NIO Inc.

Hello, ladies and gentlemen. Thank you for standing by for NEO Incorporated's second quarter 2024 earnings conference call. At this time, all participants are in listen-only mode. Today's conference call is being recorded. I'll now turn the call over to your host, Mr. Rui Chen, head of investor relations of the company. Please go ahead, Rui.

Thank you. Good morning and good evening, everyone. Welcome to NIO's second quarter 2024 earnings conference call. The company's financial and operating results were published in the press release earlier today and posted on the company's IR website. On today's call, we have Mr. William Lee, founder, chairman of the board, and chief executive officer, and Ms. Danny Chu, chief financial officer. Before we continue, please be kindly reminded that today's discussion will contain forward-looking statements made under the State Harper provisions of the U.S. Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Forward-looking statements involve inherent risks and uncertainties. As such, the company's actual results may be materially different from the view expressed today. Further information regarding risks and uncertainties is included in certain filings of the company with the U.S. Securities Exchange Commission, the Stock Exchange of Hong Kong Limited, and the Singapore Exchange Securities Trading Limited. The company does not assume any obligation to update any forward-looking statements except as required under applicable law. Please also note that Neil's earnings press release and this conference call include discussions of unaudited GAAP financial information, as well as unaudited non-GAAP financial measures. Please refer to Niel's press release, which contains a reconsideration of the unaudited non-GAAP measures to compatible GAAP measures. With that, I will now turn the call over to our CEO, Mr. William Li. William, please go ahead. Hello, everyone.

Thank you for joining Niel's 2024 Q2 earnings call. In the first half of this year, The NIO brand completes the 2024 model year phase list, further enhancing the competitiveness of its NT2 products. In the meantime, as NIO's technologies, products, services, and the user community were recognized by more people, its order intake and delivery continued to grow. NIO's delivery in Q2 reached a quarterly record of 57,373 units, up 143.9%. In China, new models had over 40% market share among all BEVs with a transaction price higher than 300,000 RMB. Since Q3, new product mix has been continuously optimized. In July and August, The delivery was 20,498 and 20,176, respectively. With that, near-monthly delivery had been more than 200,000 for four consecutive months. The total delivery in Q3 is expected to be between 61,000 and 63,000 units. In terms of NIO's financial performance, with continuous cost optimization of core components and the supply chain, the vehicle margin increased to 12.2%. As the user community became larger and more vibrant, the second quarter also witnessed rapid growth in revenues from after sales and the power services. The growth margin of other sales continued to improve. Now, I would like to share with you the recent highlights of our product, R&D and Operations. On July 27, NIO hosted NIO in 2024. At the event, we introduced the full domain operating system SkyOS and the smart system Banyan 3. Moreover, We also announced the successful tape-out of Cingy NS9031, our in-house device chip for smart driving. As for NAD, NIO continues to integrate its seasoned capabilities. In July, the industry's first AEB function based on end-to-end architecture was released, with the scenario coverage 6.7 times better than traditional AEBs. It makes driving safer. At a new year, we also introduced a new world model, NVM, the brand new architecture for smart driving. NAD Arc 2 will also be released. This is the most advanced end-to-end architecture based on NVM, NWM. New features and the expenses of NAD Arc 2 will be released in the second half of this year. On September 19th, our family-centric mass-market brand Anvo is going to celebrate launch of its fourth model, L60. And the use of delivery will start in late September. With a strong confidence in this all-round product, we will spend no effort in ramping up production and fulfilling the market demand. For sales and services, as of now, the new brand has 161 new houses and 408 new spaces, as well as 351 service centers and 63 delivery centers. The Anwu brand has already opened 105 stores in 55 cities. And we have over 200 stores by the end of the year, by the year end. about charging the swapping network. So far, NIO has over 2,561 power swap stations worldwide and has provided over 52 million swaps. Besides, NIO has installed over 23,000 power chargers and destination chargers. Quick and hassle-free recharging is critical for convincing ICE owners to drive EVs. On August 20, they hosted the NEO Power Up event, where we announced the plan of Power Up countries. In the first half of 2025, NEO's charging network will become available in every country in Chinese mainland. By the end of 2025, the swapping network will become available in more than 2,300 countries in China. To better support this initiative, we also announced the Power-Up Partner Plan and signed agreements with further partners. The continuous deployment of the charging and swapping network will help expand the market reach of NEO and Envo and further drive sales growth. As for market development, We are accelerating the international expansion on August 20. News UAE website won't lie. And in Q4, the products will be launched and delivered in UAE. While ensuring controllable investment and efficient operations, we will also actively evaluate opportunities worldwide, introducing products to more markets. In the NUV quality study released by J.D. Power in early June, NIO models ranked highest in the respective segments. NIO is also the only NUV company winning top ranking for six consecutive years. Ever since its establishment, NIO has been committed to making itself a global benchmark of quality and providing great user experience through lifecycle quality management. As NIO has been funded for almost 10 years with the multi-brand strategy and the international business rollout, as well as the external change, they upgraded the company's value system in July. In the quest of a blue sky coming, NIO aspires to shape a sustainable and bright future and visions itself as a youth enterprise where innovative technology meets experienced excellence. With new brands and the products being launched step by step, the fundamental tech capability and the long-term strategic planning that NIO has been developing will have a greater effect. NIO's cumulative R&D investment sophisticated community operations, and efficient infrastructure deployment will lead to better sales and the margin. We look forward to Niel's performance in the second half. Thank you for your support. With that, I will now turn the call over to Stanley for Q2's financial details. Over to you, Stanley.

Thank you, William.

Now let me go over our key financial results for the second quarter of 2024. I will refer to RMB only in my discussion today unless otherwise stated. Our total revenue were 17.4 billion RMB, up 98.9% year-over-year and up 76.1% quarter-over-quarter. Revenues from vehicle sales were 15.7 billion RMB, representing an increase of 118.2%. year-over-year and an increase of 87.1% quarter-over-quarter. The increase year-over-year was mainly attributed to higher deliveries partially offset by a lower average selling price due to changes in product mix and user rights adjustment since June 2023. The increase quarter-over-quarter was mainly attributed to higher deliveries. Other sales were 1.8 billion RMB. representing an increase of 11.3% year-over-year and an increase of 15.6% quarter-over-quarter. The year-over-year increase was mainly due to the increase in sales of parts, accessories, and after-sales vehicle services, and provision of power solutions, which both grow with our user base and partially offset by lower sales of used cars. The increase quarter-over-quarter was mainly attributed to the increase in sales of parts, accessories, and after-sales vehicle services, provision of power solutions and other products, and the increased revenues from technical R&D services. Vehicle margin was 12.2% in this quarter, compared with 6.2% for the same period of 2023 and 9.2% for the last quarter. The year-over-year increase was mainly due to the decreased material costs and was partially offset by a lower average selling price. The quarter-over-quarter increase was mainly due to decreased material costs. Overall gross margin was 9.7%, compared with 1% in the same period of last year and 4.9% in the last quarter. R&D expenses were 3.2 billion RMB, decreased 3.8% year-over-year, and increased 12.4% quarter-over-quarter. The quarter-over-quarter increase was mainly due to the incremental design and the development costs and the increased personnel costs in R&D functions. SG&A expenses were 3.8 billion RMB, increased 31.5% year-over-year, and increased 25.4% quarter over quarter, which was mainly driven by higher personnel costs related to sales functions and increased sales and marketing activities. Loss from operations was 5.2 billion RMB, representing a decrease of 14.2% year over year and a decrease of 3.4% quarter over quarter. Net loss was 5 billion RMB, representing a decrease of 16.7% year-over-year and a decrease of 2.7% quarter-over-quarter. As of June 30, 2024, our company had cash and cash equivalents, restricted cash, short-term investments, and long-term time deposits in total of 41.6 billion RMB. For more information and the details of our audited second quarter 2024 financial results. Please refer to our earnings press release. Now this concludes our prepared remarks. I will turn the call over to the operator to facilitate our Q&A session. Thank you.

Thank you. If you wish to ask a question, please press star 1 on your telephone and wait for your name to be announced. If you wish to cancel your request, please press star 2. If you're on a speakerphone, please pick up the handset to ask your question. Your first question comes from Tim Hesiao from Morgan Stanley. Please go ahead.

Hi, management team. Thanks for taking my question. I have two questions. The first question is about our new model L60, because L60 started pre-sale in mid-May. And since then, I think the model has received tens of thousands of pre-orders. which is very robust compared to all the new launches lately. But how could NIO also ensure a high conversion rate this time after the official launch on September 19? Would the company consider getting more aggressive with the official pricing given the competition? And in the meantime, what kind of supply chain preparation the team has done to avoid any potential supply disruption after the delivery starts? That's my first question. Thank you.

Thank you, Tim. So far, the performance of this car is very good. All aspects are very good. That has also caused a lot of attention. For example, they now have live broadcasts every day. There are millions of people watching yesterday's live broadcast and today's live broadcast. The order situation is very good. The pre-order situation exceeds our expectations. So in general, we are very confident in the product competitiveness of this car. Of course, in terms of pricing, we now have a pre-order price.

Thank you for the question. On August 15th, we have witnessed the offline of the very first mass-produced L60, and the head of sales of the Anwu brand is actually driving this very first mass-produced car, having a road trip in China, and he has been driving the car for almost 20 days while doing the broadcast on the social media. It has received a lot of attention from the public. Every day there are several millions of views of the broadcast, by the members. In terms of the pre-order intake, it actually is pretty good and has surpassed our expectation. So we are quite confident with the overall competitiveness of this project. Regarding the pricing strategy, well, we launched the project in mid-May. We have announced a pre-sale price, which is 290,900 RMB. That is around 30,000 RMB cheaper than Model Y. And before the official launch of the product on September 19, we still have some time and the room for the final price adjustments and the decision. But overall speaking, we will try to strike a balance between the vehicle margin and the price point of the product to find the sweet spot. In general, we will not be very aggressive as we needed to realize a reasonable margin for the product. Regarding the supply chain security, Our target is that by the end of this year, which is in September, we hope that we can realize a supply capacity of 10,000 units. And sometime next year, we will be able to realize a supply capacity of 20,000 units per month. Understood.

Next question.

Sure. Thank you, Ruilin, for sharing your details. My second question is about the neoprene, the recodes on the neoprene. because we noticed the monthly sales of models on the new brand have stabilized at the 20,000 levels in the second quarter. So we're looking for, will there be any further upside to the VCO sales and the gross profit margin based on our current product portfolio? If yes, please share with us that where would be the upside to the volume and the margin of new brand VCOs coming from? That's my second question. Thank you.

Hi, Tim. This is Stanley. Your question about the future market share of brands. I think Q2's market share has reached 12.2% of the overall market share. This is mainly due to the improvement of our supply chain and production efficiency. With our sales reaching 20,000 units in four consecutive months, Next, we have found more opportunities. One is to continue to optimize the cost of our products. The other is that at the market level, we will also have relevant actions to improve the ratio of our high-power vehicles. To integrate these methods, in the third and fourth quarter of this year, we hope to gradually increase our whole vehicle horsepower rate.

