Chinese New Energy Vehicle Manufacturer NIO’s Founder: The Fiercest Stage of the Intelligent Electric Vehicle Industry has Arrived
The founder of Chinese new energy vehicle company NIO stated that the most intense and brutal phase of the competition in the intelligent electric vehicle industry has arrived, with only a few outstanding enterprises expected to survive. These remarks have attracted attention from the public.
On November 25th, in an internal letter on the company’s 10th anniversary, NIO’s founder, William Li, expressed that the fiercest and most ruthless phase of the competition in the intelligent electric vehicle industry is already here. He emphasized that in two to three years, only a few outstanding enterprises will be able to survive, and underlined, “The competition we will face next is at a higher dimension, where weaknesses cannot exist, and victory cannot be achieved overnight.”
In conclusion, Li set clear goals for the team, emphasizing that the next two years are crucial for continuously releasing competitive new products, enhancing operational efficiency, doubling sales next year, and achieving company profitability by 2026, stressing that this is an imperative task.
Chinese electric vehicle companies have been consistently operating at a loss, and NIO has been in the red for 6 years and 9 months. From 2018 to 2023, NIO’s net loss after tax was 23.328 billion yuan, 11.413 billion yuan, 5.611 billion yuan, 10.572 billion yuan, 14.559 billion yuan, and 21.15 billion yuan, with last year’s loss increasing by 45% year-on-year.
NIO’s third-quarter financial report for 2024 released on November 20th showed that the company achieved a record high in delivery volume during the third quarter, with a total of 61,855 vehicles delivered in the quarter, among which 61,023 were from NIO and 832 were from Lixiang ONE.
However, despite hitting record high delivery volumes, NIO’s operating conditions did not improve significantly. The adjusted net loss of NIO was around 4.413 billion yuan in the third quarter, a decrease of 2.7% compared to the previous quarter, and an 11.6% increase year-on-year.
Industry data reveals that from 2018 to 2023, NIO has accumulated losses of 86.63 billion yuan. Including the losses in the first half of 2024, NIO’s net losses total over 96 billion yuan. With the third-quarter losses, the total deficit has exceeded 100 billion yuan.
Official information indicates that NIO was founded in November 2014. Over the past decade, NIO has invested over 53 billion yuan in research and development and applied for more than 9,300 patents. Delivery data shows that in the third quarter of this year, NIO delivered a total of 61,900 vehicles, setting a new record high. As of November 25, 2024, NIO has delivered over 620,000 new vehicles.