On August 22, at the media event for NIO Inc.'s new ES8, NIO Inc. founder William Li Bin discussed that the automotive industry is a very young and emerging sector. While ten years may not seem short, this is what makes the automotive industry different from other industries.
He candidly acknowledged that looking at the history of every automotive company, they are still relatively immature at the ten-year mark. Even Tesla was still relatively immature in its tenth year. Therefore, for NIO Inc. now, it is still in the early stages of entrepreneurship, and there is no room for complacency.
Li Bin mentioned that currently, Chinese automotive companies are basically being led by first-generation entrepreneurs, including BYD and Geely, and even many state-owned enterprise leaders are still first-generation founders who are extremely driven. "It's just that everyone strives in different ways. We strive in R&D and infrastructure development. Each company has its own areas of focus, and we certainly have no right to become complacent."
Looking toward the future, he stated that the road ahead is particularly long, as the automotive industry is a competition with no finish line, and no one dares to claim they can definitively achieve anything. "NIO Inc. will not become overconfident because of temporary hot sales of one product, nor will we feel like the sky is falling due to temporary difficulties or poor sales of two models. Neither will happen. This is what I believe should be the mindset for doing business in the automotive industry."