Thank you for your question. Regarding the vehicle margin of the new blend, in the second quarter, we have achieved the vehicle margin of 12.2%. That is mainly because of the efficiency improvements on the supply side and also in the production. As in the past four months, we have realized the monthly delivery volume of 20,000 units. Of more than 20,000 units, we also see the opportunities for further improvements, including the cost optimization of the product, as well as to improve the high-margin products in the product mix from the marketing side. With that, we will keep improving the vehicle margin in the following two quarters of this year and expect to realize a vehicle margin of around 15% by the end of the year.

And also a comment to add here is that we also see opportunities to improve our delivery volumes month over month, yet we will also need to strike a balance between the vehicle delivery volume and the vehicle margin.

both will increase but will not be in a very drastic manner for either margin or the vehicle volume. Ultimately, we pursue a very good gross profit with our product, so we need to find the sweet spot in between.

In the long term, we are focusing on the market above 300,000 RMB. In the long term, we believe that with the new products in the future, And for the much longer time as new brand targets premium segments priced over 300,000 RMB, as we are going to launch new products and also do facelifts and upgrades on the products,

I would believe that in the battery electric vehicle segment, realizing a monthly volume of around 30,000 to 40,000 units is a reasonable target and a volume.

So all sum up, for the new brand, our long-term operational target is to realize a monthly volume of 40,000 units

at a vehicle margin of 25%.

Of course, Anguo's market is bigger. Its market is more than 80 million units. Combined with our bus, our oil car, our PHEV, our Zengcheng, and our pure electricity, we believe that combining our charging network is very competitive. Of course, we believe that its opportunity, from a sales point of view, its opportunity, its upper limit must be much higher. As for the Anvo brand, it faces a much larger market with a total car park of more than 8 million.

In that case, leveraging our battery as a service as well as our well-established charging and swapping network, we believe that Anvo's products will be competitive even against the competition with P-Hive, RAV, and other BAF models. So for our products, they do have a higher potential or bigger potential for a higher cell volume month over month. And for the longer term, our operational target for our products will be more than 15% for the vehicle margin. And we believe that it's also a reasonable target.

Thank you, Kim.

Thank you very much. Thanks for the insight and looking forward to the L60 launch. Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you. Your next question comes from Bin Wang from Deutsche Bank. Please go ahead.

Okay, thank you so much. My first question is also about the Home Board LS60. Previously you mentioned that this year your volume target is about 20,000 units. Given the strong order, do you still maintain such a volume target? And if you can break down by month, because we are not exactly in the end of this month, so what's the progress for, say, October, November, December? So that is my first question. And second question is about the expense, SGA expense. Since that expense keeps increasing, what's your target for this quarterly SGA expense? Do you have guidance for each quarter in the upcoming second half? Thank you.

Thank you, Wang Bin. Let me answer the first question. I think that this year's total delivery amount, because uh... so you wouldn't I will take the first question. This is William. Regarding the AMO L60,

We will start the delivery of the products from late September, but it will take some time for us to ramp up the production and supply of our new product. So most of our deliveries this year will happen in Q4. We will start delivery from September, but not in a very significant volume. And towards the end of the year, we hope that our monthly delivery will be around 10,000 units for the month of December. In terms of the supply side, as the car is equipped with many new technologies, it will also take some time for the supply side to ramp up their production. Thank you.

第二个问题关于费用呢, 我分两块来说,一块是研发费用。 我们还是依然维持我们每一个季度, 从non-GAAP的口径来说,30个亿左右人民币的这样的一个投入的强度。 It will fluctuate with our projects. Secondly, regarding our sales management costs, we will start to pay our Le Dao L60 at the end of the third quarter of this year. With the payment of Le Dao, our corresponding sales costs will increase. This is Stanley. I will take the second question. Regarding expenses, there are two categories. The first is R&D expenses. We will still keep the similar R&D investment pace and intensity on a quarterly basis.

So roughly, on the non-GAAP basis, it will be around 3 billion RMB every quarter, but there will also be fluctuations or slight differences from quarter to quarter as they are relevant to our actual R&D activities conducted. And regarding the second category, SG&A expenses, as we have mentioned that in late Q3, we will start the delivery of the L60. With that, there will be increase in our SG&A expenses. But as we ramp up the delivery volume of the product, we also think that we will keep optimizing the percentage of the SG&A expenses against the overall sales revenue from L60. Thank you.

Thank you, Anbin.

Thank you.

Thank you. Your next question comes from Tina Hao from Goldman Sachs. Please go ahead.

Thanks for taking my question. So my first question is also regarding Envo L60. So just wondering at, let's say, 10K volume in December this year and 20K volume next year, what kind of growth margin should be reasonable for this model? Also, as we are ramping up to higher and higher volume, what is our capacity expansion plan and also capex plan? for 2025 and maybe 2026, should we expect CapEx to become higher versus 2024? So that's the first question. The second question is also regarding the sales marketing expense. So we had over 30% SG&A expense growth in the second quarter. Wondering, could you give more details on the sub-items, which is the one that's growing the fastest? And also, is any of the sales policy recorded in the SG&A expense? Yeah, so that's my second question. Thanks.

Thank you, Tina. 你回答一下后面开头的问题。 那我们如果从L-60的角度来讲的话, 我们在这个它的达产了以后, 也就是说它的产能爬坡到 We expect that after this, it will have a profit margin of about 15 points. But now the market is very competitive. We have also reserved some variable marketing. We have a sufficient estimate of the market competition. But in general, we think it has a chance to achieve a profit margin of 15 points. Because this car, from a design for efficiency, design for cost point of view, to ensure that its technology is leading at the same time, We make sure that this car has a very good competitiveness in terms of cost. So from the point of view of production capacity, we are really preparing for the full-line product of 2025 and 2026. We now have two factories. Our F2 has already started to produce double. It has already started to produce for the LR60. By the end of September and the end of October, we will be able to complete the double production. We are already starting to build our third factory. Next year, around September, we will officially start production in the third quarter of next year. That is to say, by the third quarter of next year, we will have at least three factories. So we think it can ensure our long-term production needs.

Thank you for your question. This is William. I will take your first question. Regarding L60, when its overall production volume reaches a reasonable and expected target, we believe that it will naturally realize a 15% vehicle margin. Of course, against the fierce competition, we have also reserved some room for the variable marketing of the product so that we will be more flexible in the competition, yet overall speaking, As the product itself is designed for efficiency and the cost, 15% vehicle margin is a reasonable target for this model, as we actually managed to realize a good balance between the technology advancement and the cost competitiveness. Regarding the capacity appropriation, we are having the mid- and long-term planning for our production capacity in 2025 and 2026. As of now, we already have two factories in operation. F2 has already started to upgrade to double shifts to support the production of L60. In late September or early October, the upgrade to two shifts will be completed in F2. And in the meantime, we are also planning our third factory. And around Q3 next year, the third factory will be ready to produce the products. which means that by Q3 next year, we will have three factories in operation, and it will be sufficient to support our production.

总的来说,Tina, 我们不觉得工厂的产能对我们来说会是一个问题, 因为你也知道中国的整车和零部件的生产能力非常的强, 所以产能可能是一个短期的压力, 但总的来说,它对我们不会是一个长期的瓶颈。 Overall speaking, we don't think production capacity will be a bottleneck for us, especially it will not be a long-term bottleneck for us.

Here in China, the production capacity and capabilities of vehicles and parts are quite competent. Maybe some companies will face short-term disturbance in their capacity and the supply, yet for long-term, it will not be a bottleneck. Especially last year, we have obtained the independent manufacturing qualification. This has also laid a foundation for our long-term stable capacity.

Thank you. Thank you. Regarding the capital spending, we have already, according to the actual situation of the company, carefully controlled the investment rhythm of our capital spending. In fact, since last year, we have already started to postpone or cancel some projects. So in general, the CAPAC in 2024 may be significantly lower than in 2023. In 2025, because there is no specific budget in place yet, but in general, it should be equivalent to this year's investment intensity.

This is Stanley. I will take your second question. Regarding the CAPEX, according to the of the company, we are making prudent control and the management of the pace of our investment and expenses. Especially starting last year, we have already started such management by postponing certain projects or even canceling some projects. So overall speaking, the R&D or the CAPEX in the year of 2024 will be significantly lower than that in 2023. As for 2025, as we haven't started budgeting for the next year, we don't have a clear picture over that, but we believe that the overall expense intensity will be similar to this year. Thank you.

另外一个问题关于这个SGNA的增长在二季度, 主要是两个部分。 一个是随着这个销量从一季度的三万多台到二季度的五万七千台呢, Our human resources, including the number of employees, and the number of rewards for the employees, have all increased. This is the first major part. The second part of the growth is that this year's 2024 model is actually a comprehensive change from this year's March and April. So, from the second quarter, we have also strengthened As for the increase in the SG&A expenses in Q2, it mainly contributed to two reasons.

The first is that in Q1, we delivered around 30,000 units, and in Q2, we delivered a total of more than 57,000 units. The increase of our sales volume naturally drove up the staff cost, mainly because the team size has grown and also the incentives for the sales force has increased as well. And the second reason is that In the first half of this year, we have launched our model year phase weeks, and many of the new products were launched around March and April. In that case, we have also started a series of communications and marketing campaigns relevant to our model year products. That has also increased the relevant expenses from Q1.

Thank you, Tina.

Thank you so much. Can I have a very quick follow-up? So in terms of envelope store, do you have the average store rental cost versus a NIO store? And also, how many employees do you plan to deploy in an envelope store versus that of a NIO store? Thank you. 乐道的开店呢,我们其实是有一个

a relatively fast and efficient standard. So, from a single-electric investment, including our single-electric CapEx investment, and the rent you just mentioned, in fact, they are all significantly lower than the NIO side. So, in detail, it may be that each point position, including the point position of the mall and the motorcycle shop, is different. So there is no way to talk about it in detail, but in general, it is lower than NIO's individual rental cost.

Regarding the opening of online stores, we actually require the team to open up the stores in a quick and efficient manner. So in terms of the capex as well as the rent of a single online store, it is significantly lower than that of a NIO store. But we don't have the specific numbers for comparison as the actual expenses may be quite different depending on the locations and the type of the store. But overall, the expense is lower, significantly lower than that of NIO. 我们给乐道门店的装修费用也设置了比较严格的标准。

Currently, the average installation cost of each store is not exceeding one million yuan. Of course, the other 100 stores will have lower installation standards. Therefore, we will do our best to make the most of it and improve the efficiency of our store's investment. Regarding the installation of the store personnel, this is actually based on the number of orders And in terms of the renovation fee for each of the AMO store, we actually have a very strict requirement. For the existing 100 AMO stores we have just opened, for each store, the renovation fee was no more than 1 million RMB.

