Yesterday, Li Bin, the founder of NIO, sparked market discussions during a media communication meeting, in which he reiterated the importance of NIO's battery swapping system.
According to multiple media reports, Li Bin stated at a media communication meeting that a rechargeable, interchangeable, and upgraded energy system is the moat of NIO. At present, the amortization cost of building a battery swapping station is not high, and the battery swapping station can also participate in energy storage business in some regions. From this perspective, battery swapping business is not a burden for NIO.
Li Bin revealed that on the morning of December 14th, he signed a battery swapping alliance business agreement with a certain car company, further expanding his battery swapping circle of friends.
At the same time, he also pointed out that the high-end pure electric new energy vehicle market will usher in a turning point of explosive growth in the next two years, mainly benefiting from the decline in lithium prices and the improvement of infrastructure construction. However, it is widely believed in the industry that the new energy vehicle market will continue to be driven by plug-in hybrid and extended range vehicles in 2024.
Stimulated by the above news, NIO rose nearly 7% during trading. As of publication, it rose 6.39% to HKD 61.6.
Note: NIO's stock price performance
NIO's battery swapping business was once underestimated by the market
For NIO's battery swapping business, it was once not favored by the market due to its high cost. According to the financial report for the second quarter of 2023, its net loss for the second quarter was 6.056 billion yuan, further expanding from 4.74 billion yuan in the first quarter. Although NIO has achieved cost reduction goals through personnel optimization, project compression, and other means, there is no doubt that the NIO Power swapping system, which operates with heavy assets, remains one of the reasons for NIO's continuous losses.
In response to investors' doubts about the high resource investment in battery swapping, Li Bin responded at yesterday's media communication meeting that battery swapping is not a burden for NIO. The loss of battery swapping services itself is limited, and the annual amortization and depreciation expenses of a single battery swapping station are about 300000 to 400000 yuan. A single battery swapping station can achieve profitability with 60 orders per day. Just looking at the average order volume of a single power station in Shanghai, it has reached 80 orders and has already achieved profitability.
NIO's battery swapping business may usher in new development opportunities in the near future
On November 29th, Geely Holding Group and NIO signed a strategic cooperation agreement on battery swapping. The two sides will engage in comprehensive cooperation in multiple fields, including battery swapping standards, battery swapping technology, battery swapping service network construction and operation, research and development and customization of battery swapping models, battery asset management and operation.
On November 21st, Changan Automobile and NIO reached a cooperation agreement on battery swapping business. The two sides will cooperate in four areas: establishing battery swapping standards, establishing battery swapping systems, establishing battery asset management mechanisms, and conducting pre research on battery swapping products.
Regarding cooperation with Geely Automobile and Changan Automobile, Li Bin stated that NIO has been considering opening up since its first day of battery swapping business. He called on all car companies to study and observe which models under their umbrella are suitable for battery swapping.
In addition, Li Bin previously pointed out that battery swapping networks are likened to cloud services in the internet industry, such as cloud services from Alibaba, Tencent, Amazon, Microsoft, etc., and a large part of their market value comes from "cloud services".
In addition to the expansion of friends who switch to the power grid, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, the Ministry of Finance, and the State Administration of Taxation have recently issued a notice on adjusting the technical requirements for new energy vehicle products with reduced vehicle purchase tax, among which the electric vehicle model has become the biggest beneficiary.
Lang Xuehong, Deputy Secretary General of the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers, pointed out that this adjustment announcement is actually a supplementary explanation of the "two exemptions and two reductions" policy, clarifying the technical standards that electric vehicle models that enjoy exemption from power battery taxes need to meet. "When the vehicle purchase tax is halved by 2026 and 2027, the advantages of the battery swapping model will become more apparent."