It is expected that the company will begin delivering “ET9” in the first quarter of 2025, at a price starting at $112,000.
The Chinese electric car manufacturer Nio unveiled a pioneering sedan at its annual customer conference on Saturday, which is supposed to compete with the Panamera series produced by Porsche and the luxury S series produced by Mercedes-Benz.
Delivery of the four-seat executive sedan, called ET9, is expected to begin in the first quarter of 2025, with a starting price of about 800,000 yuan ($112,000). It is more expensive than the Model S produced by Tesla, whose price starts at 698,900 yuan in China.
Many technological advantages
William Lee, the company's founder and CEO, said at its annual conference, known as "Nio Day", that the car will be equipped with a 5-nanometer chip and large cylindrical battery cells made by the company. It will also be compatible with a 900-volt ultra-fast charging platform, which can increase the distance that the car can travel by 255 kilometers in 5 minutes.
"Equipped with more than 100 NEO technologies, NEO ET9 reaches a new level of innovation and technological development," Li said at the conference held this year in Xi'an, northern China.
As part of the company's strategy to build brand loyalty, NEO launches its key products and defines its strategy at NEO Day - an end-of-year gathering for the company's partners, customers and media. For the first conference in 2017, the company paid for flights and luxury hotels for everyone who ordered a car, the year before the start of production. R&B star Bruno Mars was among the invited guests at the 2018 conference.
Nio also introduced the latest generation of Nio Power Swap stations, a platform that can quickly replace a depleted battery with a recharged one in just three minutes. The company said the latest generation will be compatible with multiple brands and can reduce overall replacement time by 22%.
The company has completed a goal of building 1,000 power replacement stations in 2023, and has pledged to build 1,000 more next year, in addition to 20,000 charging pads, as the company continues to invest in infrastructure to help reduce customers' anxiety about how far a car can travel.
Steps to reduce costs
After Nio was once one of the brightest stars in the electric car market in China, it is now severely lagging its sales targets, and continues to record losses, which forced it to consider further job cuts after cutting at least 10% last month. of its workforce.
Last week, it signed a deal to obtain $2.2 billion in cash from CYVN Holdings, which is backed by Abu Dhabi. Upon completion of the transaction, CYVN will own a 20.1% stake in NEO and will have the right to nominate two members of the board of directors.
Read also: $2.2 billion in UAE support to revive “Nio” electric cars
The company's gross profit margin fell to 1% in the second quarter before rebounding to 8% in the three months to September 30. It is on track to deliver about 159,000 cars this year, less than two-thirds of its original target of 250,000. Its market value has fallen approximately 40% from the recent peak of $27.5 billion in August.
In addition to cutting jobs, the company is looking to reduce expenses by about two billion yuan in 2024. It has also signed partnership agreements with local automakers, including Chongqing Changan Automobile and Geely Automobile Holdings, regarding the battery replacement activity, which requires huge capital, and the transfer of manufacturing entirely. Within the company instead of relying on outsourcing operations, which may help reduce production costs by 10%.
تعليقات
إرسال تعليق