NIO has a quite different target customer group to Tesla. This is also the main reason that NIO is growing steadily as Tesla’s sales continue to expand rapidly in the Chinese market.
On August 14, Lihong Qin, the co-founder of NIO (NIO:NYSE) made a speech at the 2020 China Auto Forum to explain NIO’s business strategy and market position. According to Lihong, NIO’s model has a label price of CNY 450,000. In comparison, Tesla’s most popular model in the Chinese market has the price of CNY 310,000. The CNY 140,000 gap is a chief reason that NIO has a substantially different target customer group to Tesla.
NIO sold 50,000 EVs before July 2020. Lihong also announced that it is the first time in history that a Chinese domestic brand that has a model with a price over CNY 300,000 has achieved such sales numbers. He concluded that the new auto age requires not only the cutting-edge technologies of electronic vehicle and autonomous driving, but also modern customer service systems that directly connect manufacturers and end-users. Industrial upgrading is a great chance for Chinese autonomous companies to build premium domestic brands.
Read more about the analysis of NIO's recent performance.