During the National Day, Li Bin and Qin Leehom had a temporary idea and decided to start a self-driving tour in Europe. The two drove a Weilai ET7 and traveled more than 2,500 kilometers in Europe, passing through 10 cities.
The purpose of this trip is not only to understand the construction of new energy vehicle infrastructure in Europe, but also to “gain popularity” for the NIO Berlin 2022 European conference.
On the evening of October 8, the NIO Berlin 2022 NIO European conference kicked off in Berlin, Germany, and tens of thousands of people poured into NIO’s live broadcast room early.
At the press conference, several executives took turns to introduce NIO’s vision, product design and existing technology level, and finally announced that products, system-wide services and innovative business models will be launched in Germany, the Netherlands, Sweden and Denmark. The three models that landed were Weilai ET7, ET5 and EL7.
So far, after Norway, NIO once again knocked on the door of the European market.
According to the plan, these three models will be delivered to the market one after another. At the same time, NIO will continue to build an energy-replenishing network. By the end of 2022, 20 battery swap stations will be launched in Europe, and a further 120 will be built by 2023.
Anyone who knows a little about NIO knows that Li Bin’s ambition has never been limited to selling cars in China, but is looking forward to building NIO into a global brand and setting goals for its development early, “sales in overseas markets in the future. to 50%”.
In order to achieve this goal, in recent years, Weilai has been stepping up the pace of overseas layout.
As early as last year, Weilai fired its first shot to sea through Norway.
In September last year, NIO ES8 was launched in Norway and user delivery was started. In August this year, NIO’s second NIO charging and battery replacement station in Norway was officially launched.
Like its previous entry into the Norwegian market, Weilai has brought not only complete vehicles, but also the entire sales and service system to the four countries. Subscription-only taxis are available. Simply put, they are only rented and not sold.
According to reports, users can use NIO’s vehicles as long as they pay a certain fee every month, and it covers a full set of service systems corresponding to vehicles, including battery replacement, worry-free service, insurance and other services.
As for why the subscription system is used, in addition to the official response of “related to the local special tax system”, it may be more about the real purpose of NIO’s going overseas.
Specifically, the purpose of NIO’s entry into the European market is not to sell cars, but to allow more people to experience NIO’s vehicles and services, thereby enhancing the influence of NIO’s brand, and the subscription model can bring it larger audience.
As Li Bin said when he went to Norway last year, “Entering the global market is to plant a seed, don’t expect it to grow into a towering tree immediately, blossom and bear fruit, how you cultivate is still very important, I hope this is a seed of word of mouth. “.
Adventure or Rational Action
In addition to the subscription model, there is also a discussion in the automotive circle about why Weilai chose to go to four European countries: Germany, the Netherlands, Denmark and Sweden.
Some people think that this move is too risky. Europe is a developed market for the automobile industry, and Germany is the “heart” of the world’s automobile development. There are many strong players in the market, and consumers have high loyalty to traditional car brands. As a Chinese brand, in the absence of local sales network channels and popularity, it hastily attacked, fearing that it would be “killed to the core”.
Some people think that this is Li Bin’s ambition. This time, the direct attack on the hinterland of the BBA is because he wants to confront the local forces head-on. NIO has positioned itself as a high-end brand and has frequently benchmarked against the BBA since its establishment. Let consumers think that they want to completely rewrite “BBA” to “NBA”.
In fact, it is not difficult to find that the reason for NIO’s move lies in its own brand development strategy and the favorable business environment of these four European countries.
From the perspective of the brand itself, selling cars all over the world has always been the most “thick” segment on NIO’s business map.
The European market has a high degree of acceptance of new energy vehicles. In recent years, it has been favored by local car companies that go overseas. Of course, it is not wrong for NIO to choose the European market for the first battle. In addition, compared with the markets of other European countries, the German high-end car market The larger scale is more in line with the high-end brand positioning of Weilai.
From a market perspective, Germany, the Netherlands, Denmark and Sweden have the most fertile soil for new energy vehicles to take root.
It is embodied in the market share of new energy vehicles and the construction of intelligent related facilities.
According to data from market research agency INSIDEEVs, in 2021, Germany will rank first in Europe with 690,100 new energy vehicle sales, and the penetration rate of new vehicles will increase by about 100% year-on-year.
As a major country in the automobile industry, its chess pieces for the layout of the autonomous driving industry have also fallen early.
As early as 2015, the German government regarded the development of the autonomous driving industry as “the foundation for the country’s sustainable development and prosperity”, and the German Federal Minister of Transport even said, “Germany must become the world’s first in autonomous driving technology.”