And for the following 100 stores we are going to open by the end of the year, we will have an even more strict requirement on renovation. With that, we will be able to make full use of the existing resources and to renovate the store in a more efficient manner. In terms of the team size for each of the store, it depends on the actual number of orders and the deliveries we plan for each store in each city. But in general, we will make sure that the team is also set up in the most efficient and compact way.

Thank you, Tina.

Thank you. Your next question comes from Yuqian Ding from HSBC. Please go ahead.

Thank you, Tim. Yuqian here. I've got two questions. First is about Tom's driving progress and second is about market and competition dynamics. First question, could you share the NEO NLP progress, especially could you break down in terms of the consumer take rate, our disengagement rate, scenario coverage, the regional expansion, these aspects. And the second question is to ask against the backdrop of in the premium EV segment, there's a couple of new models coming, especially in the coming months to the end of the year. And also we notice that the high-tier city versus the low-tier city, the consumer consumption is sliding in general and more so than the low-tier city. So could you help us to get comfortable and a conviction on Neo and Anvo's portfolio product technology and service expansion could counter these macro headwinds and still book growth quote-unquote perspectives maybe in an aspect of channel order, momentum, and latest consumer feedback. Thank you.

Okay, thank you, Yuqian. Indeed, the competition in smart driving is still quite intense. We are sure that we are in the first category. So as of July, the total number of NOP Plus users is more than 300,000. But because all of our cars are standard, we have traveled more than 1.1 billion kilometers in the entire fleet of NOP users. In fact, from the size of a car and from the point of view of a total use, it is ahead of all the competitors in the country.

Thank you for your question. We also noticed the fierce competition in the area of smart driving, yet we are also confident that NIO is among the top players in this area. Regarding NLP Plus, it is now being used by more than 300,000 users as it is now offered as a standard feature on our NT2 products. In the meantime, the cumulative knowledge driven with NLP and NLP Plus has reached or has surpassed 1.1 billion kilometers. So in terms of the user base as well as the total knowledge driven with the functionality, we are also a top player in China.

Our A1B is the main safety part. We see that it can significantly improve its performance. In terms of the original traditional A1B method, its coverage scene has increased by 6.7 times. Indeed, its ability is very strong. In this year's NEAR-IN, we released our world-model edge-to-edge. Because edge-to-edge is a way of implementation, but what kind of edge-to-edge is very important. In terms of the test results of the small-scale experiment, we are very impressed. We can treat it faster with lower costs. The experience is also very good. If you look at it, our Le Dao, I use Danko Arun's pure visual program. It also has a very good performance in the city area. I just tested it myself in Shanghai. It's very good. So overall, the progress of NAD in smart driving is not much different from what we expected. Of course, it still takes some time to really achieve high usability, but from a high security perspective, we have clearly seen an improvement in its security.

Regarding the technology roadmap, right now inside of the industry, many players are converging their technology solutions and the roadmap into end-to-end model, be it Tesla or other players in China. For NIO, we are also working on our end-to-end model and we have already released our first end-to-end based feature that is end-to-end AEB. Its performance has been significantly improved than the traditional AEB functionality, as its scenario coverage is 6.7 times better than the traditional AEB. And in the meantime, at the new Inn, we have also released our end-to-end architecture based on the new word model. Because end-to-end is an architecture, but its foundation technology is also very important. And we are the first company to develop and announce such word model and the end-to-end architecture based on the model. We have also released the NAD Arc 2.0. So the end-to-end model will be based on the new, the end-to-end architecture will be based on the new world model where you can see that the new world model is developed with the end-to-end architecture solution. Overall speaking, we believe that we're still leading the block in terms of the smart driving technologies. We have already tested the latest functionality on NAD Arc 2.0 at the small scale. and its performance is pretty impressive. Overall speaking, with word model and end-to-end architecture, we will be able to realize quicker functionality iteration, better experience at a lower cost. In terms of the onboard brand, its product will come with a single array with pure vision technology solution. But even with that, it has realized a very good performance in the urban driving scenario The other days I have tested the functionality in Shanghai and it's also pretty good. So overall speaking, we believe that and we also saw facts that the smart driving functionalities will help users improve the safety of driving. In terms of the actual usability of the functionality, we will also keep working on that.

It has always been very intense. Of course, this is not the first day to face this situation. We have always faced this competition. But if we look at the high-end market, our market share has always been very stable. This has a great deal to do with our product category. If we look at it, whether it's from ET5, ET5T, ES6, EC6, ET7, EC7, ES8, We have covered a wide enough segment market in each segment market. In fact, in each segment market, we are in the leading position in the B1V field. Even in some markets, such as the Turing, a relatively individual market, and some markets such as EC6 and EC7, we are actually uh, uh, regarding your second question we also understand the intensity of the market competition and this is not the first time for us to face such fierce competition yet new has the new brand has been

realizing a pretty stable market share in the premium segment for years. This is mainly because we have a diversified and rich product portfolio to offer for the premium segment. We have 85, 5T, ES6, EC6, ET7, EC7, ES7, plus ES8. So it's a pretty wide range of a product offering that will be enough to cover many product segments. And many of these products are also leading the sales volume in their respective BEV product segment. Not to mention that for some niche products like ET5T, EC7, or EC6, in their respective segments, their volume is even higher than some of the ICE competitors. So overall speaking, we have made a quite successful product portfolio and offering strategy. Plus, we also have other advantages, such as charging and swapping network, leading technologies, good product experience, service, and the user community. This has further enhanced and solidified our foothold in the premium segment. Of course, in the meantime, we also hope that more players can also come into this segment so that we can work with them together to enlarge the size of this premium segment, premium BEV segment.

Yes, of course, from the whole company's perspective, our growth strategy is very clear and very clear. The first one, of course, is that we can expand through the price range. By next year, NIO will have three brands. We will cover the price range from 140,000 to 800,000 in B1V. If we don't have batteries and use BUS for sales, We will form a very direct comparison with oil cars. We will cover such a range of 100,000 to 700,000 RMB. So our target market is actually wider than our competitors. Then the second is the expansion of our category. In fact, we also talked about it before. We use multi-brand, multi-format product combinations. We will establish a multi-class coverage capability. Our product layout is more complete. The advantage of optimization is also very large. The third, of course, is the expansion of our area. Now, the sales volume of NIO is mainly in the 1st and 2nd line. Through the coverage of the 3rd and 4th line, as well as our charging, charging, and line-to-line communication, we will jointly enhance the coverage of our three brands in the whole country, as well as the expansion of some markets outside China. In general, from the point of view of NIO's long-term growth, we are very clear. The first is the expansion of the price range.

In the meantime, for the entire new company, we actually have a pretty clear and straightforward strategy for the continuous business growth. The first is via wider price range. From next year, we're going to have three brands in the markets. With battery, the price range that can be covered by these three brands will be as wide will be pretty wide, ranging from $140,000 all the way to $800,000 RMB. And with battery as a service, the price range will be from $100,000 to $700,000, which will be a very strong competition to the ICE costs in the respective segments. With three brands with a wide price range, we will be able to reach a broader market than many of our other competitors. The second approach is via our wide product range. We have three brands. We also have a very diversified product portfolio of each brand. In that case, we will be able to cover a pretty comprehensive product segment with clear differentiation between each brand. And the third approach is through the markets and the regional coverage. Right now, we are expanding our point of sales into the lower tier cities Especially for new, at the moment, most of ourselves are in the first and second tier cities. So such coverage expansion is also very important. We have also announced other plans like the county power up plan where we will expand our charging and swapping network to the counties at all levels. With that, it will help us to further enhance the reach of all third brands. Plus, we also have the business development plan for the overseas markets. So overall speaking, for the long-term growth and the development, we have a clear roadmap that is via wide price range, wide product range, and also broader regional coverage.

Thank you. Awesome. Thank you.

Thank you. Thank you. Your next question comes from Paul Gong from UBS. Please go ahead.

Hi, William. Thanks for taking my questions. Two questions here. The first one is regarding the flagship SEDAR ET9. I think it was announced to schedule for launch in Q1 next year. Is it still on schedule? And can you give some updates regarding this model in terms of the positioning, new technology adoption, as well as, say, the target volume outlook? The second question is regarding the overseas expansion. You are going to open the store in UAE and start delivering there. Is it a signal of the change of that direction as a result of the EU tariff that you are switching the direction from Europe into Middle East? Also, one of your peers has nowadays been delivering over 10% of their volume into the overseas market. Do you think this serves as a benchmark for your overseas expansion over the next one or two years? Thank you.

Thank you, Paul. First of all, according to our plan, we have not changed the schedule of our SUD. Of course, ET9 has used a lot of new technologies, such as fiber optic transfer, FAS, and we are going to use our new chip and our entire new operating system. So it has a lot of new technologies. We will definitely be very, very careful to ensure that its listing is successful. The second is overseas expansion. We have not changed any direction. So in general, we are doing it more patiently. UAE is also following our plan. Last year, you also know that UAE invested more than $3 billion in US dollars. So it is also in our plan. We will cooperate with local strategic partners to provide our products and services locally. The difference is that from next year, we will have Angle and FiveFly are more suitable for products that enter the global market. So next, because there is Angle and FiveFly, our global expansion plan will actually be more positive. When we balance this investment and efficiency, we ensure that there will be some smarter ways to have a positive impact on the company's wealth.

Thank you for the question. Regarding the first question on the ET9, we're still proceeding the ET9 launch preparation according to the plan, and we haven't made any changes on the SOD of this product. But in the meantime, as you know that the ET9 is equipped with many new technologies, including steer-by-wire, fully active suspension, in-house developed chip, as well as SkyOS. So we will need to bear no effort in making sure and preparing for the successful launch of this product next year. Regarding your second question on our international expansion, we haven't changed our direction. Yes, because of the tariffs in Europe, now selling or exporting costs from China to Europe becomes more expensive. So we will focus on the existing five European markets that we have already started. We also know that to establish NEO, such a premium brand, in the European market will also take a longer time, and we are very patient with that. But in the meantime, it doesn't mean that we have stopped our activities there. Earlier this year, we have just opened our NEO house in Amsterdam, and we are still installing and deploying our power swap stations in Europe. So we will still keep the same plan. In terms of the market entry into UAE, As you may know that last year we have received a $3 billion US dollar strategic investment from the Abu Dhabi government, and then the market entry into UAE is part of the plan. With that, we will work with our strategic partners in UAE to offer our products and services to the local market. Starting next year, a big difference is that we not only have a new brand and products, but also products from Anwo and Firefly, which are more suitable for the global market. With that, we will be actually more active with our international expansion. But in the meantime, we will also need to keep a good balance between our investment skill and the efficiency to make sure that we enter into the global market in a smarter and more efficient way. Thank you.

Thank you. That's helpful. Thank you, Pao.

Thank you. Your next question comes from Ming Sun Lee from Bank of America. Please go ahead.

