On April 11th, Li Bin, founder, chairman, and CEO of NIO Limited (NIO), revealed that in the Chinese automotive industry, it is very common for a single vehicle model to waste hundreds of millions of RMB, causing significant inefficiency.
According to a report by “First Financial” on April 11th, during the Intelligent Electric Vehicle Development Summit in 2026, Li Bin stated, “It’s quite normal for a vehicle model to waste hundreds of millions, right? No one benefits from this – not the manufacturers, the supply chain, or the users. It’s pure wastage, and this is a significant issue in the industry today.”
Li Bin believes that the root cause of this waste is the mismatch between production capacity and demand in the industry. The overlapping demand for components like automotive chips, batteries, and overall vehicle configurations exacerbates the imbalance between supply and demand. Additionally, with short periods of high demand for new models, there is a risk of falling into a “new car effect valley,” leading to a common industry-wide issue of increasing production without a proportional increase in profits. These factors have resulted in the industry facing a challenging financial situation.
Moreover, Li Bin acknowledged the profit pressure that automotive companies are currently facing, attributing it to the rapid turnover of new vehicle models. He stated, “The entire industry is under significant profit pressure mainly due to the rapid turnover of new models.”
Li Bin suggested that industry-wide efforts to standardize electric cores and unify chip technologies could enhance industry efficiency and profitability, offering a potential solution to the profitability crisis across the board.
Public records indicate that NIO Limited was founded on November 25, 2014, with its headquarters located in Jiading District, Shanghai. Their vehicle lineup includes the NIO (ES, ET, EC series), alongside NIO smartphones and NIO Life branded products. In September 2018, NIO Limited was listed on the New York Stock Exchange.
NIO Limited’s financial report for the full year of 2025, released in March, revealed a total revenue of 87.488 billion RMB, marking a 33.1% year-on-year growth. However, the company still recorded a net loss of 14.943 billion RMB for the year. Media analyses show that from 2018 to 2024, NIO Limited accumulated losses exceeding 95 billion RMB. Including the estimated 15 billion RMB loss for 2025, NIO has recorded a total loss of approximately 110 billion RMB over the span of 8 years.