China's NIO making EV battery swapping work

Emergent electric-vehicle automaker NIO believes battery swapping makes sense for EVs and the company's customers almost universally agree. In front of 10,000 guests at the 2018 NIO Day in mid-December, company founder and CEO William Li announced that 9,726 units of the company's first vehicle, the ES8 SVU, had been delivered. And more than 95% of those buyers chose to lease the battery, which is only possible with battery packs designed to be swapped out for recharging.

Swappable, leased batteries mean NIO can offer its EVs at a much lower up-front cost than other OEMs selling electric vehicles. NIO customers who opt to lease the battery reduce the cost of their EV by 100,000 RMB ($14,476 US). These ES8 buyers then pay a subscription fee, either 980 RMB ($142) per month or 10,800 RMB ($1,570) annually, to access NIO's battery swap stations and other “Power Express” services, like a public charging network and the use of NIO's Power Mobile charging trucks. A similarly priced subscription service will be available for buyers of the upcoming ES6 SUV EV.