NIO Founder, Chairman, and CEO Li Bin is striving to achieve the goal he set for himself at the beginning of the year—to become the hardest-working person by 2025.
From June to August, Li Bin hosted four launch events, each lasting nearly three hours; personally tested real-road tire blowouts, inspected the G318 Sichuan-Tibet battery swap route at the Everest Base Camp at an altitude of over 5,000 meters, and persisted in live broadcasts while using oxygen to combat altitude sickness.
These efforts have yielded phased rewards: the Ledao L90 began delivery, the new NIO ES8 was launched, and NIO returned to an upward trajectory, entering a harvest period.
On the morning of August 29, the Ledao L90 completed its 10,000th delivery at the Chengdu Auto Show, becoming the fastest model in NIO’s history to reach this milestone. After delivery, it consistently ranked among the top three in large SUV sales. NIO’s Co-Founder and President stated that the pre-order performance of the new NIO ES8, which began pre-sales on August 21, exceeded that of the Ledao L90 during the same period.
Over the past month, NIO has also charted an upward curve in the capital markets, with its Hong Kong stock cumulative increase approaching 90%, returning to a market value of over 100 billion.
On August 29, Li Bin held a company-wide meeting lasting about 90 minutes. He believes that NIO’s recent positive changes stem first from the company’s steadfast and sustained investments in pure electric technology, multi-brand strategy, and other areas over the past three years and beyond. Through these investments, NIO has reached an inflection point where pure electric technology translates into user experience.
“The golden age of extended-range large three-row SUVs is passing, and the era of pure electric large three-row SUVs is arriving. This is the result of adhering to the correct technological path and progressing step by step, leading to such positive market feedback,” Li Bin said.
Second is the improvement in short-term execution efficiency. At the start of the meeting, Li Bin thanked all colleagues: “The launch rhythm of the (Ledao) L90 and the (NIO) new ES8 has shown the industry a different NIO. We are not just about long-termism; we can also excel in short-term execution. Our resilience is strong, and it hasn’t been easy.”
However, significant challenges remain for NIO. Earlier this year, when NIO was at a sales low, Li Bin set a goal for profitability in the fourth quarter. “For a long time, probably less than 1% of people worldwide believed we could achieve profitability in the fourth quarter,” Li Bin said in an internal speech.
Li Bin believes that the inflection point for pure electric technology has arrived. How can NIO translate its decade of accumulated technological and product experience advantages into market victories and achieve its sales and profitability goals? Li Bin provided two answers.
First, all employees must focus on efficiency. “Now it’s about competing on our overall delivery capability, execution, and operational efficiency,” Li Bin said.
Second, all employees must enhance their business awareness. Li Bin stated that NIO’s CBU reforms have shown initial results, but there is still significant room for improvement in business awareness and efficiency. “With annual revenue of 100 billion, a 1% efficiency improvement saves 1 billion, and 5% saves 5 billion. Wouldn’t that make our lives much easier?”
Li Bin believes that as long as long-termism and short-term execution are well integrated, the outside world will see NIO’s competitiveness. “Focus on selling cars, delivering cars, and improving efficiency. Fight steadily in the fourth quarter. The profitability challenge is significant, but this battle can be won and must be won.”
Below are the main points of Li Bin’s speech that day:
Company-wide address:
First, I want to especially thank everyone. Over the past quarter, everyone has worked incredibly hard. We’ve lost count of how many launch events we’ve held, and we even made a trip along the G318. It’s not just me who’s worked hard—everyone has.
Over the past two months, our two flagship products, the Ledao L90 and the new ES8, have launched, and their performance has met expectations, even exceeded them in some ways. This is thanks to the hard work of every colleague. Over the past quarter, everyone has demonstrated strong combat effectiveness, proving that our team is highly capable
