On July 7, NIO announced that starting from July 10th, the charging standard for battery swapping for non-first-time car owners and operating vehicles will be adjusted. The new calculation method will be:
- Battery swapping fee = (Swapped battery level – Original battery level) * (Electricity fee + Service fee)
Before the adjustment, the battery swapping fee for NIO’s non-first-time car owners and operating vehicles was 180 yuan per swap. The adjusted charging standard is more reasonable in actual swapping scenarios. The official release also includes two pictures as references.
Based on NIO’s official data, the cost of battery swapping is 1.74 yuan per degree. Taking Shanghai as an example, the cost of most State Grid charging stations is about 1.5-2.0 yuan per degree, which means that there is not much difference in the cost of swapping and fast charging for non-first-time car owners. Even if NIO cancels the policy of providing free battery swapping for first-time car owners in the future, NIO car owners can still enjoy the experience of battery swapping at a lower price. For car owners without a charging condition at home, battery swapping is far better than charging in terms of experience.
As a comparison, I also found the charging fees of several Tesla Superchargers in Shanghai for everyone to compare:
Battery swapping and Supercharging are both unique ways to replenish power for NIO and Tesla, respectively. Both are working hard to solve the inadequacies of pure electric vehicle power replenishment. This significant reduction of the battery swapping fee is good news for NIO car owners, and it can also have a positive effect on the residual value of second-hand NIOs.
This article is a translation by ChatGPT of a Chinese report from 42HOW. If you have any questions about it, please email bd@42how.com.