Users' range anxiety about electric vehicles ultimately boils down to infrastructure anxiety. Just like how people may have less range anxiety about gasoline cars, it's not because of how far a tank of gas can go, but because gas stations are a ubiquitous service, "said Qin Lihong, co-founder and president of NIO, in an exclusive interview with Daily Economic News during the 2024 Chengdu Auto Show.
As one of the earliest domestic car companies to lay out charging and swapping station infrastructure, NIO began laying out charging and swapping facilities at the beginning of the delivery of its first vehicle in 2018. According to official data, as of August 31st, NIO has deployed 2552 battery swapping stations worldwide, including 837 on Chinese highways; 3989 charging stations and 23256 charging piles; Connected over 1.638 million third-party charging stations.
At this year's Chengdu Auto Show, NIO announced its plan to achieve "electrification in every county" in Sichuan by June 30, 2025, with an encrypted charging/swapping network layout, expanding its electrification services to 183 county-level administrative regions within Sichuan Province. Sichuan will be one of the first provinces and cities in NIO to achieve 'electrified county to county connectivity', "said Qin Lihong.
Swap stations are the ultimate solution for infrastructure
On the "2024 NIO Power Up Day", NIO released the "Power Up County Connection" plan, which aims to achieve nationwide charging county connections and 14 provincial-level administrative regions' battery swapping county connections by June 30, 2025; In terms of the construction of battery swapping stations, NIO plans to complete the electrification of 27 provincial-level administrative regions by the end of 2025, covering over 2300 county-level administrative regions.
Starting from 2026, NIO will focus on other provincial-level administrative regions, covering over 2800 county-level administrative regions. NIO Chairman Li Bin revealed that by the end of 2025, NIO will have built more than 5000 battery swapping stations.
In Qin Lihong's view, the ultimate solution for the infrastructure of new energy vehicles is battery swapping stations. For users, battery swapping is more of a game of time shifting. It's not about temporarily charging when you need it, but about charging the battery when you're not around, swapping it out in two or three minutes and leaving directly. "Qin Lihong explained that battery swapping is the biggest way to preserve the value of expensive and relatively short lifespan power batteries.
At the beginning of this year, NIO announced plans to add 1000 battery swapping stations by 2024. However, due to factors such as the delayed commissioning of the four battery swapping stations by about two months, limited LiDAR production capacity, and some supply chain bottlenecks, the completion of the plan will be postponed. It is difficult to complete the construction of 1000 battery swapping stations this year. This plan is expected to be completed in February next year, and the layout will be completed by March at the latest, "said Li Bin.
Regarding the choice between the two technological routes of range extension and battery swapping, Qin Lihong stated that for long-term considerations, NIO has chosen the latter. If NIO were to develop extended range vehicles and achieve our current level, the additional cost of components required for each vehicle would be around 30000 yuan. Based on NIO's fleet of 1 million vehicles, NIO would need to invest an additional 30 billion yuan in developing extended range vehicles, which is equivalent to investing in the construction of 10000 battery swapping stations. Qin Lihong believes that the best solution for NIO, users, and the entire power industry is to lay out 10000 battery swapping stations.
Qin Lihong explained that currently, although NIO has only deployed over 2000 battery swapping stations nationwide, it can basically meet the travel needs of many users. With the implementation of NIO's battery swapping program, adding more than 2000 battery swapping stations can achieve county to county connectivity. With less than 5000 battery swapping stations built, it will be possible to have battery swapping stations in every county and district in China. If the number of battery swapping stations reaches 10000, NIO can basically achieve 50% of village to village connectivity, which is more convenient than refueling, "Qin Lihong analyzed.
In Qin Lihong's view, unlike refueling gasoline vehicles, electric vehicle users have a poor charging experience, and car companies including NIO are responsible. Although NIO did not make a profit in the short term, there is no doubt that we will enjoy the dividends of this industry's development in the future. Therefore, we should also invest in the development of the entire industry, so we must replace the battery, "said Qin Lihong.
Firefly brand models will be released in the first half of 2025
Previously, Li Bin revealed that the release of the "Power Up County to County Connection" plan is related to the Ledao brand. Because the user distribution of the Ledao brand will be wider, including third - and fourth tier cities, with a wider range of users, "Li Bin explained that the layout of the charging and swapping network is very important for the Ledao brand's users, services, and sales growth.
On the evening of May 15th, NIO's second brand, "ONVO Ledao," was officially launched. At the same time, the first model of Ledao Automobile, Ledao L60, was unveiled simultaneously and began pre-sales. The Ledao L60 is fully benchmarked against the Tesla Model Y and focuses on the 250000 level home intelligent pure electric SUV market.
In addition to Ledao Motors, NIO's third brand (internally codenamed "Firefly") will also be released in 2025. In the first half of 2025, the Firefly brand and its first model will be officially released and launched. Qin Lihong said that although the Firefly model is an entry-level car, it does not mean it is a cheap car. For NIO, its significance can be understood as MINI to BMW and Smart to Mercedes Benz, positioned as a mini boutique car.
It is reported that NIO's three brands focus on the high-end market, mainstream market, and entry-level market respectively, with price positioning of over 300000 yuan, over 200000 yuan, and over 100000 yuan. It would be better for NIO to cover three different price ranges with three brands than to cover all price ranges with one brand, "Qin Lihong emphasized.
According to Qin Lihong, the commonality among NIO's three brands is that they regard product, service, and community as their underlying elements. They will not stop doing good things for users, including battery swapping services, just because Firefly products are slightly cheaper. Battery swapping is NIO's' signature ', and all three brands must have it, "Qin Lihong revealed. Ledao and NIO can share a battery swapping station, but Firefly cannot. NIO will set up a separate battery swapping network for them.