Chinese EV Firm NIO to Launch Rental Battery Buyout Plan
Chinese new energy automobile company NIO confirmed on Monday that it will launch a BaaS (“battery-as-a-service”) buyout plan.
The released information shows that to terminate the NIO BaaS service and replace it with a new battery at a NIO Service Center, users have to pay 3,000 yuan ($457) in service fees and another battery fee. The service fee includes warehousing, logistics, assembly and testing. According to different battery packs, the costs are different, among which the price of a standard battery pack (75/70 kWh) is 70,000 yuan, and the cost of a long-life battery pack (100 kWh) is 128,000 yuan.
In addition, because the NIO BaaS service is paid after use, the rental fee incurred before buyout is not refundable. In other words, all fees from the car delivery date to the buyout date are the BaaS expenses incurred. If the last month is not full-term, the fee will be calculated on a daily basis, and the buyout date is the date when the agreement is signed and the payment is completed.
In terms of insurance, users don’t need to pay the battery guarantee fee of 80 yuan every month besides the original monthly battery rental fee. In addition, the company will issue a battery buyout invoice as the battery title certificate, and NIO will communicate with the insurance company, so users don’t need to worry about the problem of original vehicle invoices not including the battery part.
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It is worth mentioning that original 100 kWh BaaS service users can’t buy out the 75 kWh battery, but 100 kWh users can get points by renting it back – that is, they can choose to downgrade to low-capacity batteries.
In August 2020, NIO launched the battery rental service NIO BaaS, which has the following advantages. First, the battery is separated from the vehicle and users can rent batteries and replace or upgrade them. Second, the car price is reduced by 70,000 yuan, and the battery rental service fee is only 980 yuan each month. Third, users don’t need to worry about battery attenuation, and vehicle maintenance rate is significantly improved.
