On June 23, NIO’s official Weibo announced that on June 22, a NIO test vehicle fell from the third floor of the parking building, killing two digital cockpit testers, one of whom was a company colleague and the other For partner employees.

Author: Jialin

Weilai has been pushed to the forefront.

html On June 23, NIO’s official Weibo announced that on June 22, a NIO test vehicle fell from the third floor of the parking building, killing two digital cockpit testers, one of whom was a company colleague and the other For partner employees.

was originally a product accident, but it caused controversy because of the wording of the statement.

01

was scolded, was it unfair?

In the statement, NIO first explained the time and results of the incident, and stated that a special team had been set up to help the family deal with the aftermath, and that it had immediately launched an investigation and analysis process for the cause of the accident in collaboration with the public security department.

These all look normal, but in the last sentence, NIO said: Based on the analysis of the scene, it can be preliminarily confirmed that this was an accident and had nothing to do with the vehicle itself.

It is this sentence "it has nothing to do with the vehicle itself" that has greatly aroused the dissatisfaction of netizens. Many netizens said that it was too cold-blooded to rush to clear up the relationship before the investigation results of the incident came out. "The last sentence is really "I feel the disgust of capital."

Later, Weilai adjusted the content of the statement, saying that it was an accident (not caused by the vehicle), deleted the sentence that it had nothing to do with the vehicle itself, and opened the essence. Select the comment function.

It’s no wonder that netizens are filled with indignation. Judging from the public criticism of NIO, it is not difficult to see that this statement is far from the passing line of public relations. Weilai tried his best to disassociate his eating appearance, which was somewhat ugly.

This is not the first time that Weilai Automobile has been involved in an accident.

In June 2019, NIO founder Li Bin said in an interview with the media that fuel vehicles are more likely to spontaneously ignite, and electric vehicles catch fire slower and safer than gasoline vehicles.

But what about the truth?

On July 30, 2021, a serious traffic accident occurred in Pudong New Area, Shanghai. A NIO EC6 caught fire after hitting a stone pier on the highway, and then burned violently. The driver was unfortunately killed.

Just when netizens were speculating whether the accident was related to the spontaneous combustion of the battery, the general manager of NIO Shanghai who rushed to the scene of the accident said that based on the preliminary judgment of the damaged vehicle, the battery pack was basically intact.

is no different. On August 14, 2021, catering management company "Meiyihao" issued an obituary: On the afternoon of August 12, Lin Wenqin, founder of Meiyihao, was driving a Weilai ES8 car with the automatic driving function enabled (NOP pilot status) Later, he died in a traffic accident on the Hanjiang section of the Shenhai Expressway at the age of 31.

This once again raised public doubts about the safety of NIO cars, especially the safety of autonomous driving, but NIO clarified: "NOP is still an assisted driving function, and NOP must not be equated with autonomous driving."

But In previous publicity, NIO has always claimed that assisted driving is automatic assisted driving, and it has played a marginal role in autonomous driving.

changed its face drastically after the incident. NIO’s impersonal public relations attitude undoubtedly placed risks on its own development.

02

The anxiety of falling behind

On the new energy track, you sing and I appear. The former leader is gradually falling behind, and Weilai is also very anxious.

In 2020, NIO delivered 43,700 vehicles, much higher than the 32,600 vehicles of Li Auto and Xpeng Motors of 27,000 vehicles, ranking first among the three car companies; in 2021, Xpeng Motors The annual sales of 98,200 vehicles surpassed Weilai to take the crown; entering 2022, from January to May, the sales volume of Xpeng Motors, Li Auto, and Weilai Automobile were 53,688 vehicles, 47,379 vehicles, and 37,866 vehicles respectively. This time, Weilai Automobile One came and one left.

html On June 9, NIO announced its financial report for the first quarter of 2022. This is also NIO's first financial data after it was officially listed on the Singapore main board on May 20. The

financial report shows that in the first quarter of 2022, NIO achieved revenue of 9.911 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 24.16%; the net loss attributable to ordinary shareholders was 1.825 billion yuan, a year-on-year decrease of 62.56% from the first quarter of last year.

Taking a closer look at this financial report, there are even more clues.

In 2021, Weilai’s revenue in the four quarters was 8 billion yuan, 8.4 billion yuan, 9.8 billion yuan and 9.9 billion yuan respectively.Starting from the second quarter, the month-on-month growth rates from the previous quarter were only 5%, 17% and 1%, and the slowdown in revenue growth throughout the year is obvious.

At the same time, NIO’s gross profit decline exceeded the industry average. Under the same general environment, ideal vehicle gross profit can buck the trend and rise to 22.4%, Xpeng only dropped 0.5%, and Weilai vehicle sales gross profit margin was 18.1%, compared with 21.2% year-on-year and 20.9 month-on-month. %, there has been a considerable decrease.

The vehicle gross profit of 18.1% is also higher than NIO's overall gross profit. This is due to NIO's excessive investment in non-vehicle business.

In its early days, NIO chose to use services to solve the sales dilemma. Large-scale parent-child activities, floral arrangements, fitness activities...all kinds of new ways of playing are emerging in NIO House. But this kind of high-end service brings NIO’s continued high investment.

On the other hand, judging from the average delivery volume of a single store, Weilai's store efficiency is the lowest among the three Weixiaoli stores, maintaining below 30 units per store, and there is currently no significant improvement trend.

In the past, Weilai’s goal was to challenge the “BBA” and change the market structure into an “NBA”, but now it seems that it is still quite difficult.

03

Is going overseas the future?

For new car-making forces, 2022 will undoubtedly be another cold winter.

Since March, the epidemic has continued across the country, and the automobile industry chain has been dealt a fatal blow. Many car companies have had to suspend production and suffered huge economic losses. From the initial "war for people" with traditional car companies regardless of cost, to the current "internal optimization" and "downsizing", the new car-making forces that have experienced the rapid development and experienced the "cold winter" of the economy are forced to enter a new market. development stage.

At the performance meeting, Li Bin confirmed the plan to go overseas to the United States. He said: "I will definitely go to the United States to expand business opportunities and expand deployment as soon as possible." However, he did not disclose any more information.

At the same time, Weilai is also accelerating preparations to launch products and services in Germany, The Netherlands, Sweden and .

Some people in the industry believe that NIO chose Singapore more out of strategic considerations for overseas expansion. It hopes to penetrate Southeast Asia through Singapore and expand its brand influence to Europe and Australia.

But some people also said that Weilai was taking advantage of the relatively loose regulatory environment to re-list in places with a large number of Chinese people, so as to make money in another place.

But in the final analysis, the era of relying on ppt to tell stories has passed. If Weilai wants to continue to maintain its position as a new force, it must rely on its true strength.