Could an electric vehicle (EV) be purchased without its battery?
Chinese manufacturer NIO says yes, launching a battery-as-a-service (BaaS) offer in a bid to slash the cost of EVs and increase its cost competitiveness.
The company allows customers to purchase their favourite EV without the battery. The battery price will neither be included in the vehicle sales invoice nor in the down payment and instalments of auto loan.
BaaS users can subscribe to battery packs of various capacity according to their needs and pay on a monthly basis.
Users who choose to purchase NIO cars with BaaS can enjoy an RMB70,000 (£7,717) off from the car price for all NIO models and subscribe to a 70kWh battery pack for RMB980 (£108) per month.
BaaS is developed based on NIO’s innovative battery swapping technologies and national network with Power Swap stations and services – the firm has already built 135 Power Swap stations in 59 cities across China.
The company says it has obtained more than 1,200 patents related to battery swapping and completed about 800,000 swaps for users.
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