By Michael Elkins
Chinese electric vehicle startup Nio (NYSE:NIO) announced Monday that the automaker will stop providing new buyers with free home charging points and will reduce the number of free battery swaps buyers can have to four a month.
The Shanghai-based automaker’s Chief Executive, Li Bin said at a press conference today that from June 1, buyers of Nio’s ET7, EC7, ES7, and ET5 models will have to pay for home charging credits. Li also added that buyers will be limited to four free battery swaps a month instead of the previous six times a month.
A battery swap costs CNY100 ($14.55), Li pointed out, noting that Nio launched the service in September 2019 free of charge to get drivers used to it. From August 2021, it limited free swaps to six a month, Li said.
In the future, the service will become a fully paid one, Nio President Qin Lihong said. Battery swapping accounted for more than 56% of Nio car owners’ power consumption as of last month.
Nio also said during today’s press briefing that it will be charging a service fee for its advanced driver assistance service. It will be priced at CNY 380 a month from July 1. Only a trial version is available at the moment, so users can enjoy discounts or free subscriptions.
Shares of NIO are down 1.66% in pre-market trading on Monday.