NIO, the Chinese electric vehicle (EV) maker known for its premium models and innovative battery-swapping technology, is facing significant challenges as it navigates a competitive market, according to company founder and CEO Li Bin, who shared plans on the sidelines of this year's Shanghai Auto Show to push through these challenges and achieve its goals.
The 21st Shanghai International Automobile Industry Exhibition, also known as Auto Shanghai 2025, is currently in full swing. The event started on April 23 and will conclude on May 2.
At the show, Li said the brand still has a bright future, with strong investment in its products and operations. He said that 2025 is nonetheless a critical year for NIO, with the implementation of new technology, new product launches, and a major expansion of infrastructure.
"Look at our highly competitive products. We've invested heavily in research and development in past years. This year, these investments will turn into real product strength. We are launching nine new models this year. Our battery-swap stations have grown into a huge network, and its network effect is getting stronger and stronger. This year, we aim to cover every county in 27 provincial regions with swap stations," he said.
Li also said that the company will enter a major new product cycle starting in Q2 this year.
"Our Q1 sales grew 40 percent compared to the same period of last year. Of course, deliveries of our most premium ET9 model only started at the end of March. From Q2, we'll enter a major new product cycle. In the auto industry, growth relies heavily on new product launches. That's why we're very confident in the second half of the year," said Li.
Reflecting on comments he made two years ago at the Shanghai Auto Show that the next two to three years would be crucial for auto industry transformation, Li acknowledged the rapid transformation of the auto industry.
"Many companies are launching new products, whether in intelligence, electrification, or entire vehicles. Smart and electric technologies have completely reshaped the industry. It really is a dramatic transformation. Of course, in the next two to three years, how we continue to compete and stay in the 'finals' is a question not just for NIO, but for every car company," he said.
CEO of Chinese EV maker NIO shares company strategy at Shanghai Auto Show
Days after a powerful 7.5-magnitude earthquake struck western Colombia on Aug 10, families in Cali, the worst affected city, are confronting heartbreaking obstacles simply to lay their loved ones to rest.
Cali's morgue sustained damage in the quake and was forced to close operations after part of the Hospital Universitario del Valle collapsed. As a result, recovered bodies must be transported to the neighboring town of Palmira, which escaped structural destruction.
The influx has severely overwhelmed Palmira's facilities, leaving them short on refrigeration capacity. Grieving relatives waiting outside must wear masks as they endure agonizing waits, caught in a system operating far beyond its designed capacity.
While some families have managed to bid a painful farewell and gained a measure of closure, such as the relatives of Maria Esmeralda Ordonez in Cali, countless others remain in painful limbo.
"Thankfully it's not turned out like it has for others who today are still fighting to rescue loved ones, people who are still lying beneath the rubble. The chances of survival are very slim, but miracles are happening," said Ivan Delgado, a relative of Maria Esmeralda Ordonez.
For many families whose relatives have been recovered, the ordeal is far from over. They must navigate the bureaucracy that comes with a death.
Securing the release of a body requires a prosecutor's order, an accompanying undertaker, and a considerable amount of paperwork -- a grueling process compounded by a system operating well beyond its capacity.
Camilo Mendez, a relative of victims, knew this pain firsthand after an agonizing three-day wait to claim the bodies of his aunt and grandmother.
"From the information we've gotten here and there, you can really tell we're not prepared for this kind of event. Moving the bodies, all of it, it was very slow, very disorganized. My grandmother and my aunt were in one place, then another. It was pretty chaotic, honestly," said Mendez.
To support the exhausted crowds, volunteers and psychologists have set up tents near the Palmira facility, offering comfort and counseling.
"It's an exhausting process. You're here waiting for an answer, and no one knows when it will come. There are people with one, five, six relatives they can't find. A body may be recovered today, another tomorrow, and that's how it's gone," said Alison Morales, a volunteer psychologist.
"The community has been extraordinary, all kinds of donations, the communal kitchen, water for the people waiting," she added.
Although Palmira itself was spared the worst of the earthquake -- sustaining cracks on a few buildings and no fatalities -- it has absorbed the profound, far-reaching grief of a region struggling to bury its dead.
Families face heart-breaking delays burying victims of Colombian earthquake
