On December 5th, a reporter from Blue Whale Finance noticed that NIO Automotive Technology (Anhui) Co., Ltd. appeared in the "Vehicle Production Enterprise Credit Information Management System" of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, indicating that NIO has obtained independent production qualifications. According to the announcement, the legal representative of the company is Qin Lihong, co-founder and president of NIO, and the production address is No. 299 Baita Road, Hefei Economic and Technological Development Zone, Anhui Province. At this point, the three brothers of "Wei Xiaoli" all possess the ability to independently manufacture cars.
Blue Whale Finance reporters have sought confirmation from NIO regarding this matter, and as of the time of publication, no response has been received.
Screenshot of the credit information management system website for vehicle manufacturing enterprises
"Today we are going to witness history. Before returning to Shanghai, we need to stop driving." On the early morning of December 4th, Huang Xin, the person in charge of NIO Intelligent Driving, left the above text on his personal Weibo account (ID: Harry-AD). Later, NIO Senior Vice President Shen Fei replied, "I also stopped driving today." The content of their Weibo accounts sparked speculation among netizens. After reaching a battery swapping cooperation agreement with Changan Automobile and Geely Holdings, "NIO has big news again.".
Screenshot of Huang Xin, the person in charge of NIO intelligent driving, on Weibo
Only a few hours later, the news of NIO obtaining production qualifications had spread throughout the network.
On October 20th, Jianghuai Automobile announced that it plans to transfer some assets through public listing, with a proposed listing price of 4.498 billion yuan.
At that time, according to Interface News, the factories involved in the transfer were NIO F1 and NIO F2 factories. The F1 factory is mainly responsible for the production of ES8, ES6, EC6, ET7, ES7 and other vehicle models, with a production capacity of 300000 vehicles per year; The F2 factory is mainly responsible for the production of ET5 models.
As early as 2016, NIO signed a contract with Jianghuai Automobile to produce all of its models. The initial planned production capacity was 50000 vehicles per year, which was later increased to 100000 vehicles per year. The tail of NIO's models must be labeled with the "Jianghuai Automobile" logo. According to the latest official data, from January to November 2023, NIO delivered a total of 142000 new cars, a year-on-year increase of 33.1%; As of the end of November 2023, NIO has delivered a total of 431600 new vehicles.
As NIO's sales scale continues to expand, its investment in OEM costs is also constantly rising. According to NIO's financial report, from 2018 to 2022, it paid approximately 223 million, 441 million, 532 million, 715 million, and 1.127 billion yuan in contract manufacturing fees to Jianghuai Automobile, respectively.
The high cost and low voice over the production process are important reasons that drive new forces in the automotive industry to break away from contract manufacturing.
Previously, several new forces had obtained production qualifications through acquisitions, such as Ideal Automobile obtaining production qualifications for pure electric passenger vehicles (including extended range) through the acquisition of Beijing Hyundai Shunyi factory, and Zero Run Automobile acquiring Fujian Xinfuda Automobile to obtain production qualifications. After obtaining the qualification for car manufacturing, new forces in car manufacturing have stronger control over production costs.
In addition to obtaining production qualifications, in recent days, NIO has frequently released positive news on battery swapping cooperation internally.
On November 21st, NIO announced the signing of a battery swapping business cooperation agreement with Changan Automobile. The two sides will cooperate in promoting the establishment of battery swapping standards, the construction and sharing of battery swapping networks, the research and development of battery swapping models, and the establishment of an efficient battery asset management mechanism. According to the agreement, both parties will jointly promote the establishment of battery exchange standards, and on the basis of a unified battery pack standard, jointly develop interchangeable electric vehicle models.
Li Bin, founder, chairman, and CEO of NIO, stated through the official platform that "after 5 years of development, NIO's battery swapping network and NIO Energy Cloud have accumulated rich experience in research and development, construction, and operation. NIO's battery swapping business is ready to open up to the industry." He once revealed during a communication with employees that in addition to Changan Automobile, there are 4 to 5 car companies discussing cooperation with NIO's battery swapping business.
Subsequently, on November 29th, NIO and Geely Holdings signed a strategic cooperation agreement on battery swapping in Hangzhou. The two sides will engage in comprehensive cooperation in multiple fields, including battery swapping standards, battery swapping technology, battery swapping service network construction and operation, research and development and customization of battery swapping models, battery asset management and operation.
According to official data released by NIO on November 20th, nearly 80% of NIO's charging capacity is provided to non NIO users. Perhaps as Li Shufu, Chairman of Geely Holding Group, said, the high-quality development of the battery swapping model requires the joint efforts of all parties in the industry; The cooperation between Geely Holdings and NIO is conducive to quickly promoting the standardization and generalization of battery swapping modes.