Update: Nio has adjusted the time and location of this user's event.
Nio is set to tweak its charging model for its battery swap service in China, in what will be the third major overhaul since the service became available.
Nio (NYSE: NIO) is about to tweak its charging model for its signature battery swap service in China, balancing cost and user experience as the service grows in popularity.
The electric vehicle (EV) maker will hold a user briefing on the adjustments to the charging model for battery swap stations on Friday, September 6, starting at 7 pm Beijing time, according to an announcement posted on the Nio App today.
Nio is inviting interested owners to attend the event -- which will be held at a Nio House in Guangzhou -- where executives, including Shen Fei, the company's vice president in charge of power business, will be available to answer user questions.
The event will also be streamed live online for those who can't make it to the event.
It's worth noting that Nio's announcement a few hours ago said the event would start at 7 pm Beijing Time on September 5 in Shanghai. It has removed the initial announcement and posted a new one about the new time and location.
Separately, Nio will announce its unaudited financial results for the second quarter of 2024 on the same day, before the US markets open, with an analyst call beginning at 8:00 pm that day according to an August 22 statement from the company.
Nio completed its first battery swap station in Shenzhen on May 20, 2018, and yesterday saw the facility reach 2,500 in China. It currently has 54 stations in Europe.
On August 5, Nio reached a cumulative total of 50 million battery swap services.
The EV maker was initially charging a fixed fee of RMB 180 ($25) for each battery swap service.
To promote the use of the service among car owners and to boost car sales, Nio started offering free lifetime battery swap service to first-time owners later in 2018. Non-first-time owners still had to pay a fee at the time.
On October 12, 2020, Nio stopped offering unlimited free battery swap service.
For first-time owners, if they give up the free home charger, then they can get six free battery swaps per month.
If they wish to keep the charger, then the first 6 battery swap services per month will be free of service charges, but they will have to pay for the electricity.
Prior to that adjustment, Nio started a new billing model for non-first-time owners on July 10, 2020, where the cost of each battery swap service became the amount of power added * (electricity charge + service charge).
In January 2021, Nio continued to scale back its free battery swap service entitlement for first-time owners, reducing the regular offer from six to four times a month. Owners can still get six free services per month if they give up the free charger.
On June 12, 2023, Nio reduced the price of its entire model range by RMB 30,000 and stripped the free battery swap entitlement for first-time owners to a paid option, which was no longer available from August last year.
The company also adjusted its charging model for non-first-time owners and those who have exhausted their free credits at that time, replacing the power-based service fee with a fixed service fee of RMB 30 or RMB 50, depending on the site.
As of now, for Nio owners who pay to use battery swap, they pay a fixed service fee plus a charge based on the amount of power they receive, which is comparable to regular charging.
($1 = RMB 7.1228)
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