In August, 31,000 units were sold like hotcakes. Li Bin is willing to take the criticism.

Full of vigor, NIO finally entered the camp of monthly sales exceeding 30,000 after the first full - delivery month of the LeDao L90. In August, it delivered 31,305 new vehicles, a year - on - year increase of 55.2%, reaching a record high.

Interestingly, at the end of August, NIO held an event called "Chat with Bin Ge, the boss, face - to - face with users". At the event, Li Bin was "confronted angrily" by an old car owner for 5 minutes.

Now, looking at the sales in August, Li Bin can finally hold his head high.

Of course, NIO is not the only one experiencing a surge. XPeng Motors was the first to submit its "homework". In August, it delivered a total of 37,709 new vehicles, a year - on - year increase of 169%. Leapmotor had a bumper harvest. Its delivery volume in August reached 57,066 units, a year - on - year increase of 88%. Leapmotor, which has topped the list for 5 consecutive months, is starting to transform from a dark horse into a perennial winner.

Overall, most of the new car - making companies had a particularly bright smile in August. Compared with XPeng and Leapmotor, this long - awaited victory is even more precious for NIO.

01

Soar in sales, focus on profitability first

Let's first look specifically at the sales composition of NIO. In the 55.2% year - on - year increase, the new model LeDao L90 became the absolute main force. It delivered 10,575 units in its first month on the market, and it is the model with the fastest sales exceeding 10,000 in NIO's history. The total delivery volume of the LeDao brand reached 16,434 units.

In addition, NIO's main brand delivered 10,525 new vehicles, comparable to the performance of the single - model LeDao L90. The delivery volume of Firefly was 4,346 units. As of now, the cumulative total delivery volume of the NIO system has reached nearly 840,000 units.

Monthly sales exceeding 30,000+ carry too much significance for Li Bin and NIO at present.

On the eve of the sales release, on the opening day of the Chengdu Auto Show, NIO announced a very important price system adjustment in 2025. The amplitude and intensity of this price adjustment are quite rare in NIO's past ten - year history.

To put it simply, for all NIO models in the future, the purchase price will all come standard with a 100kWh battery, but the official guide price of the whole vehicle remains unchanged. That is to say, with the money you used to spend to buy a 75kWh battery, you can now directly pick up a whole vehicle with a 100kWh battery. At the same time, the 75kWh battery can no longer be purchased but can only be rented.

The battery is upgraded but the price remains the same, which is equivalent to a disguised price cut of 38,000 yuan for NIO's 75kWh models. Taking the ET5/ET5T as an example, the entry - level price has dropped from 336,000 yuan to 298,000 yuan. With the BaaS plan, you can drive it away for as low as 190,000 yuan.

Previously, the pre - sale price of the NIO ES8 was lowered by more than 80,000 yuan. Suddenly, there were a lot of doubts from old car owners. However, at a subsequent face - to - face communication meeting with users, Li Bin responded to the price adjustment issue straightforwardly and directly admitted that it was for survival. Only by selling cars and achieving sales can there be a chance to talk about "development".

Li Bin said, "My unshirkable responsibility is to manage NIO well and keep it alive. This is the greatest responsibility to our 800,000 users. I really can't imagine what would happen if NIO couldn't operate anymore. It's not one or two cars, not ten or twenty thousand cars, but more than 800,000 cars."

Li Bin emphasized that doing a good job in the company is the responsibility to 800,000 users. In the process of operation, it's impossible to take care of the interests of every user, and only the most reasonable decision for the overall situation can be made.

"In the middle of this, although some users are dissatisfied with me. Maybe they used to trust me more, but now they must have different views on me, and they haven't hesitated to scold me. However, someone has to take care of these 800,000 users."

In addition, Li Bin also revealed that now many users recognize NIO's cars, services, and technologies. At least 30% - 40% of the reasons for not buying NIO cars are the concern that NIO might go bankrupt.

That is to say, if NIO can make a profit, many doubts and rumors will be self - defeating, users' confidence will be strengthened, and many problems will be solved.

Fortunately, the data shows that Li Bin has done a difficult but correct thing. Especially for those potential car owners who are holding money and waiting to buy, there has been a reversal from "Bin Zi" to "Bin Shen". In fact, it only took Li Bin two moves to increase the sales from 20,000 to 30,000:

One move is the LeDao L90, which has shown its edge in the market. The other move is the new NIO ES8.

Not long ago, Li Bin announced that when the pre - sale price of the third - generation ES8 and the BaaS plan entered the 300,000 - yuan range, among the thunderous applause on the spot, there were both the exclamations of automobile industry practitioners and the astonishment of new and old car owners.

In the past, NIO targeted the high - end market like Mercedes - Benz and BMW, and its prices were also higher than those of BBA. But now, the market can feel NIO's compromise.

