Livestream with PewPew by VinFast right after Mr. Pham Nhat Vuong transitions from Chairman to CEO: Insights from the leading electric car company in China

On February 28th, VinFast organized a 4-hour livestream with streamer Pewpew to promote and sell their electric motorcycles. The livestream was quite successful, with a large number of viewers (around 4,000 views) and the sale of nearly 180 electric motorcycles, including the EVO200, EVO200 Lite, and Feliz S. Prior to this, VinFast had already organized a livestream with Pewpew at the end of 2023 to introduce their electric vehicles to consumers.

Livestreaming sales have been around for a while, but recently, electric vehicle companies have been utilizing this method, and VinFast is no exception. This approach not only helps advertise the products to a wide audience but also allows the company to sell a large number of vehicles without incurring additional costs for physical stores.

In addition to hiring popular streamers, Nio, a Chinese electric vehicle company – known for its pioneering role in livestream car sales – even features its CEO on the livestream.

China is the largest market for the electric vehicle industry, with numerous major companies such as BYD and Nio competing fiercely. To attract customers, instead of traditional sales methods, Nio – one of the leading electric vehicle companies in China – has used livestreams to promote and deliver products directly to consumers. This approach has received positive feedback from customers and effectively boosts the company’s sales.

During the Covid-19 pandemic, China closed its borders to the world, making traditional sales challenging. Many businesses – including electric vehicle companies in China – needed new sales methods instead of relying solely on physical stores. Nio quickly seized the opportunity and organized livestreams on Taobao, attracting about 20 million viewers.

The company’s CEO, Li Bin, along with Li Rui – one of the company’s shareholders, conducted this livestream and received 320 orders worth $18 million, an impressive result considering the tense Covid-19 situation.

In the following years, Nio continued to implement this strategy and achieved great success in product sales. In late 2023, the current CEO of the company, William Li, continued the livestream by embarking on a 14-hour journey in the ET7 model, covering a distance of over 1000 km with a top speed of nearly 90 km/h. This journey promoted the power and durability of the 150 kWh battery pack produced by WeLion New Energy Technology, as well as the company’s battery replacement and upgrade policies, demonstrating the endurance of the ET7. As a result, the company and its partners are expected to sell a large number of electric vehicles in the coming months of 2024.

As a relatively young company established in 2014, Nio quickly became a pioneer in the electric vehicle industry, especially in the high-end electric car segment. In addition to selling smart electric vehicles, the company also produces and provides battery swapping services (BaaS), autonomous driving technology, and other related services.

Nio currently offers a wide range of vehicle models, including 6-seater SUVs (ES7 and EL7), SUV coupes (ET9), sedans, and tourist cars (ET5 and ET5T)… In 2022, the company delivered over 122,000 vehicles to customers worldwide, with ES6 (42,000 units) and ET7 (23,000 units) leading the way. 90% of the company’s revenue in 2022 came from this business segment, reaching $7.1 billion, a 36% increase compared to the same period the previous year.

As of the end of the third quarter of 2023, Nio is also among the top 10 electric vehicle companies in terms of market share in China (accounting for 2.1%), although this number is much lower than the leading company, BYD, according to EVCNPost. This indicates that the company still needs to make more efforts to increase its vehicle sales and market share in China.