NIO, who has been criticized for not making money, is finally about to improve.
On November 21st, NIO and Changan Motors signed a cooperation agreement on battery swapping business in Chongqing. The two sides will collaborate in four areas: unifying battery packs, jointly establishing a battery swapping system, jointly building a battery asset management mechanism, and collaborating on the research and development of battery swapping products. According to the agreement, both parties will jointly promote the establishment of battery replacement standards. On the basis of a unified battery pack standard, NIO will collaborate with Changan Automobile to develop a new electric vehicle model. The first model is planned to be launched in 2025.
In addition, a reporter from China Times learned that in addition to Chang'an Automobile, NIO is also negotiating cooperation with 4-5 automobile companies.
Li Bin, CEO of NIO, said, "After 5 years of development, NIO Power Exchange Network and NIO Energy Cloud have accumulated rich experience in research and development, construction, and operation. NIO Power Exchange business is ready to open up to the industry
Zhu Huarong, Chairman and Party Secretary of Changan Automobile, also pointed out that in the future, Changan Automobile will not only cooperate with NIO in the field of battery swapping, but also continue to strengthen cooperation with NIO in other platform based and basic ecological fields, such as energy, charging and swapping, vehicle, and ecology, to jointly promote the construction of a high-quality industrial development pattern and form a mutually beneficial and beneficial ecological environment.
A win-win cooperation
Among new energy vehicle companies, NIO's battery swapping mode is its biggest feature. According to official data, as of November 21, there were a total of 2113 replacement power stations in NIO, including 651 on highways. In February of this year, Li Bin stated that the new target for the construction of the NIO Power Station in 2023 was increased from 400 new units to 1000 new units. By the end of 2023, NIO will have built over 2300 replacement power stations in total. Among them, about 600 out of the 1000 new power stations added this year will be deployed in urban areas, with a focus on third - and fourth tier cities and county towns with a certain user base but no power stations yet; About 400 seats will be built in highway service areas or highway entrances to accelerate the layout speed of high-speed power exchange networks in the nine vertical, nine horizontal and nineteen major urban agglomerations.
This means that NIO's exchange stations will be spread throughout the country. In addition, according to the plan, by 2025, NIO will have over 4000 replacement power stations globally, with over 3000 to be built domestically, and the coverage rate of "power zone houses" (residential or office spaces within 3 kilometers of the replacement power station) will exceed 90%.
In addition to the increase in the layout of power exchange stations, NIO's power exchange standards have also been officially recognized. As early as 2020, the National Energy Administration had issued a series of industry standards for battery swapping, among which NIO led the preparation of three standards: 10435, 10436, and 33025. NIO also participated in the preparation of 33004-2020 "Construction and Completion Acceptance Specification for Electric Vehicle Charging and Exchange Facilities" and 10434-2020 "General Technical Requirements for Chassis Battery Replacement System of Pure Electric Passenger Vehicles".
Although these actions have great influence in the industry and the increase in the layout of power stations has brought convenience to car owners, they have also brought considerable investment to NIO. According to the research report of China Post Securities, taking the NIO second-generation station as an example, the equipment investment is about 1.5 million yuan, the battery investment is as high as 1 million yuan (13 75kWh or 100kWh batteries), the power cost (assuming 30 daily services), rental cost, and labor cost together reach 1 million yuan, and the total cost of the above is about 3.5 million yuan (the cost of the first-generation station is about 3.46 million yuan).
The cost of NIO's replacement power station is very high, which will bring huge losses to NIO. At the same time, NIO's replacement power station has battery compatibility issues, and other car companies cannot share costs if they cannot use it. This also makes battery replacement a 'burden' for NIO, "automotive industry observer Xu Jiaxin told China Times.
From the perspective of the industry, after the cooperation between NIO and Changan Automobile, if Changan's models want to use NIO's power exchange system, they will bear a portion of the construction and operation costs of the power exchange station. This will also reduce NIO's financial burden and provide assistance for long-term layout in the future.
In addition to financial issues, NIO's other important achievement this time is to solidify the foundation of the electricity exchange model. It should be noted that the power exchange model is a heavy asset and investment based energy supplement model, so it has been questioned by the industry since NIO established it as the main energy supplement model. This has also to some extent affected NIO's brand competitiveness. After all, compared to the ideal "home" and Xiaopeng's "smart" label, NIO's "luxury" does not reflect enough.
Therefore, as a "national team", Changan Motors can choose to cooperate with NIO to participate in the battery swapping mode, which is also recognition of NIO's brand and energy replenishment system. In the future, it will also attract more brands to participate in NIO's battery swapping.
Xu Jiaxin told reporters, "Currently, consumers have become more rational. For NIO, relying solely on its service system and technology cannot attract a large number of consumers to purchase. Therefore, being able to gain recognition from other car companies will also attract consumers' attention and promote sales growth
From the perspective of Chang'an, cooperation with NIO not only reduces research and development investment, but also utilizes NIO's existing energy replenishment system. Xu Jiaxin further pointed out that the convenience of energy replenishment will also increase the sales of Changan Automobile. From this perspective, this is a win-win cooperation between both parties.
Switching mode enters power generation period
Although only Chang'an has joined NIO Power Exchange, it has also injected a shot in the arm into the industry.
Compared to the charging mode, the charging efficiency of battery swapping is higher, and using battery rental to purchase a car can also reduce costs. In addition, centralized battery management can also improve battery safety and extend its service life. However, due to different battery specifications, the power exchange mode cannot form a scale.
To this end, the government also provides policy support for power exchange. In 2020, the replacement of power stations was first included in the "Government Work Report", becoming one of the seven important areas of China's new infrastructure construction. In March 2022, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology released the "Key Points for Automotive Standardization Work in 2022", which also proposed to "accelerate the construction and improvement of the charging and swapping standard system for electric vehicles, promote the development of standards for pure electric vehicle on-board swapping systems, swapping platforms, and battery packs.
Under the promotion of policies, more and more enterprises are flocking to the power exchange circuit. In addition to NIO, there are also Ningde Times, Geely, and SAIC Group. Among them, Ningde Times has launched a battery swapping brand called "EVOGO", focusing on the research and development of small modular battery swapping technology. The brand's batteries are also known as "chocolate battery swapping blocks". It is understood that the battery adopts Ningde Era CTP technology, which can provide a range of about 200 kilometers and is suitable for models developed on pure electric platforms that have already been launched in 80% of the world and will be launched in the next three years.
Geely Automobile established a new joint venture company, Ruilan Automobile, in 2021, with a focus on replacing electric vehicles and providing services. The reporter learned that Ruilan's battery swapping station can store 27-39 batteries, with a single swapping time of about 1.5 minutes.
SAIC Group's Feifan Motors launched its first station in Beijing in August of this year for Feifan battery swapping. It is understood that Feifan Motors will complete the construction of over 50 replacement power stations in more than 10 cities, including Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Chengdu, Hangzhou, Suzhou, Nanjing, Zhengzhou, Wuhan, Changsha, Haikou, etc. by the end of 2023.
Guangqi Aian also released an accelerated power exchange plan earlier, with 180 power exchange stations to be built within this year and 2000 super charging and exchange stations to be built by 2025.
If national battery standards are established, battery swapping may become the first choice for users to supplement energy, and more and more companies will participate. "Xu Jiaxin said that the cooperation between Changan and NIO is only the beginning. With the increase in penetration rate of new energy vehicles, battery swapping as a supplement method may leap into the mainstream of the market.