NIO Thesis

Thesis on NIO:

CEO, Li Bin:
	- Triple degree in Peking University (China's top university).
	- Has a previous successful startup.
	- Visionary, but down to earth, humble attitude.
	- https://youtu.be/JmjvVTxcWAk

NIO's customer service.
	- NIO house and merchandise.
	- Sends masks to customers during Covid.
	- More than 60% of new customers are by peer-referral.

NIO's BAAS:
	- More than 1 million successful battery swaps.
	- Very useful in densely populated cities.
	- Future proofs the vehicle.
	- Lowers the cost.
	- Batteries act as a buffer to smooth out the power demand (that's why the China govt promotes it).
	- Batteries can be charged when electricity is cheap.
	- NIO leading the standarization of the battery swapping tech.

China, Guanxi and Mianzi:
	- Li Bin knows famous venture capitalists in China.
	- Tencent has a large ownership in Nio, along with Tesla.
	- Supported by Chinese govt.
	- National pride of China.
	- China is trying to change their image as a "copycat", and Nio is at the forefront of this movement.
	- China is has almost curbed Covid. Strong macro factors.

Manufacturing:
	- Not vertically integrated, but has very close collaboration capabilities with JAC and supply chain,
	allowing them to create tech and cost savings that other manufacturers cannot.
	- On the road to increase annual capacity to 300k by end of 2021.
	- 98% automation in their factory.

AI:
	- Intel Mobieye's top collaborator. Will make their Robotaxis.
	- Multi pronged approach. Hired Ren Shaoqing, a world class researcher that is of equal or better calibre than Tesla's AI head, Andre Karpathy.
	- Both Ren and Andre have a track record of strong publications in the top computer vision venue, CVPR.
	- Nio pilot got a drastic improvement just in a month after hiring Ren.
	- Also using vision based approach like Tesla.
	- Looking to make their own AI chip by hiring person with chip design background.