On November 3rd, Li Bin, the founder, chairman, and CEO of NIO Automobile, responded to the rumors of layoffs by posting a full staff letter confirming that the company will reduce its positions by about 10%, and the specific adjustments will be completed in November.
All media reporters noticed from this letter released by Li Bin titled 'Organizational Optimization and Two Year Priorities' that, Li Bin said, "This year we delivered 5 new products and gained over 40% market share in the pure electric market with a transaction price of over 300000 yuan. However, our overall performance still falls short of the expected target. To win the qualification for the finals, we must further improve execution efficiency and ensure that key businesses have sufficient resources to invest." He said that the next two years will be the most competitive stage in the automotive industry's transformation period, The external environment is filled with tremendous uncertainty.
For this layoff, he stated that the company has established business priorities in the past two weeks and formulated specific plans for organizational and business optimization, including "three guarantees" and "two efficiency improvements". In terms of priority, it will ensure long-term investment in core key technologies and maintain leading advantages in technology and products; Ensure sales and service capabilities are able to cope with fierce market competition; Ensure the timely launch of 9 core products from 3 brands. At the same time, organizational and resource efficiency will be improved, departments and positions that have been repeatedly constructed will be merged, inefficient internal workflow and division of labor will be reformed, and inefficient positions will be eliminated; Delaying and reducing project investments that cannot improve the company's financial performance within 3 years. According to the above plan, the company has made a decision to reduce the number of positions by about 10%, and the specific adjustments will be completed in November.
Li Bin stated in the letter, "This is a difficult decision that the company has to make in the face of fierce market competition." He pointed out that NIO's journey is a marathon on a muddy road, and will focus on improving efficient execution and system capabilities.
The reporter noticed that this year is the year of product updates for NIO Motors, and all existing products have completed the upgrade and launch of the NT2.0 platform. In July of this year, NIO did not maintain its upward momentum after becoming the second new power car company to deliver over 20000 vehicles per month. From August to October, the delivery volumes were 19329 vehicles, 15641 vehicles, and 16074 vehicles, respectively, and gradually lagged behind Xiaopeng and Zero Run in October, failing to meet Li Bin's expectations.
However, NIO will have a series of changes to look forward to. On October 19th of this year, Jianghuai Automobile announced its plan to transfer some assets through listing. The two factories involved in the transfer are both factories jointly operated by Jianghuai and NIO. It is widely believed in the industry that NIO may acquire the aforementioned assets and further seek independent production qualifications.
In the critical stage of NIO's development, it seems logical to focus more resources on core technologies and business sectors, and seek more efficient management through architecture and personnel adjustments.