Hello, William Stanley. I also have two questions. So my first question is more related to the overall macro. So in your view, what is the potential growth rate for the China EV market in the next few years? Because I think recently some investors expect that the EV penetration will slow down because right now the EV penetration is already very high. So, yeah, just your view, what is the EV penetration in the next three years? Yeah, that's my first question. And my second question is regarding the Firefly pipeline. So right now, will you launch one or two models in 2025 for Firefly. Thank you. That's my two questions.

Thank you, Min. If we look at the passenger vehicle market, in June this year, it grew by 3.6% in the first half of this year. But we can see that it is growing without a doubt. In the long term, we believe that it is actually If you look at the maintenance volume of Chinese cars, it is already 3.3 billion. So we don't think it's possible that the passenger car market can continue to grow like this. So we think it will maintain such a scale. We don't think there will be a higher growth. In fact, if there is a drop, it is normal. I think this is actually a very normal thing. Because China is still the world's largest car market. The penetration rate of NEV is now more than 50%. I think this penetration rate will be further improved and will be improved more quickly. Whether it is from BEV or other PHEV, it will accelerate the replacement of oil cars. In fact, once it exceeds 50%, it will actually be very fast. Then if we look at the example of Norway, it can actually give us a reference. In fact, in Norway, after exceeding 51%, it quickly reached a gap of 80 to 90%. So I personally think that in about two years, China's NEV market penetration rate will exceed 80%. I am very sure of this. This is our prediction.

Thank you for the question. If you look at the overall passenger vehicle market, in the first half of this year, it has increased by around 3.6%. For the longer term, actually if you look at the total PV population in China, it's as big as 20 to 30 million units. So it's already a very significant amount. Definitely it will keep growing, but probably not at a very significant growth rate. And it's even normal. for the PV segment or PV market to suffer a slight decrease. But even with that, the Chinese market will still be the largest passenger vehicle market in the world. In terms of the penetration rate of the new energy vehicle, it has already surpassed 50%, and I think that it will continue to increase and at an even faster manner. Because for the replacement of the ICE cost, be it by BEVs or PHIs, it will be much faster once it has surpassed this 50% tipping point. We can take Norway as a reference or example. It actually grew at a 50% penetration rate at first, and then it has quickly increased to 80% and 90%. So similarly for China, I believe that in two to three years, the penetration rate of new energy vehicles among new vehicle cells will surpass 80%. Yeah.

In fact, from the perspective of an ICE car, it is now entering a vicious cycle because they can only maintain their own market share through price drop. The price drop is very strong, whether it is a premium brand or a massive market brand, whether it is a Chinese brand or an international brand. So the price drop will be very It will reduce the profitability of its dealers. It will reduce its brand, including the residual value of this second-hand car. So in fact, now ICE's car has entered China into a, in my opinion, is an acceleration of a market share, an acceleration of a downward cycle. If we look at it, now it may be, for example, Honda, this Honda is now in the field, and Fengtian, Japan, all of these Japanese companies, In fact, they are now repeating some of the problems that modern enterprises or Ford encountered in China a few years ago. We saw that GM also encountered a very big problem. So I think in the next few years, these joint-stock companies' oil cars will be very, very troublesome in China. So these markets will be able to give out some of these NEV brands, whether it is a Chinese company or a global company.

If we look at the ICE costs in China, actually they have entered into an unsustainable cycle or a vicious cycle because many ICE brands have to cut their prices to keep their market share. Be it premium brands or mass market brands, be it brands from China or from other countries, Many of these ICE cars are having a price slashed for the sake of a market share. But as they cut prices, it also hurts the profit and interest of their dealers, hurts the image of the brand, as well as the residual value of their products. With that, it is even more difficult for them to keep a very strong market share in their segment. So the decline of their market share is even faster than it should be. For the recent years, we have already witnessed the significant decline of the market shares of Korean brands like Hyundai, Kia, including Ford and General Motors. And for the recent years, Japanese brands like Toyota, Honda, and Nissan are also entering the same phase. So in general, we believe that the IC costs from these joint venture brands will face quite difficulties. in the future competition. And when they lose the market shares, they normally lose market shares to other new energy vehicle brands, including brands from China and Europe. So in that regard, I believe that the penetration rate of the new energy vehicle will grow at a pretty quick pace, even faster than we expected.

第二个问题就是, Firefly 2025年我们会交付的, 所以产品准备工作,

And regarding your second question, yes, we are going to deliver the product from Firefly from 2025. We are in smooth progress with our product preparation.

Thank you.

Thank you. Your next question comes from Cheng Jing from CICC. Please go ahead.

Okay, thank you for taking my questions. I have two questions. The first is in regard to our new operating system, SkyOS, which has been released in July. So it has shown very comprehensive and in-depth our software self-development ability. So can you just introduce and ask more details of what other technical challenges we have faced and what and also the improvement of our product can be brought by the new system. So this is the first question. The second is regard to the other income, gross profit margin. We have seen in the second quarter the gross profit margin has improved significantly. So how to understand these major drivers and also what's our forecast for the trend this and the continuity of the margin improvement in the future. So, also with our growth of our sales volume, can we see that our charging, especially charging and battery swap business can turn to profit in the future?

Thank you, Tang Jing. SkyOS should be the world's first full-fledged car recovery operating system. This is its highlight, but it is also its difficulty. Because Smart EV has developed to this day, we all know that it is impossible to manage the entire car with the old self-destructing OS, such a new structure. So from the perspective of SkyOS, we use Hypervisor, which is a virtual machine, to manage different This mcu ecu some of these this core is this to the top of the middle bar we are a very complete such a structure we after Four years of time invested more than 20,000 people we are we are doing it very completely this is actually very difficult So what has been improved is that it is a it is from a direction It makes the car more This one a foundation software to do it. In fact, this can only be done in the application layer. So this is also what we are very happy about. We are finally able to have such a system. Of course, later on, SkyOS will support, our Angle will support our NIO's all-in-one car, including our Firefly. So in short, it is our entire NIO

Thank you for the question. Regarding SkyOS, it's the world's first full-domain vehicle operating system. That is the special thing with SkyOS, which is also the difficulty or the challenge we have faced when developing the SkyOS. Because when it comes to the era of the smart electric vehicles, we cannot use the fragmented operating systems to manage the electric architecture of the car anymore. With that, we have developed the SkyOS. It comes at three levels. At the bottom, we have the SkyOS H, that is the hypervisor. And in the middle, we have four kernels for the SkyOS. And on the top, we have a SkyOS middleware. So it's a very comprehensive solution we have developed. We've used four years with 20,000 person-mouse with this great work. In terms of its benefits, the SkyOS is definitely making the car safer and more secure. It also makes the system stabler, and it also helps us to realize more efficient R&D process and iteration process. It also helps us solve the problems faced by the smart electric vehicles, like huge data throughput, cross-domain fusion, and also the latency along the communications. Because we know that it's impossible to realize such benefits by simply working on the application layer adaptation. We need to do something at the foundational level, and we are very happy that we have made it happen. The SkyOS will be applied to our author brands, including Neo, Envoy, and Firefly. We can say that SkyOS is a software cornerstone for our future products and development.

In the second quarter of this year, due to the increase in the number of users of Baoyou, the profits of other businesses have also been improved, mainly in two parts. The main reason is an improvement in the efficiency of our after-sales service. On February 20, we announced the second version of the service-free set meal. In this version of the service-free product, we actually made a lot of improvement in the efficiency. It also helped us to improve the profitability of our post-sales services. Another one is that as we took over the life-long free exchange of power and car sales last year, the number of paid users is increasing as our sales increase. So this makes us In addition, the revenue and profits of the e-commerce service are gradually increasing. These two factors have led to a significant reduction in the loss of our other businesses in the second quarter. And we believe that with the gradual increase in our sales and the rise of Le Dao, I don't think it will take long for the balance of profit and loss to be balanced.

Regarding the revenues or the loss on other sales in Q2, we have significantly narrowed the losses on other sales in Q2. It's mainly because of the two reasons. I think Q2 we have improved or increased our user deliveries with that. Well, actually there are two reasons. The first is that we have improved the profitability and the efficiency of our aftermarket sales. Earlier this year, on February 20th, we have released the 2024 water-free service policy. With the new policy, our after-sales services become more efficient and also more profitable. And secondly, we have also decoupled the lifetime free power swap from the sales of the vehicles. With that, more and more users, especially new users, have to pay for the power swap services. This has also helped us improve the revenues and the margins. on the PowerSwap-related services. With that, we have significantly narrowed the losses on the other cells. And we believe that in the future, as we continue to grow the total user base and the cell volume, especially with the launch and delivery of the onboard products, the profitability of the other cells will also become stronger, and we look forward to the break-even or even the profit from this part.

The first question is about the profit and loss of the exchange station and the exchange business. First of all, if we simply look at the exchange station and the exchange business itself, if our exchange rate per day is more than 60 orders, if our fees are according to the superimposed fee level, then our single station can achieve equity balance. At present, Currently, we have more than 2,500 exchange stations in China, and our Japanese exchange rate is now an average of 30 to 40 orders per day. So you can see that from 30 to 40 orders, and then it grows to 60 orders. In fact, we are not far from the balance of profit and loss in the exchange business. Of course, why is it now that from the perspective of the whole group, What are some of the losses in the power exchange industry? The first one is that when we first delivered our products, we provided users with the option of lifelong free service. In this way, these users will bring us some losses in the power exchange industry. The second one is that in the past two years, We are deeply aware that the network effect of the power station is very helpful for us to sell cars. So we are very active in the layout of our power station. In this way, because of the advanced layout, it will also bring us some losses. So in general, to sum up, just look at the power station business. In fact, we are not far from this balance. And in terms of the profitability of the power swap service or in general power swap stations,

If we look at the single swap station, if it can offer more than 60 power swaps per day, and in the meantime, if we charge all the power swap services at the same level for the supercharging, then the single station will become break-even. And right now in China, we have more than 2,500 power swap stations, and on average, each station can complete around 30 to 40 swaps per day. So from 30 to 40 to 60, it's not a long way to go for us to make the power swap station break even. But in the meantime, we still suffer the loss on the power swap business. It's mainly because of two reasons. The first is that at the early stage for the early adopters of a new product, we have offered free lifetime power swaps to many of these users, which has actually worsened the burden on the cost of the power swap stations and the power swap services. And secondly, as we roll out our business and the network, we also came to realize that the network effect of the power swap station actually has a very significant meaning to the boost of the sales volume. In that case, we are more active in installing power swap stations even ahead of the actual need. So this swap station deployed in advance also brings additional losses or burden to the business. So in general, if we look at the power swap station itself, it's not far away from break-even and profit early. Yet considering its actual contribution to the south volume, we have decided to deploy many stations in advance, and this has caused the loss on the business.

Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

Thank you. As there are no further questions now, I'd like to turn the call back over to the company for closing remarks.

Thank you again for joining us today. If you have further questions, please feel free to contact Neil's IR team through the contact information on our website. This concludes the conference call. You may now disconnect the line. Thank you. Thank you. you Thank you.

