- Firefly vehicles will be connected to Nio's next-generation battery swap stations, instead of Nio's original plan to have dedicated demonstration stations in the initial phase.
- Nio's fifth-generation battery swap stations, which will be operational as early as early next year, will be compatible with the Nio, Onvo and Firefly brands.
Nio's (NYSE: NIO) third brand, Firefly, will not have dedicated battery swap stations, marking a shift in its energy replenishment strategy.
Early in the development of its first model, the Firefly team did build a customized compact, easy-to-deploy battery swap station, which was known at the time as a containerized battery swap station, Firefly president Daniel Jin said yesterday in a local media group interview.
The team had previously completed development of such battery swap stations and their integration with vehicles, according to Jin.
However, given current operations, individual station efficiencies, and vehicle matching, Nio didn't think that one Firefly model alone would be able to support the construction of a new battery swap network, Jin said.
"Therefore, we decided to have the Firefly plugged into Nio's fifth generation of battery swap stations," he said.
Nio's fifth-generation battery swap stations, which will be operational as early as early next year, will be compatible with the Nio, Onvo and Firefly brands, Jin said.
Consumers who buy Firefly vehicles now get a charging subsidy of RMB 3,000 yuan ($410), which is almost equivalent to two years of free charging for Firefly's energy consumption.
"With this entitlement, we want to tell people that they don't need to wait for battery swap stations to buy a Firefly now," Jin said.
Firefly launched its first model on April 19, with a starting price in China of RMB 119,800 ($16,410) including the battery pack, and deliveries will begin on April 29.
Firefly's vehicles will be connected to Nio's next-generation, or fifth-generation, battery swap stations early next year, Jin said in the launch event. The latest Nio stations currently deployed in China are fourth-generation.
Firefly didn't announce a BaaS (battery as a service) purchase program, which will be available starting August 1, Jin said in the April 19 event.
Nio's management had previously said that the company would set up some demonstration battery swap stations in areas with high user numbers during the initial period of availability of Firefly vehicles, and Jin's latest comments represent a change in that strategy.
"We had considered building some demonstration stations for Firefly, like a dozen to 20," William Li, Nio's founder, chairman and CEO, said in the same interview yesterday.
However, Nio now believes that building exclusive battery swap stations for Firefly is not cost-effective, according to Li.
Notably, Nio announced on March 18 that it was partnering with CATL (SHE: 300750) to build the world's largest battery swap network.
Firefly's subsequent newly developed models will use CATL's Choco-Swap technology standard.
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