In the following years, Germany has empowered the development of the autonomous driving industry from various aspects such as autonomous driving-related regulations, industrial development, and academic research.
According to a report by German Automobile Weekly, between 2011 and 2018, the number of autonomous driving patents in Germany in the European Patent Office accounted for 14% of the total number of patent applications, making it the country with the largest number of autonomous driving patents in Europe.
The Netherlands has also been actively promoting the testing and development of autonomous driving technology and intelligent transportation systems. Infrastructure such as intelligent roads has maintained its absolute advantage in the market all year round. The number of projects is also among the best.
For an industry to thrive, the importance of the business environment goes without saying.
In addition to the market environment, these countries have been supporting the development of new energy vehicles for a long time. In Germany, you can get a subsidy of 6,000 euros for the purchase of pure electric vehicles under 40,000 euros, and 4,500 euros for plug-in hybrid models under 40,000 euros. In 2020, the Dutch government will provide 17.2 million euros to subsidize pure electric models.
For Weilai and more domestic car companies, this is undoubtedly a huge market other than China. As Qin Lihong said, “Entering Germany is a rational business choice, not an emotional decision.”
Going to Europe, a new way of making a living
In recent years, companies going overseas have become a major trend in the automotive circle, and at the same time they have become a new way of making a living for car companies.
Under the background of carbon neutrality, the automobile industry is on the road to transformation, new energy vehicles can enter the stage of the times, fuel vehicles and new energy vehicles continue to face each other, and the upstream and downstream of the automobile industry chain has undergone an all-round wash. Card.
Today, the new energy vehicle market is ushering in its own highlight moment.
As far as the global market is concerned, the sales of new energy vehicles are increasing year by year. According to the global sales data of new energy passenger vehicles released by CleanTechnica, in August 2022, the global sales of new energy passenger vehicles exceeded 800,000 units, a year-on-year increase of 60%, accounting for the overall 15% market share. From January to August, the cumulative global sales volume exceeded 5 million.
From a corporate point of view, BYD and Tesla continue to battle each other on the global sales list, making great strides in the new energy vehicle market.
In the Chinese auto market, the development of new energy vehicles is getting louder.
The new car-making forces headed by “Weixiaoli” continue to make efforts to make cars intelligent. Many traditional car companies are also focusing on the research and development of intelligent driving. Star companies in various industries continue to cross the line and join the battle between electrification and intelligence.
Under the feast of development, the new energy vehicle market is also constantly invoking, and the living space of car companies is constantly being squeezed, and they have begun to seek larger markets overseas.
In addition, the improvement of many technologies of China’s new energy vehicles also provides opportunities for China’s new energy vehicles to go overseas.
All of these local overseas car companies have chosen Europe as the battlefield for the export of new energy vehicles.
As far as Weilai is concerned, both the former Norway and the current Shikoku are in the hinterland of Europe. Just in September this year, BYD also launched three models for the European market.
Previously, the export areas of local car manufacturers were mainly concentrated in relatively backward countries and regions such as Asia and Africa. Now, with the decline of fuel vehicles and the rise of new energy vehicles, local car manufacturers have developed a completely different overseas market than before. The reason for the offensive is due to European policies and market increment space.
Europe has strict emission regulations. As early as five years ago, the EU set a long-term goal of achieving carbon neutrality by 2050. In 2020, it proposed that the EU’s greenhouse gas emissions in 2030 will be reduced by at least 55% compared with 1990 (the previous EU set The emission reduction target is set at 40%).
In order to achieve this goal, European countries have begun to support the development of new energy vehicles, and introduced support policies for the new energy vehicle industry, which are embodied in the ban on the sale of fuel vehicles and the development of new energy vehicles.
In June this year, the European Parliament voted to support the European Commission’s proposal to ban the sale of fuel vehicles in 2035, which will accelerate the popularization of electric vehicles in the EU.
In addition, most of the major European countries have subsidies of around 3,000 to 6,000 euros for the purchase of new energy passenger vehicles, and the subsidy in France has reached 7,000 euros.
Although Europe strongly supports the development of new energy vehicles, the penetration rate of electric vehicles in Europe is still relatively small, and compared with China, local European brands lag behind in electrification. It is understood that the infrastructure of new energy vehicles in many European cities is not perfect. , electric vehicles still have huge room for incremental growth in the European market.
write at the end
Weilai had previously officially announced that it “will enter more than 25 countries and regions by 2025”, and now it is slowly approaching its goal.
From Norway to the four countries this time, NIO’s globalization strategy is advancing steadily, but compared with the Norwegian market, this time is obviously more difficult, and there are more problems ahead. NIO’s business overseas this time The model may also provide a new model for car companies to go overseas.
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