NIO to launch “battery as a service” idea in 2020

Shanghai (Gasgoo)- NIO is ready to launch the all-new idea “Battery as a service” (BAAS) in 2020, the startup's founder and CEO Li Bin revealed in a speech he delivered at the China EV100 Forum 2020 last weekend, as the company is a staunch upholder of battery swapping service.

The charging facilities widely covering a vast number of scenarios, including charging piles, 20kW DC superchargers, mobile charging vehicles and the charging poles connected with the third-party platforms, are part of weapons accentuating NIO's uniqueness. Mr. Li said the company has plowed nearly RMB3 billion in charging services and will pay more since it regards offering consumers pleasant energy replenishment experience as its goal and the biggest challenge to develop EVs.

(Photo source: NIO)

Among NIO's charging services, the battery swapping is more favored by the EV maker. “Battery swapping is very important to EVs because it can considerably lower the purchase cost for EV consumers as well as furnish them with the same experience as refueling oil-powered cars,” said Li Bin, added that NIO's car and service system is designed on the basis of battery swapping logic.

The EV manufacturer completed at the end of 2018 the deployment of battery swapping stations located along expressways spanning from Beijing to Shenzhen, from Beijing to Shanghai, and from Shanghai to Shenzhen. Besides, the coverage to large cities in China has been basically realized with a total of 123 battery swapping stations set up, offering around 250,000 times of service so far.

In addition, the CEO disclosed that NIO has already applied for over 1200 patents pertaining to battery swapping station, vehicles available for battery swapping, battery pack and cloud. Leveraging the latest technologies, the startup aims to have its battery pack update annually. The 70kWh battery pack was launched in 2018 and then the 84kWh one was offered without changing size in 2019. In 2020, the capacity will be increase to 100kWh, according to Mr. Li.

“On the whole, everything should be made for ensuring a good consumer experience. We consider that the separating consumption of vehicles and batteries based on battery swapping can benefit users through using battery packs that are chargeable, replaceable, updatable and recyclable. Battery will be rented to users an individual asset,” said Li Bin.