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I buy the electric car but rent the batteries

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ROMA – The Chinese electric car manufacturer Nio has launched a new sales option for its electric cars that does not include the simultaneous sale of the battery, which will then be rented. Using the “Battery as a Service” (BaaS) offering now introduced, customers will be able to purchase the Nio ES8, ES6 or EC6 models without battery and then rent one. The new option will allow Nio to reduce vehicle prices by 70,000 yuan (about 8,530 euros). Buyers will pay a monthly fee of 980 yuan (just under $ 120) to rent the 70-kilowatt-hour battery.
To implement the Battery-as-a-Service offering, Nio, together with Catl, the Chinese battery giant, and two other partners, founded the Battery Asset Company. The four participating companies will each hold 25 percent of the capital with an investment of 200 million yuan. The new company will purchase the batteries and lease them through the BaaS business model with CATL providing the cells.
The same assumption was made by Renault when it first introduced the Zoe and Kangoo electric vehicles. The French group has since switched to proprietary batteries in most markets. Nio, however, has a distinct strength: according to the latest information, the young company operates 143 battery change stations across China, where drivers can swap used battery packs with others already charged. Li added that Nio is building a new battery changing station in China per week and plans to build 300 new stations next year. Nio has been on the road to financial recovery, if only since July when the company managed to sign credit lines with six Chinese banks for a total of 10.4 billion yuan (about 1.3 billion euros).
In February, Nio signed a framework agreement with the government of Hefei, the capital of Anhui province. With this framework agreement, the company, which was under great pressure at the time, committed to building factories and research centers in the city. The collaboration with the city of Hefei brought the company the said ten billion yuan in the form of a line of credit with local banks. The battery replacement model could prove to be another smart move. China’s industry ministry said it will promote the adoption of vehicles with batteries that can also be swapped for models from other manufacturers. Nio CEO Li also said that the company hopes to enter international markets from the second half of next year starting from European countries.


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