Zhou Xin, the veteran of NIO, took over the complete vehicle project, and the original person in charge transferred to the European business

Text丨Li Qin, Peng Suping

Edit丨Yang Xuan

36 Krypton learned exclusively that Danilo Teobaldi resigned as the vice president of vehicle engineering at NIO and transferred to the chief engineer of the European vehicle, while Zhou Xin, the executive vice president of NIO and chairman of the product committee, will take over as the vice president of vehicle engineering at NIO.

Danilo Teobaldi, a native of Turin, Italy, joined NIO from Qoros in 2015 and was responsible for vehicle integration and preliminary engineering. In October 2019, Roger Malkusson, the former vice president of vehicle engineering at NIO, retired and Danilo Teobaldi took over.

Danilo Teobaldi supported NIO’s vehicle engineering development for more than three years, and was responsible for the development and optimization of vehicle base indicators such as dynamic performance and safety performance. Since the release of the mid-sized coupe SUV EC6 at the end of 2019, NIO has released a total of six models in the past three years, covering SUVs and sedans. This product matrix is already quite large among new carmakers.

However, the competition in the industry is becoming increasingly fierce, and Weilai, which is in the top camp, needs to further accelerate to increase the speed of new technologies and new products. This may also be one of the reasons for Danilo Teobaldi’s departure.

Feedback from relevant cooperation departments stated that the pace of vehicle technology and projects is still slow, and even “800V-related verification and cooperation are somewhat out of touch.” The 800V voltage platform can support ultra-fast charging technology and effectively improve the energy replenishment efficiency of electric vehicles. It is regarded as the next key technology highland in the industry. The first batch of large-scale mass production nodes in the industry will be in 2023, and Weilai plans to launch in 2024, which is already rare for Weilai, which has always pursued leadership. If R&D cooperation falls behind, it may further slow down the launch pace.

There are not many new cards that Weilai can play. High-end intelligent driving has been postponed, and the 150-kwh solid-state battery has repeatedly skipped tickets. If the development of complete vehicles cannot keep up with the pace of the industry’s leaders, it will be more difficult to expand market share. With Zhou Xin taking over the vehicle engineering this time, NIO will further focus on internal resources, accelerate the speed and efficiency of vehicle research and development, and increase chips for future competition.

Although Zhou Xin is rarely seen in the media, he is one of the founding elders of Weilai, one of the chairmen of the four major committees of Weilai, and one of the only two executive vice presidents of Weilai. He will be in charge of the complete vehicle project, which shows that Weilai is eager to speed up vehicle development.

The first wave of new car-making forces such as Weilai, Ideal, and Xiaopeng have completed the leap from 0 to 1. However, to enter a broader market, the test is the efficiency of the platform system. Weilai has begun to deploy and flow internal personnel , It is also based on the consideration of speeding up the pace and improving efficiency.

After resigning, Danilo Teobaldi took charge of European vehicle engineering, which also means that Weilai may develop a special vehicle platform for the European market.

Europe is an overseas market that NIO attaches great importance to. Over the past two years, NIO has started its journey in overseas markets in Europe. Now, in addition to setting up channels and service teams in Europe, NIO also plans to launch models specially designed for the European market. . It is reported that the new ET5 safari version will be launched in Europe, and the third brand “Firefly” project developed by NIO will also be exclusively for Europe.

Weilai not only has a wide layout in the upstream and downstream of the industrial chain, but also shows the ambition of a new car-making force in the development of basic models. It is not difficult to understand that from a new force to a leading brand with a larger market share, what is needed is the accumulation and release of platform-based and systematic capabilities. With the opportunity to take the lead, Weilai is still speeding up.

According to the plan, Weilai will also launch two new models this year, including ES6 and EC6 facelifts, as well as a lower-priced SUV model similar to the “Tesla Model Y”. The last car is particularly critical to Weilai. It is another new car that is expected to be popular after ET5.

NIO’s product line is one of the most complex among the new carmakers. Although a platform-based and family-oriented product matrix has been formed, compared to Tesla, or even compared to the ideal car of the same track, NIO’s product line and exterior design are still much more complicated-SUV has ES and EC There are two series, the sedan has the ET series, and each of these series has 2-4 subdivided models at present, and there are more or less differences from the appearance to the interior.

Regarding this product strategy, Li Bin, chairman and CEO of Weilai, explained the logic: the higher the brand, the higher the requirements for personalization. He said that the performance and intelligence level of electric vehicles cannot be compromised, so NIO has opened up the three-electric, cockpit, smart driving and other systems of the second-generation models, but in terms of shape, size, space, etc., it still needs to meet the needs of different consumers. Demand – this will directly increase the work of vehicle engineering, and Zhou Xin’s new task will not be easy.

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