Wei Lai Li Bin responds to rumors of layoffs: the company will reduce positions by about 10%

(Original title: NIO layoffs: Completed a 10% job reduction this month, and projects that do not improve financial performance within three years will be reduced) Pengpai News Reporter Wu YuliRecently, it was reported that NIO has started layoffs, with a layoff rate of 10% -20%.On November 3rd, Li Bin, CEO of NIO Automobile, issued a letter to all employees, mentioning that NIO will carry out adjustments related to organizational and resource investment directions

(Original title: NIO layoffs: Completed a 10% job reduction this month, and projects that do not improve financial performance within three years will be reduced)

Pengpai News Reporter Wu Yuli

Recently, it was reported that NIO has started layoffs, with a layoff rate of 10% -20%.

On November 3rd, Li Bin, CEO of NIO Automobile, issued a letter to all employees, mentioning that NIO will carry out adjustments related to organizational and resource investment directions.

He mentioned in the letter that NIO will carry out "three guarantees" and "two improvements". The "three guarantees" include ensuring investment in core key technologies and maintaining leading advantages in technology and products; Ensure sufficient sales and service capabilities to cope with fierce market competition; Ensure the timely launch of 9 core products from 3 brands. The "two efficiency improvements" include increasing human efficiency by 10% and accelerating resource efficiency. In the future, NIO will postpone and reduce projects that do not improve financial performance within three years to ensure the company's long-term competitiveness.

The entire staff letter mentioned that according to the plan, the company will reduce the number of positions by about 10%, and the specific adjustments will be completed in November.

Review:

It is rumored that NIO will lay off 10% -20% of its employees, but officials say they have not received any relevant information, making it difficult to break the "20000 car curse"

On November 2nd, Red Star Capital Bureau reported that on the 1st, a netizen revealed in Pulse that NIO (09866. HK/NIO. US) has started layoffs, with a proportion ranging from 10% to 20%, involving multiple departments and positions. Employees certified as NIO Automotive Technology (Anhui) Co., Ltd. have also confirmed this news on their pulse.

However, on the afternoon of November 2nd, the original post of the disclosure was deleted. NIO has informed the Red Star Capital Bureau that it has not received any relevant information. Several frontline sales and marketing personnel from NIO have also stated that they have not heard of any layoffs at present.

Screenshot of Pulse Explosion

NIO Difficult to Break the "20000 Charm"

On November 1st, the car company disclosed its October sales volume. Ideal Automobile (02015. HK/LI. US) has sold over 40000 vehicles per month; The once bottom ranked Xiaopeng Automobile (09868. HK/XPEV. US) has reversed its decline and surpassed the 20000 vehicle mark; AITO has delivered over 10000 units of bicycles per month, with orders of 80000 units in hand coming with great momentum; Zero Run Motors (09863. HK) and Geely Krypton Motors have also set monthly delivery records.

NIO delivered 16000 vehicles in October, an increase of 2.77% month on month, but still failed to reach the 20000 mark. Li Bin, the chairman of NIO, previously announced that he is confident in achieving sales of 20000 vehicles per month in the second half of the year. From January to October, NIO delivered a total of 126000 new vehicles, with the annual delivery target of 245000 vehicles just over half.

NIO has rarely reported any good news this year. Sales dropped to over 6000 vehicles in April and May; At the end of May, the all-new ES6, known as the "Hope of the Whole Village", began to be delivered, and in June, the delivery volume of NIO returned to 10000 vehicles; On June 12th, NIO announced a price reduction of 30000 yuan for all new models, and the delivery volume surged to 20000 units in July; But it fell again in August, hovering around 16000 vehicles in both September and October.

Although there are remedial measures such as a price reduction of 30000 yuan and ET5T being priced at the same price as ET5, NIO still cannot escape the "curse of 20000 vehicles".

In 2022, there were 26800 employees,

Salary exceeding 11.2 billion yuan

At the end of last year, Li Bin stated that "as long as we can provide wages, we can easily avoid layoffs" and "maintain 100% of the workforce and complete 150% of the work, which should be what we need to do

However, in January this year, Li Bin mentioned the need to streamline the team in a letter from all employees. The letter pointed out that the team will continue to expand in 2022, but there are many situations where responsibilities are unclear, goals are inconsistent, processes are incomplete, and repetitive construction is common. There is still great room for efficiency improvement.

According to the 2022 annual report, NIO has 26800 employees, Ideal has 19400 employees, and Xiaopeng has 15800 employees.

