On July 17th, NIO announced on its official WeChat account that NIO Energy has reached a service cooperation agreement with Huawei HarmonyOS, and NIO Energy's charging network will be open to HarmonyOS brand models (including Wenjie, Zhijie, Xiangjie, etc.).
Starting from July 17th, Hongmeng Zhixing users can search for and use NIO Energy charging stations nationwide through the Hongmeng Zhixing App, AITO App, and Wanjie, Zhijie, and Xiangjie car machines.
In fact, NIO has already shown signs of opening up its charging network to HarmonyOS.
On July 11th, Ma Lin, Vice President of Brand and Communication at NIO, issued a statement saying, "NIO Energy will not only build battery swapping stations this year, but also continue to build a large number of charging stations. Most of the battery swapping stations built this year will also be integrated charging and swapping stations, serving users of various brand models including HarmonyOS
Since last year, car companies have continuously joined NIO's energy supplement "friend circle". Two months ago, NIO Energy and Zhiji Automobile reached a cooperation agreement on charging network interconnection.
Like Hongmeng Zhixing, Zhiji Auto users can also view the location, price, status, usage, and other information of NIO charging stations in real-time nationwide through the app and car charging map. They can quickly complete operations such as scanning codes for charging and order payment, and directly deduct Zhiji users' electricity rights.
Zhiji has also become another new energy vehicle brand that has achieved charging interconnection with NIO, in addition to other car companies such as Changan, Geely, SAIC General Motors, Xiaopeng, Jiyue, and Lotus.
NIO Energy has established a nationwide charging network and opened up sharing to the entire industry, with over 80% of the electricity serving non NIO users. As of July 17th, NIO Energy has deployed 3904 charging stations and 22822 charging piles nationwide, with an average daily availability rate of 99.72%.
It is worth mentioning that the charging business is also one of NIO's few profitable businesses. NIO CEO Li Bin revealed as early as the middle of last year that NIO's charging business has achieved profitability, and 70% to 80% of charging piles are used by other brands.
NIO's 2023 financial report shows that its "providing energy service system" achieved revenue of 1.67 billion yuan, accounting for 3% of the total revenue in 2023. However, the scope of "providing energy service system" is broader, covering businesses such as selling charging stations, providing charging and swapping services, battery upgrade services, BaaS battery buyout services, and other energy service system services.
But NIO's battery swapping business has not yet reached breakeven. During the first quarter conference call, Li Bin revealed that NIO's battery swapping stations can achieve breakeven by providing 60 services per day, with an average of 30-40 services now.
We are very optimistic about the long-term sustainability of NIO Energy's operations. Considering investments in energy storage, flexible upgrades, and other fields, we have no doubt about the profitability of battery swapping stations, "said Li Bin.
Since last year, multiple car companies have joined NIO's battery swapping network. Since November 2023, NIO has officially announced cooperation in battery swapping with Changan Automobile, Geely Automobile, Chery Automobile, Jiangqi Group, Lotus, GAC Group, and China FAW. In the industry's view, more partners joining the battery swapping alliance can to some extent reduce the losses caused by the construction of energy replenishment systems.