highest ranked car owner successfully referred 160 users to buy a car.
In addition, as a model positioned for the home market, the design concept and functional configuration of the Ledao L60 are all centered around the needs of home users. The reporter found that in the store, salespeople also emphasized the advantages of the vehicle's space utilization, family friendly design, and intelligent configuration when introducing the models, allowing every household user to feel the brand's profound understanding and precise grasp of their needs.
The space of the Ledao L60 is very large, with a wheelbase of 2950mm. The trunk space is also very large, which can accommodate two 28 inch, two 24 inch, and one 20 inch suitcases, making it very suitable for family travel. The salesperson said that in addition to the large space, the cabin of the L60 is also very comfortable, with functions such as passenger leg support, front seat ventilation and heating, and electric adjustment of the rear seats.
Overall, the launch of the Ledao L60 not only enriches consumers' choices, but also becomes the key to NIO's ability to achieve profitability through volume. Unlike the main brand NIO, Ledao's strategy is more direct, which is to use low prices to gain market share. Li Bin once said that the sales of Ledao will be better than Xiaopeng's second brand and Xiaomi SU7. "In the home market of over 200000 yuan, there is an opportunity to produce a single model with monthly sales of 50-60000 units, even for pure electric vehicles.
However, the Ledao L60 will also face many brand challenges, such as the Zhiji LS6, Ideal L6, Star Era ET and other models, as well as the upcoming Jike 7X, Avita 07, Xiangjie R7 and others.
From a pricing perspective, the price of the Ledao L60 is indeed in a highly competitive range. This requires Ledao to make more innovations in brand differentiation, product features, and user experience to differentiate itself from other competitors, "Wang Kun told a reporter from Huaxia Times. In his view, the success of the Ledao L60 largely depends on its ability to accurately position the market and attract more consumers through services and marketing strategies. At the same time, NIO should also pay attention to market dynamics and flexibly adjust its strategies to cope with market changes.