Hui Zhang
Vice President NIO Europa
Nio is a child of the digital age
With its technologically advanced smart EVs and a user-oriented business model, the Chinese electric brand Nio also wants to compete with Tesla. Hui Zhang, Vice President Europe, explains where the manufacturer takes its self-confidence for the next steps from. He will describe NIO´s business model with the image of a house: The roof describes Nio's vision of a user-oriented and user-driven company. Underneath, there are basically five pillars on which this vision is based. The first pillar is the core product, the SmartEV, which is defined by things like a high-performance computer architecture for autonomous driving, software updates over the air, or intelligent UX assistants like Nomi. The second pillar comprises a comprehensive package of charging solutions that NIO can offer our customers flexibly. These include, for example, the Supercharger, Battery-as-a-Service models and, of course, NIO´s USP, the battery swap systems. Thirdly, NIO wants to build on good reputation in aftersales. After all, every second sale of a new car from Nio in China is based on a personal recommendation.
Nio as a brand is shaped by its users and customers; in Mr. Zhang´s opinion, no other automotive company offers a user experience of this kind. Nio is a child of the digital age and this is reflected in its products and business models.
That is why, for example, NIO has set up a mobile service concept that allows customers to take advantage of a repair service while on the move. The fourth pillar comprises more direct sales concepts, independent points of sale such as Nio House or Nio Space, which offer more than the classic car dealership. Last but not least, the fifth pillar is the community, which should actively help us to develop the brand further. The foundation of this house, in turn, is our technological base, theNio app, and the cloud infrastructure behind it. The press is currently treating the sedan NIO ET7 as a serious competitor to the Mercedes EQS, for example. The model sets standards in terms of design, autonomous driving and electric range. The Nio Adam supercomputer, which is based on Nvidia's Drive Orin platform for automated driving functions, is one of the factors contributing to this.
NIO has a roadmap for autonomous driving, which is actually already clear from our model portfolio. All three current series-production models, the ES8, ES6 and EC6, are still running on the NP 1.0 technology platform, which enables autonomous driving at Level 2+. The ET7 will be the first model to be based on the second generation platform and to offer automated driving functions at level 4.
Vita
Hui Zhang is Vice President of NIO Europe. He heads the German and the UK office of the global electric car startup from Shanghai.
After studying in Beijing, Pforzheim and Utah, Hui Zhang initially worked at VOITH AG in purchasing and supply chain management in China and Germany. Subsequent work-ing for KIEKERT AG as Vice General Manager and Lotus as General Manager, he was responsible for Business Group Industry and Healthcare China at Leoni AG as Member of the China Board. Due to his many years of intercultural experience, both in the German and Chinese markets, Hui Zhang has profound industry knowledge in the are-as of company management, sales, purchasing and supply chain management. He now oversees NIO Europe with offices in Munich and Oxford, where, in addition to design, the focus areas are Supply Chain Management and Advanced Engineering.
About NIO:
NIO Inc. is a pioneer in China’s premium smart electric vehicle market. Founded in November 2014, NIO’s mission is to shape a joyful lifestyle. NIO aims to build a community starting with smart electric vehicles to share joy and grow together with users. NIO designs, jointly manufactures, and sells smart premium electric vehicles, driving innovations in next-generation technologies in connectivity, autonomous driv-ing, and artificial intelligence. Redefining the user experience, NIO provides users with comprehensive and convenient power solutions, the Battery as a Service (BaaS), NIO Pilot and NIO Autonomous Driving (NAD), Autonomous Driving as a Service (ADaaS) and other user-centric services. NIO began deliveries of the ES8, a 7-seater flagship premium electric SUV, in China in June 2018, and its variant, the 6-seater ES8, in March 2019. NIO officially launched the ES6, a 5-seater high-performance premium electric SUV, in December 2018 and began deliveries of the ES6 in June 2019. NIO of-ficially launched the EC6, a 5-seater premium electric coupe SUV, in December 2019 and began deliveries of the EC6 in September 2020. On January 9, 2021, NIO ET7, the smart electric flagship sedan and NIO’s first autonomous driving model, was offi-cially launched.