NIO Inc. (NYSE:NIO) Q1 2023 Earnings Call Transcript

Stanley Qu: Okay. Regarding operating expense, one is for the R&D expense. The upcoming years remains to be the crucial stage for our R&D and also mass production of our core technology as new models. So, our average in each quarter of 2023, the non-GAAP R&D expense will be kept at RMB3 billion to RMB3.5 billion per quarter. Yes, we will also manage the spending curve and also keep improving our system efficiency. And for SG&A expense, yes, we can see a decline in Q1. The main reason is because of the reduced marketing activities and also the seasonality impact of Chinese New Year, along with more marketing events like Auto Show, Road Show, and also the launch of new models. The SG&A total amount will increase from Q2, but the efficiency will be improved from Q3 since our NT2.0 products will be launched and more volume will be realized. I mean, that’s the guidance for the OpEx of the next quarters.

Ming-Hsun Lee: Thank you, Stanley. Thank you.

Stanley Qu: Thank you, Ming.

Eve Tang: Hi, operator, next question, please.

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

Yuqian Ding: [Foreign Language]

Stanley Qu: Yes, go ahead.

Yuqian Ding: [Foreign Language] So, I’ve got two questions. The first is, do we have plan to introduce any budget version of our existing model, especially the potential volume carrier ET5 by lower price and lower content to access more volume? And the second question, you talked about the dial down a little bit on OpEx front. Generally, does that also affect or postpone our breakeven point of the year?

William Li: [Foreign Language] [Interpreted] Thank you, Yuqian, for your question. We understand that there are many different kinds of pricing movements in the market, but first, regarding ET5, so, we don’t think it’s reasonable prices to have a budget version of the ET5, because of our philosophy is that we believe the different configurations or the important configurations should come as a standard for all of our NT2.0 products. For example, the dual motors, [AD suites] (ph), and other important functions and features, we believe those standard of package philosophy can serve the long-term interests to our users. But at the same time, we do have some flexibilities in many other different approaches. For example, user rights, such as the free battery swapping.

When we make those kinds of considerations and adjustment, of course, the important thing is to make sure we can put the users’ interest first. So, when we decide to make those kinds of adjustments, we also need to consider the interest of our installed base. For the second question regarding the breakeven point, according to the current situation, we do think probably we need to delay our breakeven point to within one year. And we think this is probably a reasonable assumption.

Yuqian Ding: Thank you, Eve Tang.

Operator: Thank you. Your next question comes from Nick Lai from JPMorgan. Please go ahead.

Nick Lai: [Foreign Language] My first question is really following up on the previous question regarding cash burn and CapEx cycle and so on. So you just mentioned that your push back R&D expense and so on. And — but I’m more curious about our ’24, ’25 planning. How should we expect the CapEx or cash burn into ’24 and ’25? Would that be flat or up or down compared with 2023? Thank you.