The official website is now fully operational.

Author | Wang Lei | Editor | Qin Zhangyong

The saga of the NIO official website's downtime has temporarily come to an end.

When the NIO official website became inaccessible today, it quickly gained traction on social media. NIO officials initially predicted that the issue would be resolved by noon, but access remained restricted at that time.

Not until the afternoon did NIO officially announce that the website had been restored to normal functionality. Currently, NIO's mini-program and mobile app are also fully operational.

However, some netizens reported that NIO's 400 customer service hotline was also unreachable, while others mentioned that their in-car systems prompted an authorization expiration, preventing the normal use of in-car app software.

The Official Website Returns to Normal

Not long ago, NIO responded, "We will gradually resume work after the New Year holiday in January, and we will make an official announcement at that time."

A potential car buyer posing as a customer called a NIO dealership and mentioned the issue of the inaccessible official website. The salesperson responded that the website had been under maintenance for a few days and should be functional by the following week, while the 400 hotline might be temporarily unreachable due to high call volume.

Interestingly, NIO customer service representatives provided remarkably consistent responses, stating, "Access may not be possible for a while. Currently, users are prompted with a system maintenance notice when trying to access the official website, which should have started yesterday or the day before."

NIO customer service also explained, "There was an anomaly in the official website system. Weekend maintenance is slower, and it's still ongoing, possibly because some departments are on holiday this weekend." They emphasized that "the official website is only for publishing vehicle information and will not affect deliveries."

Netizens were skeptical of such responses, asking, "Can system maintenance crash the official website?" and "Why didn't they issue a notice for system maintenance?"

Netizens' skepticism is understandable. If Tesla's official website were inaccessible, one might initially suspect a poor internet connection or a broken computer. However, when NIO's official website goes down, internal company issues are a more likely concern.

Perhaps even NIO's customer service representatives didn't expect the website to recover so quickly.

According to dealership sales staff, NIO issued an internal notice on January 4, announcing a full resumption of production. Earlier reports also indicated that the Tongxiang factory, which had been idle for over a month, would fully resume operations on January 4, 2025, and relevant production personnel have been notified.

Currently, NIO operates three factories in Nanning, Yichun, and Tongxiang. The Nanning factory primarily produces the NIO X for the international market, while the Yichun factory focuses on the NIO S and NIO GT. The Tongxiang factory, which mainly produces the NIO L and NIO S Shooting Brake, will prioritize domestic supply of these two models post-resumption.

This is the only positive news for NIO following recent executive turmoil.

Can Overseas Expansion Still Be a Breakthrough?

As a new energy vehicle manufacturer with the same seniority as Xpeng and Li Auto, NIO has achieved remarkable results.

In 2022, NIO sold 152,100 vehicles, becoming the sales champion among new energy vehicle startups that year. NIO's issues did not emerge suddenly, unlike some other companies.

Entering 2023, NIO's sales declined consecutively, with annual deliveries of 127,500 vehicles, a year-on-year decrease of 16.16%, making it the only new energy vehicle startup to achieve only 50% of its annual target and experience a year-on-year decline in deliveries.

The chill that began to spread at NIO in 2023 has gradually escalated. Since 2024, NIO has been unable to escape topics related to "money."

As early as the beginning of last year, there were constant reports of "year-end bonuses not being paid" and "layoffs." In March, an employee posted on social media that NIO had failed to pay year-end bonuses on time, drawing public attention. At the time, NIO's then-CEO Zhang Yong stated that it was necessary to convey the chill to everyone.

However, in the second half of the year, NIO once again found itself embroiled in controversies over unpaid supplier payments, salary reductions, and factory shutdowns.

Its sales data also suffered. From October onwards, NIO stopped publishing monthly sales reports. According to sales data from the China Passenger Car Association, in October of this year, NIO's parent company, Hozon Auto, sold a total of 7,208 vehicles, a year-on-year decrease of 11.21% and a month-on-month decrease of 20.16%. Cumulative sales for the first ten months were only 85,700 vehicles.

It was not until recently that NIO's behind-the-scenes leader, Fang Yunzhou, stepped into the spotlight to reflect on the strategic, organizational, and management system issues exposed within the company, leading to short-term turbulence in its development.

According to Fang Yunzhou's internal letter, NIO, which has been in business for ten years, is standing at a crossroads of transformation and will focus on domestic markets while expanding globally in the future.

He also set new goals for NIO's future: "While striving to achieve an IPO, we aim to achieve a 50-50 sales split between domestic and international markets within the next 2-3 years, turn overall gross margins positive by 2025, and achieve overall profitability by 2026."

It's evident that, in addition to achieving an IPO, the second goal is to accelerate overseas expansion and seek a breakthrough.

It cannot be denied that among new energy vehicle manufacturers, NIO was not only one of the earliest to go overseas but also performed relatively well. In the first half of last year, NIO exported 17,687 vehicles, an increase of 154% year-on-year, ranking first among new energy vehicle startups in terms of exports.

Southeast Asia and South America are the main export destinations for NIO, with Thailand being a key market. Thailand was the first stop for NIO's overseas expansion. In October, NIO's entire lineup ranked second in new energy passenger car registrations in Thailand, with a month-on-month increase of 55%.

However, Thailand's market size is relatively small. In 2023, the local auto market in Thailand sold approximately 775,800 vehicles, roughly one-thirtieth the size of the Chinese auto market. This means that the domestic sales volume in the Thai auto market limits the size of NIO's overseas market "pie."

This requires NIO to continuously explore markets in other countries and regions. Currently, NIO has also started production in markets such as Malaysia, Indonesia, and Brazil.

But with issues at home, does NIO still have a chance to "make waves" overseas?