Against the backdrop of the "involution" of the car market, many car companies have raised the knife to reduce costs and increase efficiency in order to gain a foothold in the fierce market competition, in order to achieve a better competitive state. The protagonist of this time is NIO Motors, a new force in car manufacturing.
The news of NIO layoffs has been widely circulated in the industry recently, but there has been no official confirmation from the company. Until November 3rd, Li Bin, founder, chairman, and CEO of NIO Automotive, confirmed layoffs in his internal letter titled "Organizational Optimization and Two Year Priorities".
A reporter from China Business Daily noticed that NIO Automobile has reduced its job positions by about 10%, and the specific adjustments will be completed in November. According to the 2022 ESG report released by NIO Motors on September 25th, it has a total of 26763 employees from 26 countries and regions around the world. Based on the total employee data, NIO's personnel adjustment may involve more than 2600 people.
Jiang Han, a senior researcher at Pangu Think Tank, told reporters that NIO's 10% layoffs may be in response to the economic and market competition pressures facing the company. With the continuous expansion of the new energy vehicle market and increasingly fierce competition, enterprises need to continuously optimize their cost structure and resource allocation to improve their competitiveness. NIO has been continuously expanding in the past few years, and the company's scale has continued to expand. It also needs to be adjusted and optimized to a certain extent to maintain the stable development of the company
Reducing costs and increasing efficiency has become the norm for car companies
The next two years will be the most intense stage of competition in the automotive industry's transformation period, and the external environment is full of huge uncertainty. "Li Bin candidly stated in an internal letter released: This year, we have delivered 5 new products and gained over 40% market share in the pure electricity market with a transaction price of over 300000 yuan. However, our overall performance still falls short of our expected goals. To win the qualification for the finals, we must further improve execution efficiency and ensure sufficient resource investment in key businesses
In order to reduce costs and increase efficiency, and improve the competitiveness of enterprises, they are "Eight Immortals Crossing the Sea, Each Showing Their Magic". Li Bin admitted, "In the past two months, the company has held more than thirty two-year business plan analysis and discussion meetings to determine the goals, key success factors and priorities, action plans, required resources, etc. for each business in the next two years, and identify opportunities for organizational optimization, cost reduction, and efficiency improvement
It is reported that in the past two weeks, NIO Motors has established business priorities based on the above principles and formulated specific plans for organizational and business optimization. The above specific plans include: ensuring long-term investment in core key technologies and maintaining leading advantages in technology and products; Ensure sales and service capabilities are able to cope with fierce market competition; Ensure the timely launch of 9 core products from 3 brands; Improve organizational efficiency, merge duplicate departments and positions, change inefficient internal workflow and division of labor, and eliminate inefficient positions; Resource efficiency improvement, delaying and reducing project investments that cannot improve the company's financial performance within 3 years.
According to the above plan, the company will reduce the number of positions by about 10%, and the specific adjustments will be completed in November. Li Bin said, "I'm sorry that this adjustment will affect some colleagues, and please understand that this is a difficult decision that the company has to make in the face of fierce market competition. Our journey is a marathon on a muddy road. Please focus on efficient execution and improving system capabilities, and power up together
The reporter noticed that there are also rumors online that there will be a significant proportion of layoffs in some non critical businesses of NIO, involving the battery, chip, and mobile phone departments. On November 7th, the relevant person in charge of NIO told reporters that the above online news was untrue.
In the opinion of Zhang Xiang, Dean of the New Energy Vehicle Technology Research Institute of Jiangxi New Energy Technology Vocational College, maintaining efficient operation of enterprises is extremely important for new forces in car manufacturing, as it is the key to whether car companies can win the market. NIO layoffs are a relatively normal corporate measure at present, which can reduce financial expenses and improve operational efficiency
Jiang Han believes that in the current market environment, reducing costs and increasing efficiency through layoffs may become the norm for car companies. Due to fierce market competition, enterprises need to continuously optimize their cost structure and resource allocation to improve their competitiveness. Layoffs can help companies save labor costs, improve production efficiency, and thus occupy a more favorable position in market competition. However, enterprises need to be aware that while laying off employees, they also need to pay attention to employee welfare and post employment placement issues
Or for the sprint industry finals
The traditional peak season of "nine gold and ten silver" has come to an end, and the consumption of new energy vehicles has performed outstandingly. On November 2nd, the Joint Conference on Passenger Car Market Information released a forecast that the sales of new energy passenger cars in China will reach around 890000 units in October, a year-on-year increase of 32%.
The October sales of multiple new car manufacturers reached new highs. Among them, Ideal Automobile delivered a total of 40422 new vehicles in October, a year-on-year increase of 302.1%, and the monthly delivery exceeded the 40000 vehicle mark for the first time. Another new car manufacturing force, Xiaopeng Automobile, delivered a total of 20002 new cars in October, a year-on-year increase of 292%, breaking the monthly delivery milestone of 20000 vehicles and breaking a new record for single month delivery.
As the leading big brother among "Weixiaoli", Weilai Automobile delivered a total of 16074 new cars in October, a year-on-year increase of 59.8%. Regarding the sales performance of NIO mentioned above, Everbright Securities pointed out that NIO is suffering from fierce market competition and the lower than expected boost effect of the revised EC6 listing.
The reporter noticed that according to NIO's plan, with the launch of the all-new EC6 in September, NIO's second-generation technology platform will form the strongest product matrix for eight models. At that time, it will officially enter a strong product cycle, fully meeting the diverse needs of users in the price range of 300000 to 600000 yuan, covering the main sales market of BBA (BMW, Mercedes Benz, Audi) with 80% of sales.
2025 is seen by the industry as a crucial time for the intelligent electric vehicle industry to enter the finals, and more than 60% of car companies may be eliminated from the market. In this internal letter, Li Bin believes that in order to win the qualification to participate in the finals, it is necessary to further improve execution efficiency and ensure sufficient resource investment in key businesses.
Regarding the automotive industry final mentioned by Li Bin, Jiang Han told reporters that the timing of the final in the automotive industry is difficult to determine because it depends on market changes and technological development. However, it is foreseeable that the competition in the future automotive industry will become increasingly fierce, and only enterprises with strong technical strength, excellent product quality, and efficient production capacity can enter the finals. In addition, enterprises also need to have strong brand influence and market expansion capabilities to meet the growing needs of consumers