Hello, ladies and gentlemen. Thank you for standing by for NEO Incorporated's second quarter 2024 earnings conference call. At this time, all participants are in listen-only mode. Today's conference call is being recorded. I'll now turn the call over to your host, Mr Rui Chen, Head of Investor Relations of the company. Please go ahead, Rui.

Thank you. Good morning and good evening, everyone. Welcome to NIO's second quarter 2024 earnings conference call. The company's financial and operating results were published in the press release earlier today and posted on the company's IR website. On today's call, we have Mr. William Lee, founder, chairman of the board, and chief executive officer, and Ms. Danny Chu, chief financial officer. Before we continue, please be kindly reminded that today's discussion will contain forward-looking statements made under the State Harper provisions of the U.S. Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Forward-looking statements involve inherent risks and uncertainties. As such, the company's actual results may be materially different from the view expressed today. Further information regarding risks and uncertainties is included in certain filings of the company with the U.S. Securities Exchange Commission, the Stock Exchange of Hong Kong Limited, and the Singapore Exchange Securities Trading Limited. The company does not assume any obligation to update any forward-looking statements except as required under applicable law. Please also note that NIO's earnings press release and this conference call include discussions of unaudited gap financial information, as well as unaudited non-gap financial measures. Please refer to Niel's press release, which contains a reconsideration of the unaudited non-gap measures to comparable gap measures. With that, I will now turn the call over to our CEO, Mr. William Li. William, please go ahead.

Hello, everyone. Thank you for joining Niel's 2024 Q2 earnings call. In the first half of this year, The NIO brand completes the 2024 model year phase list, further enhancing the competitiveness of its NT2 products. In the meantime, as NIO's technologies, products, services, and the user community were recognized by more people, its order intake and delivery continued to grow. NIO's delivery in Q2 reached a quarterly record of 57,373 units, up 143.9%. In China, new models had over 40% market share among all BEVs with a transaction price higher than 300,000 RMB. Since Q3, new product mix has been continuously optimized. In July and August, The delivery was 20,498 and 20,176 respectively. With that, New Year's Monthly Delivery has been more than 200,000 for four consecutive months. The total delivery in Q3 is expected to be between 6,1,000 and 6,3,000 units. In terms of NIO's financial performance, with continuous cost optimization of core components and supply chain, the vehicle margin increased to 12.2%. As the user community became larger and more vibrant, the second quarter also witnessed rapid growth in revenues from aftersales and power services. The growth margin of other sales continued to improve. Now, I would like to share with you the recent highlights of our product, R&D and Operations. On July 27, NIO hosted NIO in 2024. At the event, we introduced the full domain operating system SkyOS and the smart system Banyan 3. Moreover, We also announced the successful tape-out of Cingy NS9031, our in-house device chip for smart driving. As for NAD, NIO continues to integrate its seasoned capabilities. In July, the industry's first AEB function based on end-to-end architecture was released, with the scenario coverage 6.7 times better than traditional AEBs. It makes driving safer. At a new year, we also introduced a new world model, NVM, the brand new architecture for smart driving. NAD Arc 2 will also be released. This is the most advanced end-to-end architecture based on NVM, NWM. New features and the expenses of NAD Arc 2 will be released in the second half of this year. On September 19th, our family-centric mass-market brand Anvo is going to celebrate launch of its fourth model, L60. And the use of delivery will start in late September. With a strong confidence in this all-round product, we will spend no effort in ramping up production and fulfilling the market demand. For sales and services, as of now, the new brand has 161 new houses and 408 new spaces, as well as 351 service centers and 63 delivery centers. The Anwu brand has already opened 105 stores in 55 cities, and will have over 200 stores by the end of the year, by the year end. about charging the swapping network. So far, NIO has over 2,561 power swap stations worldwide and has provided over 52 million swaps. Besides, NIO has installed over 23,000 power chargers and destination chargers. Quick and hassle-free recharging is critical for convincing ICE owners to drive EV. On August 20, they hosted the NEO Power Up event, where we announced the plan of Power Up countries. In the first half of 2025, NEO's charging network will become available in every country in Chinese mainland. By the end of 2025, the swapping network will become available in more than 2,300 countries in China. To better support this initiative, we also announced the Power-Up Partner Plan and signed agreements with further partners. The continuous deployment of the charging and swapping network will help expand the market reach of NEO and Envo and further drive sales growth. As for market development, We are accelerating the international expansion on August 20. NEOS UAE website won't last, and in Q4, the products will be launched and delivered in UAE. While ensuring controllable investment and efficient operations, we will also actively evaluate opportunities worldwide, introducing products to more markets. In the NUV quality study released by J.D. Power in early June, NIO models ranked highest in the respective segments. NIO is also the only NUV company winning top ranking for six consecutive years. Ever since its establishment, NIO has been committed to making itself a global benchmark of quality and providing great user experience through lifecycle quality management. As NIO has been funded for almost 10 years with the multi-brand strategy and the international business rollout, as well as the external change, we upgraded the company's value system in July. In the quest of a blue sky coming, NIO aspires to shape a sustainable and bright future and visions itself as a youth enterprise where innovative technology meets experienced excellence. With new brands and the products being launched step by step, the fundamental tech capability and the long-term strategic planning that NIO has been developing will have a greater effect. NIO's cumulative R&D investment sophisticated community operations, and the efficient infrastructure deployment will lead to better sales and the margin. We look forward to Niel's performance in the second half. Thank you for your support. With that, I will now turn the call over to Stanley for Q2's financial details. Over to you, Stanley.

Thank you, William.

Now let me go over our key financial results for the second quarter of 2024. I will refer to RMB only in my discussion today unless otherwise stated. Our total revenue were 17.4 billion RMB, up 98.9% year-over-year and up 76.1% quarter-over-quarter. Revenues from vehicle sales were 15.7 billion RMB, representing an increase of 118.2%. year-over-year and an increase of 87.1% quarter-over-quarter. The increase year-over-year was mainly attributed to higher deliveries partially offset by a lower average selling price due to changes in product mix and user rights adjustment since June 2023. The increase quarter-over-quarter was mainly attributed to higher deliveries. Other sales were 1.8 billion RMB. representing an increase of 11.3% year-over-year and an increase of 15.6% quarter-over-quarter. The year-over-year increase was mainly due to the increase in sales of parts, accessories, and after-sales vehicle services and provision of power solutions, which both grow with our user base and partially offset by lower sales of used cars. The increase quarter-over-quarter was mainly attributed to the increase in sales of parts, accessories, and after-sales vehicle services, provision of power solutions and other products, and the increased revenues from technical R&D services. Vehicle margin was 12.2% in this quarter, compared with 6.2% for the same period of 2023 and 9.2% for the last quarter. The year-over-year increase was mainly due to the decreased material costs and was partially offset by a lower average selling price. The quarter-over-quarter increase was mainly due to decreased material costs. Overall gross margin was 9.7%, compared with 1% in the same period of last year and 4.9% in the last quarter. R&D expenses were 3.2 billion RMB, decreased 3.8% year-over-year, and increased 12.4% quarter-over-quarter. The quarter-over-quarter increase was mainly due to the incremental design and the development costs and the increased personnel costs in R&D functions. SG&A expenses were 3.8 billion RMB, increased 31.5% year-over-year, and increased 25.4% quarter over quarter, which was mainly driven by higher personnel costs related to sales functions and increased sales and marketing activities. Loss from operations was 5.2 billion RMB, representing a decrease of 14.2% year over year and a decrease of 3.4% quarter over quarter. Net loss was 5 billion RMB, representing a decrease of 16.7% year-over-year and a decrease of 2.7% quarter-over-quarter. As of June 30, 2024, our company had cash and cash equivalents, restricted cash, short-term investments, and long-term time deposits in total of 41.6 billion RMB. For more information and the details of our audited second quarter 2024 financial results. Please refer to our earnings press release. Now this concludes our prepared remarks. I will turn the call over to the operator to facilitate our Q&A session. Thank you.

Thank you. If you wish to ask a question, please press star 1 on your telephone and wait for your name to be announced. If you wish to cancel your request, please press star 2. If you're on a speakerphone, please pick up the handset to ask your question. Your first question comes from Tim Hysiel from Morgan Stanley. Please go ahead.

Hi, management team. Thanks for taking my question. I have two questions. The first question is about our new model, L60, because L60 started pre-sale in mid-May. And since then, I think the model has received tens of thousands of pre-orders which is very robust compared to all the new launches lately. But how could NIO also ensure a high conversion rate this time after the official launch on September 19? Would the company consider getting more aggressive with the official pricing given the competition? And in the meantime, what kind of supply chain preparation the team has done to avoid any potential supply disruption after the delivery starts? That's my first question. Thank you.

Thank you, Tim. Thank you, Tim. Thank you, Tim. Thank you, Tim. That also caused a lot of attention. For example, they now have a live broadcast every day. There are millions of people watching yesterday's live broadcast and today's live broadcast. The order situation is very good. The pre-order situation is beyond our expectations. So in general, we are very confident in the competitiveness of this car. Of course, in terms of pricing, we now have a pre-order price. is $219,900, which is $30,000 cheaper than Tesla Model Y. Of course, we still have some space for pricing. On September 15th, when the market opens, our price will certainly be lower than that. But we will still balance the interest rate and the whole pricing. We will not use a particularly aggressive price. We will still ensure that this car has a reasonable profit margin. The supply chain really needs a process of climbing. We are now in terms of direction. We are going to prepare for this year's $12 million delivery amount. So we hope that at some point next year, we will be able to reach the supply chain of $20,000 per month.

Thank you for the question. On August 15th, we have witnessed the offline of the very first mass-produced L60, and the head of sales of the Omo brand is actually driving this very first mass-produced car, having a road trip in China, and he has been driving the car for almost 20 days while doing the broadcast on the social media. It has received a lot of attention from the public. Every day there are several millions of views of the broadcast, by the members. In terms of the pre-order intake, it actually is pretty good and has surpassed our expectation. So we are quite confident with the overall competitiveness of this project. Regarding the pricing strategy, well, we launched the project in mid-May. We have announced a pre-sale price, which is 290,900 RMB. That is around 30,000 RMB cheaper than Model Y. And before the official launch of the product on September 19, we still have some time and the room for the final price adjustments and the decision. But overall speaking, we will try to strike a balance between the vehicle margin and the price point of the product to find the sweet spot. In general, we will not be very aggressive as we needed to realize a reasonable margin for the product. Regarding the supply chain security, Our target is that by the end of this year, which is in September, we hope that we can realize a supply capacity of 10,000 units. And sometime next year, we will be able to realize a supply capacity of 20,000 units per month. Understood.

Next question.

Sure. Thank you, Rylan, for sharing your details. My second question is about the neobranes, the recodes on the neobranes. because we noticed the monthly sales of models on the new brand have stabilized at the 20,000 levels in the second quarter. So we're looking for, would there be any further upside to the VCO sales and the gross profit margin based on our current product portfolio? If yes, could you share with us that where would be the upside to the volume and the margin of new brand VCOs coming from? That's my second question. Thank you.

