On August 25th, automotive blogger @Sun Shaojun 09 posted on his personal Weibo, revealing that due to the popularity of the launch and delivery of the Ledao L90, the orders for the Ledao L60 in August increased by 30% month-on-month, setting a new sales record. At the same time, Sun Shaojun also pointed out that NIO’s recent brand mutual (customer diversion) effect has been very good. Last week, when the new NIO ES8 was pre-sold, in addition to some users switching their orders from the L90 Ultra, it also attracted users in the 300,000-yuan price range to check out the L90, and the store entry volume continued to rise.
It is worth mentioning that apart from Sun Shaojun revealing NIO’s recent sales situation, a picture of an internal NIO document circulating online shows that Yang Bo, the person in charge of NIO’s user operations, sent a message to frontline Fellow staff, saying: “Recently, the passenger flow has indeed brought a lot of work to everyone, but I believe every partner is truly happy. Don’t you feel that it’s been a long time since you’ve fought such an ‘abundant’ battle? So we must cherish every customer who comes to the store now, show a little more enthusiasm and care, use our most professional product knowledge to explain the products to users, and cherish all users’ attention to us.”
According to the information, Ledao is the second brand launched by NIO, which was released in May last year. The new brand is positioned in the family car market, focusing on the 200,000-300,000-yuan price range. Its first model, the Ledao L60, was launched on September 19th last year. The new car is positioned as a medium-sized SUV, with 2 models launched, priced at 206,900-235,900 yuan. The battery rental purchase method starts at 149,900 yuan, among which the monthly rental fee for the 60kWh battery is 599 yuan, and the monthly rental fee for the 90kWh battery is 899 yuan.
As the second brand under NIO, Ledao shoulders the responsibility of increasing NIO’s sales in the mid-to-low-end market. To enhance the market competitiveness of the Ledao brand, Ledao and NIO share the same technical architecture and swap charging services. However, after the launch of the Ledao L60, it did not become an instant hit. Data shows that the cumulative sales of the Ledao L60 last year were 20,761 units. Since the beginning of this year, the sales of the Ledao brand have remained unchanged in the first few months, with sales in January to March being 5,912 units, 4,049 units, and 4,820 units respectively.
Perhaps due to factors such as sluggish sales, in April, Ai Tiecheng, the former president of Ledao, stepped down, and Shen Fei, head of NIO’s energy business, took over as president of Ledao Automobile. He is fully responsible for Ledao’s sales operations and regional company management, and reports to Qin Lihong, co-founder and president of NIO. To boost Ledao’s sales, the official launched the brand’s second model, the Ledao L90, on July 31. Positioned as a large SUV, the new model is available in six-seat and seven-seat versions. The six-seat version starts at 265,800 yuan for full vehicle purchase and 179,800 yuan for BaaS (Battery as a Service) battery rental; the seven-seat version starts at 271,800 yuan for full vehicle purchase and 185,800 yuan for BaaS battery rental. Benefiting from its price advantage, just three days after its launch, NIO CEO Li Bin announced that the Ledao L90 had entered the top 3 in weekly sales of large SUVs within three days of its launch and delivery, and that the pace of production and delivery would be accelerated. According to data from Yiche’s “Large SUV Weekly Sales Ranking (July 28 – August 3)”, the cumulative delivery volume of the new Ledao L90 reached 1,976 units within 72 hours.
The NIO brand also launched the new NIO ES8 on August 21, with three models available. Among them, the pre-sale price for the six-seat Executive Luxury Edition and seven-seat Executive Luxury Edition starts at 416,800 yuan for full vehicle purchase and 308,800 yuan for battery rental; the pre-sale price for the six-seat Executive Signature Edition starts at 456,800 yuan for full vehicle purchase and 348,800 yuan for battery rental. Compared with the previous model, the new ES8 has seen significant improvements in both configuration and product strength. In terms of pricing, it has also dropped by more than 80,000 yuan compared to the old model. For reference, the price range of the previous NIO ES8 was 498,000 – 598,000 yuan. The new model became an instant hit upon launch; according to official information, the hourly order volume of the all-new ES8 exceeded the monthly sales of the Ledao L90 from the previous month. Regarding the pricing of the new NIO ES8, Li Bin of NIO stated that if NIO continues to maintain high prices, it will struggle to compete in the market, and survival takes priority over user perception.
According to the official plan, the annual sales target for this year is 440,000 units. As of July, NIO’s cumulative sales reached 135,167 units, a year-on-year increase of 25.24%. Among these, the Ledao brand accounted for 37,838 units, and the Firefly brand for 9,978 units. Based on the current cumulative sales, there is still a considerable gap from the annual sales target, and achieving the annual sales goal poses certain challenges.
