Just past the third quarter of 2023, NIO achieved a new quarterly delivery record with 55,400 deliveries. Up to now, NIO has delivered more than 399,500 new cars.

Quarterly sales reached a new high, the second-generation technology platform models were recognized by the market, and the 12 full-stack technology layouts previously revealed on the first Innovation and Technology Day, NIO is entering a strong product cycle.
Nio has the technology.
This is the answer given by "CTO" Li Bin through a 3-hour demonstration of 12 key technologies.
On September 21, NIO held 2023 Innovation and Technology Day. This time, Li Bin (founder, chairman and CEO of NIO), wearing a black T-shirt and jeans, did not talk about the car, but for the first time fully introduced the technology full stack layout of NIO.
From self-developed chips and on-board intelligent hardware, to the whole vehicle operating system, intelligent manufacturing, etc., these 12 key technology fields comprehensively elaborate the "WEilai technology full stack".
This is also the first time since its establishment that NIO has introduced the R&D layout and results to the external system.
Over the past eight years, NIO's user-centered service concept has subverted the industry and become an object for other intelligent electric vehicle companies to learn from, so the label of "user enterprise" is deeply rooted.
However, what the outside world does not know is that since the beginning of its establishment in 2015, NIO has already set the goal of "adhering to positive development and core technology self-research, adhering to long-term R&D investment and team building". From 2015 to 2017, Li Bin and Qin Lihong (co-founder and president of NIO) had frequently traveled to Silicon Valley, Germany, the United Kingdom and other countries to "recruit" for the research and development team.
Up to now, NIO has set up a team of 11,000 R&D personnel in 13 cities in 6 countries around the world, and has obtained and applied for 7,300 patents worldwide.
"Nio Technology full stack", focusing on the global competition of intelligent electric vehicles
"In the industry, it is said that Weilai's reputation is good service, in fact, I have been a little unconvinced." When Li Bin talked about the original intention of holding innovation and Technology Day, he said that he hoped everyone would know the real NIO, which is also a technology company.
On the same day, NIO released the first full-vehicle operating system - Tianshu SkyOS and the first self-developed chip product - LiDAR main control chip "Yang Jian", and announced the enhancement of pilot-assisted NOP+ into the city from the high-speed, at the end of September to open the navigation route wish list of NIO users, in October began to gradually open the wish route for users. Provide global enhanced pilotage assistance services.
SkyOS is the first intelligent electric vehicle full-domain operating system developed by auto companies in the automotive industry, covering vehicle control, intelligent driving, cockpit, mobile Internet and other fields, to establish a comprehensive and three-dimensional technical system for vehicle research and development, so that various devices can organically integrate together to achieve efficient collaborative work.
On September 21, NIO announced the mass production of the first self-developed chip LiDAR master chip "Yang Jian" in October. Diagram/Enterprise diagram
"Yang Jian" chip is the first self-developed chip released by the intelligent hardware team of NIO, which has the characteristics of high integration, low energy consumption, strong performance and so on, maximizing cost savings.
At the NIO IN 2023 Innovation and Technology Day, NIO presented its comprehensive technological innovation layout - "NIO Technology full Stack" - for the first time. Diagram/Enterprise diagram
Including the operating system and chips, NIO has sorted the accumulation of the entire research and development system in the past few years into the "NIO technology full stack" built by 12 key technology fields to meet the research and development and operation needs of nine elements in three dimensions of intelligent, electric, automotive, products, services, communities, multi-brands, multi-platforms, and multi-regions.
The real underlying technological change is what really changes the experience of the product. "In the era of smart electric vehicles, it is difficult to achieve real and lasting competitiveness without positive development at the bottom." Li Bin said that NIO will maintain a research and development investment of about 3 billion yuan per quarter, and in the field of research and development, it will continue to deepen in the 12 key technology areas announced this time.
Driver interconnection to build differentiation advantage
With the arrival of the intelligent era of the Internet of everything, consumers' demand for cars has become the pursuit of a sense of science and technology, a sense of experience and a matching set closely related to life. China Electric Vehicle Hundred People Association released the "Cross-border integration and the new power of the automobile industry" project report pointed out that the car will replicate the intelligent evolution path of the mobile phone, with the human-computer interaction transformation of the cockpit as the starting point, superimposed the wave of automatic driving, which is transforming from a travel tool to the next generation of intelligent terminal. Mobile phones are the entrance to the connected world, while cars are transformed into terminals in the process of travel, and cars and mobile phones, two industries that are far apart in the traditional sense, have found common ground in the intelligent ecology.
NIO Phone, the company's first mobile phone, followed suit. Based on NIO Link Panoramic interconnection technology, NIO Phone allows mobile phones and smart electric vehicles to merge.
Support no electrolytic lock within 48 hours, NIO's pioneering NIO Link car control key on the left side of the NIO Phone body, 30 driver interconnection functions, such as quick viewing of vehicle status, parking position, convenient completion of vehicle unlock lock, window lift, trunk open, air conditioning remote adjustment, etc. Even in the case of no network, the phone can be unlocked, open the trunk, flashing lights and whistles, vehicle calling, remote control parking and other functions.
The release of NIO Phone opens up the software and hardware gap between cars and mobile phones, bringing a new car-centered mobile Internet experience, especially the expansion of vehicle-machine interaction, human-computer interaction and intelligent scenes, which brings differentiated competitive advantages to NIO.
At the same time, as the first mobile Phone released by a Chinese auto brand, the launch of NIO Phone also represents the transformation of the automotive industry and the upgrading of the new energy vehicle business, and is the result of the accelerated integration of the vehicle system, user experience and brand concept.
Technology innovation driven by value
From the benefit of users, what value can you create for each thing you do? To what extent can NIO satisfy the user experience of the whole life cycle of the vehicle? What is the systematic efficiency pursued by Weilai?
The above three issues determine the underlying logic of WEilai's research and development system.
"The average ownership time of a car is roughly 5-6 years, and the full life cycle of the car itself is 10-15 years, or even higher." In the whole life cycle, how to ensure that the user from the first day to continue to use the car, to sell the car, the whole experience is good, is a point we are very concerned about when we invest." In Li Bin's view, NIO should not only provide high-quality services in the full cycle, but also improve the efficiency of the system from the perspective of the full cycle.
Since 2018, NIO has invested more than 32.6 billion yuan in research and development. Beginning in 2022, NIO's research and development investment in a single quarter continued to increase, and the research and development expense in the fourth quarter was nearly 4 billion yuan, and the research and development investment in the first two quarters of this year was more than 3 billion yuan.
Not excessive pursuit of short-term returns and single point of gain, more attention to long-term value, full scene and full product life cycle, which is the underlying logic of Weilai drive technology innovation, but also the long-term strategy of this car company.
Building a car is a marathon of endurance. In the process of running to the finish line, the important thing is who can stay in the field and win the final victory.
With eight full-family models having completed the product switching based on the second-generation technology platform, the improvement of sales capacity and the expansion of the energy network, NIO is expected to usher in a new stage of growth.