Hi, Tim. This is Stanley. Your question about the future of the future of the future of the future of the future of the future of the future of the future of the future of the future of the future of the future of the future of the future of the future of the future of the future of the future of the future of the future of the future of the future of the future of the future of the future of the future of the future of the future of the future of the future of the future of the future of the future of the future of the future of the future of the future of the future of the future of the future of the future of the future of the future of the future of the future of the future of the future of the future of the future of the future of the future of the future of the future of the future of the future of the future of the future of the future of the future of the future of the future of the future of the future of the future of the future of the future of the future of the future of the future of the future of the future of Next, we have found more opportunities. One is to continue to optimize the cost of our products. The other is that at the market level, we will also have relevant actions to improve the ratio of our high-power vehicles. To integrate these methods, in the third and fourth seasons of this year, we hope to gradually increase our total horsepower rate.

Thank you for your question. Regarding the vehicle margin of the new blend, in the second quarter, we have achieved the vehicle margin of 12.2%. That is mainly because of the efficiency improvements on the supply side and also in the production. In the past four months, we have realized the monthly delivery volume of more than 20,000 units. We also see the opportunities for further improvements, including the cost optimization of the product, as well as to improve the high-margin products in the product mix from the marketing side. With that, we will keep improving the vehicle margin in the following two quarters of this year and expect to realize a vehicle margin of around 15% by the end of the year.

And also a comment to add here is that we also see opportunities to improve our delivery volumes month over month, yet we will also need to strike a balance between the vehicle delivery volume and the vehicle margin.

Both will increase, but will not be in a very drastic manner for either margin or the vehicle volume. Ultimately, we pursue a very good growth profit with our product, so we need to find the sweet spot in between.

In the long term, we are focused on the 30 million RMB market. In the long term, we believe that the new products in the future And for the much longer time as new brand targets premium segments priced over 300,000 RMB, as we are going to launch new products and also do facelifts and upgrades on the products,

I would believe that in the battery electric vehicle segment, realizing a monthly volume of around 30,000 to 40,000 units is a reasonable target and a volume.

So all sum up, for the new brand, our long-term operational target is to realize a monthly volume of 40,000 units

at a vehicle margin of 25%.

Of course, Envoy's market is bigger. Its market is more than 80 million units. Combined with our bus, our oil car, PHEV, Zengcheng, and pure electricity, we believe that combined with our charging network, they are all very competitive. Of course, we believe that its opportunity, from a sales perspective, its opportunity, its upper limit must be much higher. As for the Anvo brand, it faces a much larger market with a total car park of more than 8 million.

In that case, leveraging our battery as a service as well as our well-established charging and swapping network, we believe that Anvo's products will be competitive even against the competition with P-Hive, RAV, and other BAV models. So for our products, they do have a higher potential or bigger potential for a higher sales volume month over month. And for the longer term, our operational targets for our products will be more than 15% for the vehicle margin. And we believe that it's also a reasonable target.

Thank you, Kim.

Thank you very much. Thanks for the insight and looking forward to the L60 launch. Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you. Your next question comes from Bin Wang from Deutsche Bank. Please go ahead.

Okay, thank you so much. My first question is also about the onboard LF-60. You previously mentioned that this year your volume target is about 20,000 units. Given the strong order, do you still maintain such a volume target? And if you can break down by month, because we are not exactly in the end of this month, so what's the progress for, say, October, November, December? So that is my first question. And second question is about expense, exchange rate expense. Since that expense has kept increasing, what's your target for this quarterly exchange expense? Do you have guidance for each quarter in the upcoming second half? Thank you.

Thank you, Wang Bin. Let me answer the first question. I think that this year's total exchange rate, because So, I will take the first question. This is William. Regarding the AMO-L60,

We will start the delivery of the products from late September, but it will take some time for us to ramp up the production and supply of our new product. So most of our deliveries this year will happen in Q4. We will start delivery from September, but not in a very significant volume. And towards the end of the year, we hope that our monthly delivery will be around 10,000 units for the month of December. In terms of the supply side, as the car is equipped with many new technologies, it will also take some time for the supply side to ramp up their production. Thank you.

第二个问题关于费用呢, 我分两块来说,一块是研发费用。 我们还是依然维持我们每一个季度, 从non-GAAP的口径来说,30个亿左右人民币的这样的一个投入的强度。 It will fluctuate between the seasons. Secondly, regarding our sales management fees, we will start to pay our Le Dao L60 at the end of the third quarter of this year. With the payment of Le Dao, our corresponding sales fees will increase. This is Stanley. I will take the second question. Regarding expenses, there are two categories. The first is R&D expenses. We will still keep the similar R&D investment pace and intensity on a quarterly basis.

So roughly on the non-GAAP basis, it will be around 3 billion RMB every quarter, but there will also be fluctuations or slight differences from quarter to quarter as they are relevant to our actual R&D activities conducted. And regarding the second category, SG&A expenses, as we have mentioned that in late Q3, we will start the delivery of the L60. With that, there will be increase in our SG&A expenses. But as we ramp up the delivery volume of the product, we also think that we will keep optimizing the percentage of the SG&A expenses against the overall sales revenue from L60. Thank you.

Thank you, Wangbin.

Thank you.

Thank you. Your next question comes from Tina Hao from Goldman Sachs. Please go ahead.

Thanks for taking my question. So my first question is also regarding Envo L60. So just wondering at, let's say, 10K volume in December this year and 20K volume next year, what kind of growth margin should be reasonable for this model? Also, as we are ramping up to higher and higher volume, what is our capacity expansion plan and also capex plan? for 2025 and maybe 2026, should we expect CapEx to become higher versus 2024? So that's the first question. The second question is also regarding the sales marketing expense. So we had over 30% SG&A expense growth in the second quarter. Wondering, could you give more details on the sub-items, which is the one that's growing the fastest? And also, is any of the sales policy recorded in the SG&A expense? Yeah, so that's my second question. Thanks.

Thank you, Tina. 你回答一下后面开头的问题。 那我们如果从L-60的角度来讲的话, 我们在这个它的达产了以后, 也就是说它的产能爬坡到 We expect that after this, it will have a profit margin of 15 points. Of course, the market competition is very intense. We have also reserved some variable marketing. We have a sufficient estimate of the market competition. But in general, we think it has a chance to achieve a profit margin of 15 points. Because this car, from a design for efficiency, design for cost perspective, to ensure that it is at the top of technology, We make sure that this car has a very good cost competitiveness. So from the point of view of productivity, we are definitely preparing for the full-line product of 2025 and 2026. We now have two factories. Our F2 has already started to produce double. It has already started to produce for LR60. Then in September, at the end of September and October, we will complete the ability of double production. Then we have started to build our third factory. Then in September next year, in the third quarter of next year, we will officially start production. That is to say, by the third quarter of next year, we will have at least three factories. So we think it can ensure our long-term production needs.

Thank you for your question. This is William. I will take your first question. Regarding L60, when its overall production volume reaches a reasonable and expected target, we believe that it will naturally realize a 15% vehicle margin. Of course, against the fierce competition, we have also reserved some room for the variable marketing of the product so that we will be more flexible in the competition. Yet overall speaking, As the product itself is designed for efficiency and the cost, 15% vehicle margin is a reasonable target for this model, as we actually managed to realize a good balance between the technology advancement and the cost competitiveness. Regarding the capacity appropriation, we are having the mid- and long-term planning for our production capacity in 2025 and 2026. As of now, we already have two factories in operation. F2 has already started to upgrade to double shifts to support the production of L60. In late September or early October, the upgrade to two shifts will be completed in F2. And in the meantime, we are also planning our third factory. And around Q3 next year, the third factory will be ready to produce the products. which means that by Q3 next year, we will have three factories in operation, and it will be sufficient to support our production.

Overall speaking, we don't think production capacity will be a bottleneck for us, especially it will not be a long-term bottleneck for us.

Here in China, the production capacity and capabilities of vehicles and cars are quite competent. Maybe some companies will face short-term disturbance in their capacity and the supply, yet for long-term, it will not be a bottleneck. Especially last year, we have obtained the independent manufacturing qualification. This has also laid a foundation for our long-term stable capacity. 关于这个资本性开支呢,其实我们已经根据这个公司的实际情况在谨慎地控制我们资本性开支的投入节奏。

In fact, since last year, we have started to postpone or cancel some projects. So in general, the cap-out in 2024 may be significantly lower than in 2023. In 2025, because there is no specific budget in place yet, but in general, it should be equivalent to this year's investment intensity.

This is Stanley. I will take your second question. Regarding the CapEx, according to the of the company, we are making prudent control and the management of the pace of our investment and expenses. Especially starting last year, we have already started such management by postponing certain projects or even canceling some projects. So overall speaking, the CapEx in the year of 2024 will be significantly lower than that in 2023. As for 2025, as we haven't started budgeting for the next year, we don't have a clear picture over that, but we believe that the overall expense intensity will be similar to this year. Thank you.

另外一个问题关于这个SG&A的增长在二季度, 主要是两个部分。 一个是随着这个销量从一季度的三万多台到二季度的五万七千台呢, China China China China China China China China As for the increase in the SG&A expenses in Q2, it's mainly contributed to two reasons.

The first is that in Q1, we delivered around 30,000 units, and in Q2, we delivered a total of more than 57,000 units. The increase of our sales volume naturally drove up the staff cost, mainly because the team size has grown, and also the incentives for the sales force has increased as well. And the second reason is that In the first half of this year, we have launched our model year phase weeks, and many of the new products were launched around March and April. In that case, we have also started a series of communications and marketing campaigns relevant to our model year products that has also increased the relevant expenses from Q1.

Thank you, Tina.

Thank you so much. Can I have a very quick follow-up? So in terms of on-vote store, do you have the average store rental cost versus a NIO store? And also, how many employees do you plan to deploy in an on-vote store versus that of a NIO store? Thank you. 对于乐道的开店呢,我们其实是有一个

a relatively fast and efficient standard. So, from a single-electric investment, including our single-electric CapEx investment, and the rent you just mentioned, in fact, they are all significantly lower than the NIO side. So, in detail, it may be that each point position, including the point position of the mall and the motorway, is different. So there is no way to talk about it in detail, but in general, it is lower than NIO's individual rental cost.

Regarding the opening of all those doors, we actually require the team to open up the stores in a quick and efficient manner. So in terms of the capex, as well as the rent of a single almost door, it is significantly lower than that of a new store. But we don't have the specific numbers for comparison as the actual expenses may be quite different depending on the locations and the type of the store. But overall, the expense is lower, significantly lower than that of NIO.

Currently, the average installation cost of each store is no more than $1 million. Of course, the rest of the 100 stores will have lower installation standards, so we will make full use of it to improve the efficiency of our store's investment. Regarding the installation of store personnel, this is actually based on the number of orders And in terms of the renovation fee for each of the AMO store, we actually have a very strict requirement.

