Xu Jialu

Jul 24, 2024

A new day, for the blue skies.

I remember it like it was yesterday.

March, 2019. I flew back to Shanghai for family matters. Not exactly a cheery period of time.

Walking out of my grandparents' place, I watched as the cars on the road whizzed by as my mum and I waited for the bus to arrive. I was staring mindlessly at the road when something eventually caught my eye.

What in the world is THAT?

I was convinced that I saw a concept car from a new company. Until today, that car's flowing lines and aggressive front inlets continue to be etched in my memories. The dashed daytime-running lights. The elegant logo. Everything about it shouts concept. I've never seen anything like that before.

Delayed Intoductions

It wasn't until winter that year that I found out what that car actually was, and not for the lack of trying. You try finding a car on the internet which you've never seen before, never heard of and never knew the name of.

NIO.

As in "neo". New. For the future.

蔚来

As in "未来". For the future.

Mother of all perfect brandings. They've managed to link up their english name, chinese name and the freaking logo. For once, a chinese brand wasn't being cringe.

I should mention that NIO's not exactly a chinese brand, but that's a story for another day.

Anti-humble beginnings

NIO was founded in 2014 by William Li, back then as NEXTEV (god they really nail the names). NEXTEV NIO then became the inaugural drivers and constructors champions of the first ever season of Formula E. Then, in 2017, the NIO EP9 set a new fastest lap record of the Nurburgring Nordschleife of 6:45:900, breaking the previous record set by the Pagani Zonda R a full seven years ago.

Today, the EP9 takes a nap in NIO's Global Headquarters.

Small startup vibes.

Just for the record, it's clear NIO was out for blood the moment it was conceived. It was born with a blade pointed at the big boys of Europe: Mercedes, BMW and Audi.

5 years of EV development...

... is about 20 for the EV industry. In 2019, Tesla's first gigafactory landed in China and took the personal vehicle market in China by storm. Caught in that same battle, NIO underwent 5 years of absolutely brutal competition to arrive at where they are today.

Today? The first generation ES8 is a is a 5-year old car, but almost a relic of a different time. NIO went from a small EV upstart with one singular offering to a market leader in the premium EV market with a plethora of vehicles types.

The only thing that hasn't changed is their unique talent in losing money equal to a small country's GDP per year. Impressive, really.

Okay, Jialu. Besides your crush on their first car (which is getting kind of weird) why are you obsessed over NIO?

Because they took me in for the internship.

Kidding.

Because of this.

Battery swapping stations. These are NOT concept art.

As of 24th July 2024 (the day I'm writing this) NIO has achieved over 49 million power swaps for its vehicles with over 2400 power swap stations around the world. The 4th generation power swap station, slowly deploying across China and the EU takes less than 3 minutes to swap out the depleted battery for a fully-charged one. The entire process is automatic, and heck, you don't even have to get out of the car. And it parks itself. And, later in the year, NIO vehicles will auto queue outside the station in the parking lots, and swap its own battery as you go and get a coffee in the mall.

This is problem solving on steroids, and engineering on crack.

Power swapping technology solves SO MANY problems with EVs.

Range anxiety comes from the fact that charging takes at least 30 minutes. NIO and its partner brands? 3 minutes.

Don't want to fiddle with the charging port outside the car? Stay in it then.

Going out for a longer trip this week? Rent a larger battery. The ET7 with a 150kw battery goes a whopping 1000km on a single charge. Enough for your cross-city drives.

And the biggest problem of them all.

Batteries are consumables.

They are chemical compounds that store energy. Over time, over thousands and millions of high-wattage charging and depletion cycles, they degrade. The faster you charge, the faster it goes. We're not good enough to figure that part out yet, and we may likely never figure it out.

EVs lose almost half their value the moment you start driving them. Because unlike ICE vehicles, you're not driving a car. You're driving a big, comfortable banana. And bananas rot.

NIOs are among some of the most value-retaining vehicles on the market.

NIO vehicles are among the most value-retaining vehicles when it comes to the second-hand market, simply because the batteries aren't fixed. This means there's little to no range decay, batteries get to charge slower and last longer, and it also gives NIO and the governments it works with a proper way to recycle and repurpose old batteries. Oh, and did I mention the charging stations also act as huge batteries for renewables in the city?

Take away the battery, and your car is now a proper car. Swap out as many bananas as you want.

In Q1 of 2024, NIO lost a whopping US$718.1 million dollars.

And yet, against all odds, NIO has broken its historical delivery records by 2 consecutive months.

I mean, it just so happens to be the two months I'm working there, not that I'm saying it's because of me, yknow ;)

... and on track to do the same for a 3rd month straight.

Where is NIO going? Will it eventually crumble under its sheer financial weight? Or is this the start of a startup story of a lifetime?

I'm a big fan of NIO.

5 years ago, it was because the ES8 was the most striking-looking thing I've ever seen on the roads, and because I loved the war Tesla managed to incite.

2-3 years ago it was because of the cute little robot head Nomi in all NIO cars. I never thought I'd have the opportunity to be a big brother to this little guy for 2 months. Thanks for tolerating my horrendous code, you goofer.

please look at him 🥺

Now?

I'm really thankful for the opportunity to see the people behind the scenes, the many engineers and designers fighting for a better, cleaner, more elegant solution to the world.

Now I'm a fan of NIO because, well, someone has to try. Maybe battery swapping will prove to be too expensive. Maybe one day NIO will go under. But someone tried. And maybe one day, because of all of these people, this stubborn-ass industry will finally be healthier to everyone's lungs and wallets.

Sky, vision, earth, action. 天空看齐，脚踏实地。

（特此，感谢实习mentor东升和 manager 楚胜 :) 这段时间学到了很多，谢谢你们🙏）