Recently, the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) revealed a new patent filed by NIO. The patent is called “METHOD AND DEVICE FOR DETERMINING UTILITY OF REPLACEMENT OF BATTERY PACK FOR ELECTRIC VEHICLE”, The patent foresees that NIO may charge corresponding fees by replacing batteries with different capacity for users.
At present, NIO provides power battery packs with three different capacities for its models, which are 70kWh, 84kWh and 100kWh (not yet delivered). When the user comes to NIO power station, the power station will identify the type of battery pack of the vehicle, and let the user select the appropriate battery pack and replace it, user needs to pay an expense for the replacement of the new battery, which may vary depending on the battery’s capacity.
In August 2019, NIO launched a service of “first ES6 / ES8 car owners to enjoy free lifetime replacement of electricity”. When the service was launched, the industry was skeptical that it would cause NIO to face even greater losses. Today, the new patents seem to indicate that NIO is working on establishing a new profit model for power station replacement. As for the profitability, we will continue to pay attention