For the existing 100 AMO stores we have just opened, for each store, the renovation fee was no more than 1 million RMB. And for the following 100 stores we are going to open by the end of the year, we will have an even more strict requirement on renovation. With that, we will be able to make full use of the existing resources and to renovate the store in a more efficient manner. In terms of the team size for each of the store, it depends on the actual number of orders and the deliveries we plan for each store in each city. But in general, we will make sure that the team is also set up in the most efficient and compact way.

Thank you, Tina.

Thank you. Your next question comes from Yuqiang Ding from HSBC. Please go ahead.

Thank you, Tim. Yuqiang here. I've got two questions. First is about Tom's driving progress, and second is about market and competition dynamics. First question, could you share the NEO NLP progress, especially could you break down in terms of the consumer take rate, our disengagement rate, scenario coverage, the regional expansion, these aspects. And the second question is to ask against the backdrop of in the premium EV segment, there's a couple of new models coming, especially in the coming months to the end of the year. And also we notice that the high-tier city versus the low-tier city, the consumer consumption is sliding in general and more so than the low-tier city. So could you help us to get comfortable and a conviction on Neo and Anvo's portfolio product technology and service expansion could counter these macro headwinds and still book growth quote-unquote perspectives maybe in an aspect of channel order, momentum, and latest consumer feedback. Thank you.

Okay, thank you, Yuchen. Indeed, the competition in smart driving is still quite intense. We are sure that we are in the first category. So as of July, the total number of users of our NOP Plus is more than 300,000. But because all of our cars are standard, we have traveled more than 1.1 billion kilometers in the entire fleet of NOP users. In fact, from the size of a car and from the point of view of a total use, we are ahead of all our competitors nationwide.

Thank you for your question. We also noticed the fierce competition in the area of smart driving, yet we are also confident that NIO is among the top players in this area. Regarding NLP Plus, it is now being used by more than 300,000 users as it is now offered as a standard feature on our NT2 products. In the meantime, the cumulative knowledge driven with NLP and NLP Plus has reached or has surpassed 1.1 billion kilometers. So in terms of the user base as well as the total knowledge driven with the functionality, we are also a top player in China.

Our AEB is the main safety part. We see that it can significantly improve its performance. In terms of the original traditional AEB, its coverage scene has increased by 6.7 times. Indeed, its ability is very strong. In this year's Near In, we released the word model of the end-to-end. Because the end-to-end is a way of implementation, but what kind of end-to-end is very important. We are very impressed with the results of this small-scale test. We can treat it faster with a lower cost. The experience is also very good. If you look at it, our Le Dao, I use Danko Arun's pure visual program. It has a very good performance in the city area. I just tested it myself in Shanghai. It's very good.

Regarding the technology roadmap, right now inside of the industry, many players are converging their technology solutions and the roadmap into end-to-end model, be it Tesla or other players in China. For NIO, we are also working on our end-to-end model, and we have already released our first end-to-end-based feature, that is end-to-end AEB. Its performance has been significantly improved than the traditional AEB functionality, as its scenario coverage is 6.7 times better than the traditional AEB. And in the meantime, at the new Inn, we have also released our end-to-end architecture based on the new word model. Because end-to-end is an architecture, but its foundation technology is also very important. And we are the first company to develop and announce such word model and the end-to-end architecture based on the model. We have also released the NAD Arc 2.0. So the end-to-end model will be based on the new, the end-to-end architecture will be based on the new world model where you can see that the new world model is developed with the end-to-end architecture solution. Overall speaking, we believe that we're still leading the block in terms of the smart driving technologies. We have already tested the latest functionality on NAD Arc 2.0 at the small scale. and its performance is pretty impressive. Overall speaking, with word model and end-to-end architecture, we will be able to realize quicker functionality iteration, better experience at a lower cost. In terms of the Onward brand, its product will come with a single array with pure vision technology solution. But even with that, it has realized a very good performance in the urban driving scenario The other days I have tested the functionality in Shanghai and it's also pretty good. So overall speaking, we believe that and we also saw facts that the smart driving functionalities will help users improve the safety of driving. In terms of the actual usability of the functionality, we will also keep working on that.

It has always been very intense. Of course, this is not the first time we are facing this situation. We have always faced this competition. But if we look at the high-end market, our market format has always been very stable. This has a lot to do with our product category. If we look at it, whether it's from ET5, ET5T, ES6, EC6, ET7, EC7, ES8, We have covered a wide enough segment market in each segment market. In fact, in each segment market, we are leading in the BEV field. In fact, in each segment market, we are leading in the BEV field. In fact, in each segment market, we are leading in the BEV field. In fact, in each segment market, we are leading in the BEV field. In fact, in each segment market, We are leading in terms of transportation. We are very successful in terms of product expansion. In addition, we have advantages in terms of technology and network in terms of charging. We have advantages in terms of technology and other smart driving technologies. We have advantages in terms of service and community. Therefore, in the high-end market, It is a very stable market share. But other competitors, we want them to come in because we need to make the high-end B1V market bigger.

Regarding your second question, we also understand the intensity of the market competition and this is not the first time for us to face such fierce competition. Yet the new brand has been realizing a pretty stable market share in the premium segment for years. This is mainly because we have a diversified and rich product portfolio to offer for the premium segment. We have ET5, 5T, ES6, EC6, ET7, EC7, ES7, plus ES8. So it's a pretty wide range of a product offering that will be enough to cover many product segments. And many of these products are also leading the sales volume in their respective BEV product segment. Not to mention that for some niche products like ET5T, EC7, or EC6, in their respective segments, their volume is even higher than some of the ICE competitors. So overall speaking, we have made a quite successful product portfolio and offering strategy. Plus, we also have other advantages, such as charging and swapping network, leading technologies, good product experience, service, and the user community. This has further enhanced and solidified our foothold in the premium segment. Of course, in the meantime, we also hope that more players can also come into this segment so that we can work with them together to enlarge the size of this premium segment, premium BEV segment.

From the company's point of view, our growth strategy is very clear and very clear. The first one is of course the expansion through price. By next year, NIO will have three brands. We will cover the price range from 140,000 to 800,000 in B1V. If we don't use batteries and use BUS for sales, We will form a very direct comparison with oil cars. We will cover a range of 100,000 to 700,000 RMB. So our target market is actually wider than our competitors. Then the second is the expansion of our category. In fact, we also talked about it before. We have a multi-brand, multi-format product combination. We will establish a multi-class coverage capability. Our product layout is more complete. The advantage of cross-examination is also very large. The third, of course, is the expansion of our area. Now, the sales volume of NIO is mainly in the 1st and 2nd line. Through the coverage of the 3rd and 4th line, as well as our charging, charging, and line-to-line communication, we will jointly enhance the coverage of our three brands across the country, as well as the expansion of some markets outside of China. In general, from the perspective of NIO's long-term growth, we are very clear. The first is the expansion of the price range.

In the meantime, for the entire new company, we actually have a pretty clear and straightforward strategy for the continuous business growth. The first is via wider price range. From next year, we're going to have three brands in the markets. With battery, our price range, the price range that can be covered by these three brands will be as wide will be pretty wide, ranging from 140,000 all the way to 800,000 RMB. And with battery as a service, the price range will be from 100,000 to 700,000, which will be a very strong competition to the ICE costs in the respective segments. With three brands with a wide price range, we will be able to reach a broader market than many of our other competitors. The second approach is via our products, wide product range. We have three brands. We also have a very diversified product portfolio of each brand. In that case, we will be able to cover a pretty comprehensive product segment with clear differentiation between each brand. And the third approach is through the markets and the regional coverage. Right now, we are expanding our point of sales into the lower tier cities Especially for new, at the moment, most of ourselves are in the first and second tier cities. So such coverage expansion is also very important. We have also announced other plans like the county power-up plan where we will expand our charging and swapping network to the counties at all levels. With that, it will help us to further enhance the reach of all third brands. Plus, we also have the business development plan for the overseas markets. So overall speaking, for the long-term growth and the development, we have a clear roadmap that is via wide price range, wide product range, and also broader regional coverage.

Thank you. Awesome.

Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Your next question comes from Paul Gong from UBS. Please go ahead.

Hi, William. Thanks for taking my questions. Two questions here. The first one is regarding the flagship SIDA-ET9. I think it was announced to schedule for launch in Q1 next year. Is it still on schedule? And can you give some updates regarding this model in terms of the positioning, new technology adoption, as well as the target volume outlook? The second question is regarding the overseas expansion. You are going to open the store in UAE and start delivering there. Is it a signal of the change of that direction as a result of the EU tariff that you are switching the direction from Europe into Middle East? Also, one of your peers has nowadays been delivering over 10% of their volume into the overseas market. Do you think this serves as a benchmark for your overseas expansion over the next one or two years? Thank you.

Thank you, Pao. First of all, according to our plan, we have not changed the timetable for SUD. Of course, ET9 has used a lot of new technologies, such as remote control, such as FAS, and we want to use our new chip and our entire new operating system. So it has a lot of new technology. We will definitely be very, very careful to ensure that its listing is successful. Then the second is overseas expansion. We have not changed any direction. Because it is obvious that the cars that go from China to Europe will certainly be expensive. So we are in Europe. In fact, this year we are still focused on five countries. First, we do our service well. We are of course clear that it is a very long-term thing to build a brand like NIO in Europe. But we can also see that we opened Amsterdam's牛屋 this year. Then we are in Europe. In fact, we are still growing. So in general, we are doing it more patiently. UAE is also following our plan. Last year, you also know that UAE invested more than three billion US dollars. So it is also in our plan. We will work with local strategic partners to provide our products and services locally. The difference is that from next year, we will have Onward and FiveFly are more suitable for doing products that enter the global market. So next, because of Onward and FiveFly, our global expansion plan will actually be more positive. When we balance this investment and efficiency, we ensure that there will be some smarter ways to have a positive impact on the company's wealth.

Thank you for the question. Regarding the first question on the ET9, we're still proceeding the ET9 launch preparation according to the plan, and we haven't made any changes on the SOD of this product. But in the meantime, as you know, the ET9 is equipped with many new technologies, including steer-by-wire, fully active suspension, in-house developed chip, as well as SkyOS. So we will need to bear no effort in making sure and preparing for the successful launch of this product next year. Regarding your second question on our international expansion, we haven't changed our direction. Yes, because of the tariffs in Europe, now selling or exporting cars from China to Europe becomes more expensive. So we will focus on the existing five European markets that we have already started. We also know that to establish NEO, such a premium brand, in the European market will also take a longer time, and we are very patient with that. But in the meantime, it doesn't mean that we have stopped our activities there. Earlier this year, we have just opened our NEO house in Amsterdam, and we are still installing and deploying our power swap stations in Europe. So we will still keep the same plan. In terms of the market entry into UAE, As you may know that last year we have received a US$3 billion strategic investment from the Abu Dhabi government, and then the market entry into UAE is part of the plan. With that, we will work with our strategic partners in UAE to offer our products and services to the local market. Starting next year, a big difference is that we not only have a new brand and products, but also products from Anwo and Firefly, which are more suitable for the global market. With that, we will be actually more active with our international expansion. But in the meantime, we will also need to keep a good balance between our investment skill and the efficiency to make sure that we enter into the global market in a smarter and more efficient way. Thank you.

