Is Li Bin's NIO going to abandon JAC and join GAC in a cooperation worth 1.28 billion?

The launch of NIO ES8 announced to people that NIO has arrived, and also let people see the dawn of the future development of Internet cars. Today, on December 28, 2017, following JAC and Changan, GAC and NIO held a strategic cooperation and new energy vehicle project signing ceremony, and the two parties jointly signed the "Memorandum of Strategic Cooperation".

As the first step of the strategic cooperation, the two parties jointly invested in the establishment of GAC NIO New Energy Automobile Co., Ltd. (tentative name, subject to industrial and commercial registration). It is worth mentioning that the new joint venture will produce differentiated products, and it is uncertain whether it will carry the GAC logo or the NIO logo. The joint venture plans to invest a total of 1.28 billion yuan and has a registered capital of 500 million yuan. In addition, according to the cooperation agreement, the two parties will jointly commit to comprehensive cooperation in all aspects of the industrial chain, including resource integration in production and research and development, sales services, supply chain systems, leasing operation models, brand promotion, big data analysis, and multi-level cooperation in vehicle networking and autonomous driving.

This is the third time that NIO has joined hands with a traditional automaker. This time, a joint venture was established to create a new brand. It makes people wonder whether NIO is going to abandon JAC and turn to GAC. In April 2016, NIO and JAC signed the "Manufacturing Cooperation Framework Agreement", confirming JAC's plan to manufacture 50,000 units in the first phase. That year, Li Bin passionately talked about his ideal of making cars on the spot, and An Jin, chairman of JAC, was also full of expectations for NIO. Perhaps under the influence of LeTV Auto, some people have doubts about NIO, but JAC's foundry has put NIO on the right track.

A year later, NIO found its second partner, Changan Automobile. This time, it was not OEM, but cooperation in new energy technology, intelligent technology and other aspects, which was a full-field and all-round cooperation. This also laid the foundation for NIO's future listing. And just after the listing, some consumers seemed to have some opinions about NIO. Although there was no "JAC NIO" tail mark on the tail of NIO ES8, it is well known that NIO ES8 is produced by JAC. In the minds of consumers, they believe that NIO is comparable to JAC in terms of quality and brand premium, and it is not worth selling at a high price of 400,000 or 500,000 yuan.

Perhaps NIO has also realized this. Without a strong industrial foundation and a long-term accumulation of brand premium, a "luxury" like the NIO ES8 cannot achieve satisfactory sales, so they turned their attention to GAC. GAC has a strong background in car manufacturing and has also accelerated its layout of intelligent interconnection this year. In addition, GAC and Tencent reached a consensus not long ago that the two will carry out comprehensive cooperation in the fields of intelligent networking and new energy vehicles. Tencent is also one of the founders of NIO. From this point of view, the cooperation between GAC and NIO seems to be destined.

After the loss of NIO ES8, Li Bin seemed to have realized that when the brand influence does not have enough historical accumulation, the establishment of a high-priced luxury brand will not be recognized by people, and there will be no sales. This time, NIO started from the basics, established a joint venture brand with GAC, produced some affordable and cost-effective models, and greatly increased sales. This kind of low-profile and regaining lost ground generally has a high success rate.

After joining hands with GAC, NIO has a partner who can improve the quality of mass-produced models and create a better user experience in the fields of production, R&D, sales, and intelligent networking, and has taken another step forward in the automotive field. And at present, NIO's three partners are located in East China, South China, and West China, and they are all car companies with rich automotive industry foundations, which is very helpful for fully collecting user data, grasping market trends, and optimizing user experience. It is also convenient for NIO to comprehensively allocate resources and marketing layout, which is of great significance for better gaining a foothold in the market in the future.

For GAC, the mass production of NIO and GAC's new joint venture brand will not only bring advanced Internet thinking, but also expand GAC's new energy vehicle production capacity, enrich GAC's new energy layout, and make it easy to deal with more stringent fuel consumption standards and double-credit policies in the future. The cooperation between the two has far-reaching impact on both parties.

As a winner of Toutiao's Qingyun Plan and Baijiahao's Bai+ Plan, the 2019 Baidu Digital Author of the Year, the Baijiahao's Most Popular Author in the Technology Field, the 2019 Sogou Technology and Culture Author, and the 2021 Baijiahao Quarterly Influential Creator, he has won many awards, including the 2013 Sohu Best Industry Media Person, the 2015 China New Media Entrepreneurship Competition Beijing Third Place, the 2015 Guangmang Experience Award, the 2015 China New Media Entrepreneurship Competition Finals Third Place, and the 2018 Baidu Dynamic Annual Powerful Celebrity.