NIO paid over 11.2 billion yuan in employee compensation in 2022, and if 10% -20% of layoffs were made, it could save approximately 1.11-2.24 billion yuan.

As of June 30 this year, NIO's cash reserves amounted to 31.5 billion yuan, a decrease of 6.3 billion yuan compared to the first quarter. In July, NIO completed a strategic equity investment of $738.5 million from Abu Dhabi Investment Agency. On September 19th, NIO announced its plan to issue $1 billion in convertible preferred bonds.

The significant cash demand of NIO due within one year (mainly including capital commitments, operating and financing lease commitments, short-term and long-term bank loans, convertible bonds, and asset backed securities and bonds) is 19.708 billion yuan.

Self developed chips, operating systems, mobile phones, batteries,

The cost of 'all' is high

In the second quarter, NIO suffered a net loss of 6.056 billion yuan. Based on the delivery volume of 54600 vehicles in the first half of the year, NIO suffered an average loss of 200000 yuan from selling one vehicle; The overall gross profit margin decreased to 1%, from 1.5% in the first quarter to 13% in the same period last year. Li Bin postponed the breakeven date from the fourth quarter of this year to within one year.

The sales of NIO in the third quarter increased by 135.74% to 55400 vehicles, but the performance is not optimistic. Although NIO has cancelled free battery swapping and reduced owner rights, the remaining expenses are all "hard bones".

Investment in research and development cannot be saved. Intelligent cars are all about technology, and every car company is willing to invest. The research and development expenses of NIO in the second quarter reached 3.345 billion yuan. Li Bin previously stated that the average research and development expenses for each quarter in 2023 will remain between 3 billion and 3.5 billion yuan.

The supplementary energy system needs to increase investment, which is NIO's core competitiveness. NIO plans to build a total of over 2300 replacement power stations by 2023, with a construction cost of 1.5-2 million yuan for the second generation station, requiring an investment of at least 3.45 billion yuan.

Service related fees are difficult to reduce, NIO's positioning is as a "user oriented enterprise", and the ultimate service is the core of the brand and differentiated competitiveness.

Independent automotive analyst Liu Hao told the Red Star Capital Bureau, "NIO wants everything, the stall is too big

The "Yang Jian" chip developed by Weiyuan Research was mass-produced in October, with a chip research and development team of 800 people; Self developed vehicle wide operating system Tianshu SkyOS; NIOPhone is currently the only new car making force with a self built mobile phone team, and has been launched.

Previously, NIO was also exposed to have self-developed lithium manganese iron phosphate and 4680 batteries, and plans to mass produce these two types of batteries to supply NIO and its subsidiary brand Alps.

Li Bin mentioned in the 2022 third quarter financial report conference call that NIO expects to invest 3-4 billion yuan in related businesses such as sub brands, batteries, chips, and mobile phones in 2023, and will not stop investing in new businesses before the fourth quarter of 2023.

Will NIO be the future car company in China?

According to data from the China Passenger Car Association, at the end of 2022, the number of passenger car companies in China was 82, compared to 64 in September 2023, a decrease of 18 in 9 months.

The fall of Weima Motors has sounded an alarm for the industry. Although the authorities have denied rumors that Chairman Shen Hui has gone overseas, stating that the company is actively rescuing itself and has not filed for bankruptcy, the fact is that Weima Motors has fallen behind in sales since 2022, with each vehicle losing money, financing difficulties, and a broken capital chain.

The founder of Meituan, Wang Xing, predicted in early 2020: "The pattern of Chinese car companies is basically a '3+3+3+3' competition for the next two rounds. In addition to three central enterprises, three local state-owned enterprises, and three private enterprises, the three new forces are Ideal, NIO, and Xiaopeng

This pattern may change, but the limited number of Chinese car companies in the future has become an industry consensus.

At the 2023 China Automotive Chongqing Forum, Chery Automobile Chairman Yin Tongyue, Gaohe Automobile Chairman Ding Lei, Zero Run Automobile Chairman Zhu Jiangming, Ideal Automobile President Ma Donghui, Huawei Executive Director Yu Chengdong, and NIO Executive Vice President Shen Feng expressed their views on the future industry landscape. They believe that in the future, there will only be less than 10 Chinese car companies left, and may even be less than or equal to 5.

It is widely believed in the industry that 2024 will be the year of life and death for the car market. Li Bin also stated at the end of 2022 that 2024 is the final stage of the new energy vehicle industry, "we believe we have the qualifications to participate in the final

Red Star News Reporter Wu Danruo

Editor Xiao Ziqi