Thank you. That's quite helpful. Thank you, Pao.

Thank you. Your next question comes from Ming Sun Lee from Bank of America. Please go ahead.

Hello. William Stanley. I also have two questions. So my first question is more related to the overall macro. So in your view, what is the potential growth rate for the China EV market in the next few years? Because I think recently some investors expect that the EV penetration will slow down because right now the EV penetration is already very high. So, yeah, just to give you what is the EV penetration in the next three years. Yeah, that's my first question. And my second question is regarding the Firefly pipeline. So right now, will you launch one or two models in 2025 for Firefly. Thank you. That's my two questions.

Thank you, Min. If we look at the passenger vehicle market, in June this year, it grew by 3.6% in the first half of this year. But we can see that it is growing without a doubt. In the long term, we believe that If you look at the ownership of Chinese cars, it's already 3.3 billion. So we don't think it's possible that the Tesla car market can keep growing like this. So we think it will maintain such a scale. We don't think there will be a higher growth. In fact, if there are some drops, it's normal. I think this is actually a very normal thing. Because China is still the world's largest car market. In the case of N1V, the penetration rate is now more than 50%. I think this penetration rate will be further improved and will be improved more quickly. Whether it is from BEV or from other PHEVs, it will accelerate the replacement of oil cars. In fact, once it exceeds 50%, it will actually be very fast. Then if we look at the example of Norway, it can actually give us a lot of reference. In fact, in Norway, it is more than 51%, and it quickly reached a gap of 80 to 90%. So I personally think that in about two years, China's NEV market volatility will exceed 80%. I am very, very sure that this is our prediction.

Thank you for the question. If you look at the overall passenger vehicle market, in the first half of this year, it has increased by around 3.6 percent. For the longer term, actually if you look at the total PV population in China, it's as big as 20 to 30 million units. So it's already a very significant amount. Definitely it will keep growing, but probably not at a very significant growth rate. And it's even normal. for the PV segment or PV market to suffer a slight decrease. But even with that, the Chinese market will still be the largest passenger vehicle market in the world. In terms of the penetration rate of the new energy vehicle, it has already surpassed 50%, and I think that it will continue to increase and at an even faster manner. Because for the replacement of the ICE cross speeds like BEVs or P-HIVs, it will be much faster once it has surpassed this 50% tipping point. We can take Norway as a reference or example. It actually grew at a 50% penetration rate at first, and then it has quickly increased to 80% and 90%. So similarly for China, I believe that in two to three years, the penetration rate of new energy vehicles among new vehicle cells will surpass 80%. Yeah.

In fact, from the point of view of an ICE car, it is now entering a vicious cycle because they can only maintain their own market share by lowering prices. The price drop is very strong, whether it is a premium brand or a massive market brand, whether it is a Chinese brand or an international brand. So the price drop will be very It will reduce its trading capacity and its brand, including the remaining value of this second-hand car. So in fact, now ICE's car has entered a, in my opinion, an acceleration of the market share, a cycle of acceleration and decline. If we look at it, now it may be, for example, Hyundai, Hyundai, which is now Benz, and Fengtian, Japan, all of these Japanese companies, In fact, they are now repeating a few years ago. This is the problem that modern companies or Ford encountered in China. We also saw that GM encountered a very big problem. So I think in the next few years, these joint-stock companies' oil cars will be very, very busy in China. So this market will all come out to give some of these NEV brands, whether it's a Chinese company or a global company.

If we look at the ICAE costs in China, actually they have entered into an unsustainable cycle or a vicious cycle because many ICAE brands have to cut their prices to keep their market share. Be it premium brands or mass market brands, be it brands from China or from other countries, Many of these ICE cars are having a price slashed for the sake of a market share. But as they cut prices, it also hurts the profit and interest of their dealers, hurts the image of the brand, as well as the residual value of their products. With that, it is even more difficult for them to keep a very strong market share in their segment. So the decline of their market share is even faster than it should be. For the recent years, we have already witnessed the significant decline of market shares of Korean brands like Hyundai, Kia, including Ford and General Motors. And for the recent years, Japanese brands like Toyota, Honda, and Nissan are also entering the same space. So in general, we believe that the IT costs from these joint venture brands will face quite difficulties. in the future competition. And when they lose the market shares, they normally lose market shares to other new energy vehicle brands, including brands from China and Europe. So in that regard, I believe that the penetration rate of the new energy vehicle will grow at a pretty quick pace, even faster than we expected.

第二个问题就是, Firefly 2025年我们会交付的, 所以产品准备工作,

And regarding your second question, yes, we are going to deliver the product from Firefly from 2025. We are in smooth progress with our product preparation.

Thank you, Ming.

Thank you. Your next question comes from Cheng Jing from CICC. Please go ahead.

Okay, thank you for taking my questions. I have two questions. The first is in regard to our new operating system, SkyOS, which has been released in July. So it has shown very comprehensive and in-depth our software self-development ability. So can you just introduce and ask more details of what other technical challenges we have faced and what and also the improvement of our product can be brought by the new system. So this is the first question. The second is regard to the other income, gross profit margin. We have seen in the second quarter the gross profit margin has improved significantly. So how to understand these major drivers and also what's our forecast for the trend and the continuity of the margin improvement in the future. So, also with our growth of our sales volume, can we see that our charging, especially charging and battery swap business can turn to profit in the future?

Thank you, Tangjing. SkyOS should be It's the world's first complete full-vehicle operating system. This is its highlight, but it's also its drawback. Because Smart EV has developed to this day, we all know that it's impossible to manage the entire vehicle with some of the old self-destructing OS. It's such a new structure. So from the perspective of SkyOS, from Hypervisor, which is this virtual machine, to the top, we use different technologies a foundation software to do it, it can only be done in the application layer. So we are very happy that we finally have such a system to come out. Of course, later on, SkyOS will support, our Angle will support our NIO's all-in-one car, including our Firefly. So in general, it is our entire NIO

Thank you for the question. Regarding SkyOS, it's the world's first full-domain vehicle operating system. That is the special thing with SkyOS, which is also the difficulty or the challenge we have faced when developing the SkyOS. Because when it comes to the era of the smart electric vehicles, we cannot use the fragmented operating systems to manage the electric architecture of the car anymore. With that, we have developed the SkyOS. It comes at three levels. At the bottom, we have the SkyOS H, that is the hypervisor. And in the middle, we have four kernels for the SkyOS. And on the top, we have the SkyOS middleware. So it's a very comprehensive solution we have developed. We've used four years with 20,000 person-mouse with this great work. In terms of its benefits, the SkyOS is definitely making the car safer and more secure. It also makes the system stabler, and it also helps us to realize more efficient R&D process and iteration process. It also helps us solve the problems faced by the smart electric vehicles, like huge data throughput, cross-domain fusion, and also the latency along the communications. because we know that it's impossible to realize such benefits by simply working on the application layer adaptation. We need to do something at the foundational level, and we are very happy that we have made it happen. The SkyOS will be applied to all three brands, including Neo, Anwo, and Firefly. We can say that SkyOS is a software cornerstone for our future products and development.

In the second quarter of this year, due to the increase in the number of users, the profits of our other businesses have also been improved, mainly in two parts. The main reason is an improvement in the efficiency of our after-sales service. On February 20, we announced the 24th version of the service-free package. In this version of the service-free product, we actually made a lot of improvement in efficiency. It also helped us to improve our sales service. The other one is that as we took over the life-long free change of power and whole car sales last year, the number of paid users is increasing as our sales increase. So this makes us

Regarding the revenues or the loss on other sales in Q2, we have significantly narrowed the losses on other sales in Q2. It's mainly because of the two reasons. I think Q2, we have improved or increased our user deliveries with that. Well, actually, there are two reasons. The first is that we have improved the profitability and the efficiency of our aftermarket sales. Earlier this year, on February 20th, we have released the 2024 water-free service policy. With the new policy, our after-sales services become more efficient and also more profitable. And secondly, we have also decoupled the lifetime free power swap from the sales of the vehicles. With that, more and more users, especially new users, have to pay for the power swap services. This has also helped us improve the revenues and the margins. on the PowerSwap-related services. With that, we have significantly narrowed the losses on the other cells. And we believe that in the future, as we continue to grow the total user base and the cell volume, especially with the launch and delivery of the onboard products, the profitability of the other cells will also become stronger, and we look forward to the break-even or even the profit from this part.

The first question is about the profit of the power station and the power supply business. First, if we simply look at the power station and the power supply business itself, if our daily power supply is more than 60 units, if our fees are according to the supercharged fee level, then our single station can achieve a balance. Currently, As of now, we have more than 2,500 exchange stations in China. And our Japanese exchange rate is now an average of 30 to 40 orders a day. So you can see that from 30 to 40 orders, and then it goes up to 60 orders. In fact, we are not far from the balance of the exchange business. The gap is not too big. Of course, why is it that from the point of view of the entire group, We are deeply aware that the network effect of changing stations is very helpful for us to sell cars. So we are very active in the layout of our changing stations. In this way, because of the advance layout, it will also bring us some losses. So in general, to sum up, just look at the changing station business. In fact, we are not far from the balance of profit and loss. And in terms of the profitability of the power swap service, or in general, power swap stations,

If we look at the single swap station, if it can offer more than 60 power swaps per day, and in the meantime, if we charge all the power swap services at the same level for the supercharging, then the single station will become break-even. And right now in China, we have more than 2,500 power swap stations, and on average, each station can complete around 30 to 40 swaps per day. So from 30 to 40 to 60, it's not a long way to go for us to make the power swap station break even. But in the meantime, we still suffer the loss on the power swap business. It's mainly because of two reasons. The first is that at the early stage for the early adopters of a new product, we have offered free lifetime power swaps to many of these users, which has actually worsened the burden on the cost of the power swap stations and the power swap services. And secondly, as we roll out our business and the network, we also came to realize that the network effect of the power swap station actually has a very significant meaning to the boost of the self-volume. In that case, we are more active in installing power swap stations even ahead of the actual need. So this swap station deployed in advance also brings additional losses or burden to the business. So in general, if we look at the power swap station itself, it's not far away from break-even and profit early. Yet considering its actual contribution to the south volume, we have decided to deploy many stations in advance, and this has caused the loss on the business.

Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

Thank you. As there are no further questions now, I'd like to turn the call back over to the company for closing remarks.

Thank you again for joining us today. If you have further questions, please feel free to contact Neil's IR team through the contact information on our website. This concludes the conference call. You may now disconnect the line. Thank you.