Though not a recognizable name in the US yet NIO is a trailblazer in the Chinese EV industry,
and it's poised to give Tesla a run for its money in that part of the world. Previously
on the brink of bankruptcy before securing a $1.4 billion funding from the Chinese government
for a 24.1% stake NIO has risen to overcome its challenges to become the world's fourth
most valuable automaker within seven years since starting in 2014. But what is behind
NIOs meteoric rise to success, transforming from a near bankruptcy company to making $628
million in sales in the third quarter of 2020. Selling 12,206 vehicles. Let's find out.
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the whole video and most importantly make a meaningful comment. Nio was founded in 2014
by William Li as NextEV William made his first billion with his company called BitAuto an
online car review company which has since evolved to Chinese top marketing platform
for selling and purchasing of used cars. Inspired by Elon Musk of Tesla, William met Martin
Leach, an executive from Ford Motor Company at 2014 Paris Auto Show and they connected
immediately because of their shared vision of wanting to build the Tesla for China. Two
years later, with the backing of Chinese elite entrepreneurs like Pony Ma of Tencent, Richard
Liu of JD.com and Lei Jun of Xiaomi. It announced its first vehicle a limited run supercar called
the EP nine just to establish the brand and the reputation. Like Tesla NIO has distanced
itself from the traditional automakers associating more like a tech company. The cars have some
high tech touches such as an integrated smart assistant called Nomi that is so much loved
by the car owners Nomi can do virtually everything from winding the windows, changing the car
temperature to even taking selfies. To lock in in customers and create a strong ecosystem.
NIO has been portraying herself not as a car company but a lifestyle. owners get access
to a social network and private social spaces called NIO house. These gorgeous places offers
owners top notch luxury hangout centers, it houses amenities like library, kids play zone,
lounge and coffee shop. This is just another big way NIO has driven tremendous levels of
loyalty. NIO currently sells three vehicles in China. The ES8, a full size SUV costing
$72,000. The car delivers 62 miles per hour in 4.9 seconds and up to 360 miles off one
charge. Next is the ES6 a midsize SUV coming in at $55,000 and delivering a slightly higher
performance of 62 miles per hour in 4.7 seconds and can go 380 miles with one charge. And
finally the EC6 a crossover coupe costing $56,000 helped with a drag coefficient of
0.26. This car beats the ES6 on which its based to achieve 62 miles per hour in 4.5
seconds. SUVs and electric vehicles are a huge trend in China today there are over 500
companies registered in the country that produce what is known as new energy vehicles or alternative
fuel source vehicles that don't rely on internal combustion engines. Only a handful have made
it as far as NIO and Tesla have. Not only that NIO is giving Tesla and luxurious SUV
car manufacturers a run for their money in China it's even planning to relaunch it earlier
suspended ET7 sedan to tap into the lucrative sedan segment. The sedan equipped with ultra
long range LIDAR high resolution cameras, millimeter wave radar and ultrasonic sensors
will be the start of the company's heavy focus on self driving and autonomous systems technology.
With the battery being the single most expensive and time consuming item to recharge in an
electric vehicle, NIO has built one of his core value propositions around this challenge.
It is called battery swap technology. By making all its cars battery to be the same and easily
replaceable NIO has built 162 battery swap centers across China where customers can bring
in their cars and have their dead battery swapped for fully charged one in less than
10 minutes. And if you're stuck on the road through the NIO app, a customer can order
their electric charging van to come and charge the vehicle on the spot. This is not to mention
that you can equally charge your vehicle the conventional way at home. NIO has even moved
further to offer customers the choice of buying a NIO car without a battery and instead resort
to lending one for approximately $150 per month car owners will get up to six battery
changes at any one of the company's facilities. Secondhand owners are not left out, they can
pay per kilowatt hour for the energy that would be required to recharge their flat battery.
With the battery pack costing about $10,700 of the car's overall cost. No wonder a third
of NIO car owners are opting for renting instead of buying a battery pack with the car. The
battery swap technology is not entirely new in 2013 Tesla demoed its battery swap technology,
and the following year built a trial swap station in California. But Tesla later dropped
the project saying drivers weren't interested in swapping their batteries because the supercharging
stations were fast enough even as these charges can take more than 75 minutes to fully power
a car. Whilst Tesla has long dropped this idea it's Chinese rival NIO is moving ahead
with the technology and building a competitive edge out of it. NIO was earlier working on
a Shanghai mega factory but later scrapped it to form a partnership with JAC motors to
build the ES8 and ES6. The partnership allows NIO to bring in their supplies to JAC and
have it assembled. This was a huge cost saver for NIO since money that would have been used
for building an assembly plant can now be channeled into other capital expenditure like
marketing, better customer support and others. The joint venture with JAC motors recently
reached a milestone of 50,000 vehicles produced but NIOs production output is still small
compared to Tesla's Shanghai Giga factory which produces 20,000 to 23,000 units a month
making it the biggest buy capacity in EV OEM in China. Currently, the gap is still very
wide between NIO's production and Tesla's but NIO is definitely closing up. As the competition
between Tesla and NIO rages on in the world's largest EV market China, I believe that the
market is big enough for both. One success will feed into the others as more Chinese
consumers begin to accept electric vehicles thanks to the generous subsidies and efforts
of their government to promote new energy vehicles. It should be noted that the Chinese
government just as they did for other Chinese technology companies lent enormous support
in both finances and goodwill to ensure that NIO succeeded. As the economy recovers from
the COVID pandemic consumer interest in electric vehicles will keep growing. However, Chinese
consumers are still price sensitive and as an expensive luxury brand. NIO has its eyes
set on the global market and has been preparing to enter when the time is right. They have
their sights set on Europe and the United States. NIO said it plans to enter the global
markets by 2023 and 2024 and would likely begin with Europe first. They'll probably
go to Denmark Norway, maybe the Netherlands first given the consumer acceptance of EV
there the subsidies and government incentives. But it will still take a while before we see
NIO in the US. The Chinese automaker would love to step inside the US market but the
reality is that Washington and Beijing relationship has been at its lowest in 50 years. And with
us tariffs on Chinese cars currently at 27%. It will make NIO's car ridiculously expensive
in America beyond what most Americans might be willing to pay. NIO is likely to benefit
the most from domestic growth in the near term and the monthly figures are showing more
people are buying their cars. With offices in Germany, the United Kingdom and the United
States. NIO has a global outlook, but its portfolio of cars and services are currently
only available in China but won't remain like that for long. Though Tesla sells a third
of its car in China, it should be concerned with NIO's astronomical rise and no doubt
we'll be watching it closely. What do you think of NIO's cars? Is it a car you will
buy over Tesla? Do let me know in the comment section below. And if you enjoyed this video,
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