Rather than calling it a compromise, it's more of a practical approach in the current stage of the stock market competition. Compared with those flashy and impractical buffs like style and prestige, Li Bin has always understood that surviving first is more important than anything.

02

The soul - searching questions from car owners

As Li Bin said, the consequence of doing so is that it's very easy to get scolded.

At the same face - to - face offline communication meeting with NIO users, there was a rare scene of a direct confrontation between the boss of a car company and users. One old car owner from Suzhou had a soul - searching demand and directly "controlled" Li Bin for 5 minutes.

The car owner said that he is an old 1.2 - generation NIO car owner. After recommending the second - generation cars to his friends, many problems occurred, mainly covering aspects such as corporate credit, product iteration, and user rights and interests.

Firstly, credit crisis and information opacity. After he recommended his friends to buy the products, the price was cut. But when he asked the salesperson before purchasing whether there would be a price adjustment or a new model launch, the salesperson denied it, and then the price was cut, resulting in a loss of tens of thousands to hundreds of thousands of yuan for the users who just picked up their cars. He believes that NIO has a serious lack of transparency in the pre - sales, in - sales, and after - sales processes, and the salespeople hide information such as upcoming price adjustments.

In addition, the promises of map upgrades and function alignment with the 2.0 system on the first - generation models (equipped with the 8155 chip) have not been fulfilled for a year. The promised "high - speed automatic battery swapping" function has not been delivered for four years. In the software development ecosystem, there is a phenomenon of "developing a new generation and abandoning the old one". That is, the assisted driving of the first - generation cars is not perfect, and resources are shifted to the second - generation platform; the functions of the second - generation platform are not delivered, and resources are then tilted towards the third - generation platform.

Li Bin said that the price cut was not deliberately concealed. "Front - line colleagues are not so clear about the product iteration rhythm. If they knew, they definitely wouldn't conceal it." He also promised that in the future, efforts will be made to improve the communication training of front - line employees to reduce users' misunderstandings.

At the same time, he emphasized that the intelligent electric vehicle industry is iterating at a rapid pace. To cope with the competitive pressure and the need for information confidentiality, the company really cannot disclose all product details. "This is a common challenge faced by the entire industry," Li Bin said.

When asked whether the price cut would "stab" old car owners in the back, Li Bin said that the pricing process was very tangled. He also knew that this pricing would cause damage to some old users, but he still had to make a decision that was beneficial to the whole of NIO. He revealed that many old users actually advised the company not to worry too much about the feelings of old users, and that NIO's survival is the most important thing.

Regarding the controversy over resource allocation, Li Bin said bluntly, "In terms of resource allocation, NIO does consider new cars and models with a larger user base." He explained that the early models are greatly restricted by hardware and it is difficult to achieve high - perception function updates, but he emphasized that "safety function updates will always be continuously promoted" and it doesn't mean abandoning old car owners.

He also gave an example, saying that although the update frequency of the first - generation cars is low, the baseline is still being continuously maintained. For example, the actual delivery situation of the pilot - assist function has even exceeded the initial expectations.

Secondly, there is the problem of the collapse of NIO's vehicle residual value. The car owner mentioned that the buy - back price of the founding - edition models is only 70,000 - 80,000 yuan, and that of the new models is only 80,000 - 100,000 yuan, which is even lower than that of the bankrupt HiPhi.

Li Bin responded that the rapid iteration of the intelligent electric vehicle industry will inevitably have an impact on the vehicle residual value. NIO will also strive to improve product performance and user experience to enhance market competitiveness.

The weakening of communication channels has also caused dissatisfaction. Car owners reported that NIO's early unimpeded feedback mechanism has now become inefficient. The feeling of "consumers having nowhere to give feedback" has made the distance between them and the brand further.

Li Bin responded that the communication channels have always been unblocked. Users can directly feedback problems through the in - vehicle system, and he himself will check the feedback every Tuesday and promote the solution of problems. Resources will be tilted towards demands with a large base.

Throughout the entire communication meeting, it can be seen that Li Bin responded to every question and his attitude was quite sincere. It can only be said that for NIO to survive, Li Bin would rather be scolded and still do it.

But in fact, behind the differences between NIO and car owners, there is a hidden phenomenon. When the pace of technological progress exceeds users' expectations, how to balance corporate development and user rights and interests is not only a problem that NIO needs to consider, but also a problem that many new energy vehicle companies need to solve.

Just like the speech of a car owner at the meeting, "We all hope that NIO can survive, but we also hope that our rights and interests can be protected". At the same time, Li Bin also said that the market will no longer give NIO a chance to keep losing money.

"Now when people talk about NIO, they always mention the products and technologies. We really do a good job. What are people's doubts about us now? It's the sustainability of operations. The media and the public have less tolerance for losses. Tesla could lose money for 16 years. Do you think the market will give us a chance to lose money for 16 years?"

Fortunately, the sales performance in August has brought Li Bin closer to profitability.

This article is from the WeChat official account <