The car-making arm of Baidu is hiring for a "BaaS battery operations business development" position.

(Image credit: Jidu Auto)

The BaaS (battery as a service) model, which allows consumers to buy a vehicle body and lease a battery, is one of Nio's key labels. Now, Baidu's car-making arm Jidu Auto seems to be considering the same model.

Jidu is hiring for a "BaaS battery operations business development" position, and one of the requirements is experience in a battery bank and battery leasing area, according to a job ad seen by CnEVPost.

The job responsibilities of the position include developing Jidu's battery operation strategy, improving the design of battery leasing business model and building the operation system.

Jidu is offering a salary of RMB 25,000 ($3,900) to RMB 40,000 for the position, with 15 months of pay per year.

It is worth noting that on November 1, Jidu established a subsidiary in Shanghai with a registered capital of $310 million. Its business scope includes sales of new energy vehicle production and testing equipment, battery swap facility sales, and charging infrastructure operation.

Jidu was officially established on March 2, and Baidu will support its car company with artificial intelligence, Apollo autonomous driving, Xiaodu voice assistant, and Baidu Maps based on the Geely SEA platform.

Jidu 's first car is expected to be unveiled at the 2022 Beijing Auto Show, when the model will be a concept production car. In an optimistic scenario, the model could be available for pre-order within the next year, according to information previously released by the company.

In China's electric vehicle market, vehicles with battery swap support are already taking shape, with Nio being the only company currently delivering such models on a large scale to the general public.

Battery swap-enabled models allow owners to enjoy the convenience of the latest technology as battery technology advances, and also provide an additional replenishment option that makes these models more attractive than the average model.

Orders for the Nio ES8 in Norway have exceeded expectations, with 92 percent of consumers opting for battery swap service BaaS, William Li, founder, chairman, and CEO of Nio, said on an analyst call yesterday after the company announced its third-quarter earnings.

Chinese policy also supports the battery swap model. Last April, China's subsidies for the new energy vehicle industry set a price requirement of less than 300,000 yuan, but battery swap-enabled models were exempted from that requirement, allowing Nio, which is positioned at the top end of the market, to continue to enjoy past subsidies.

On May 12 this year, local media reported that SAIC would soon launch a "battery bank" to support the body-battery separation model, with a unified battery pack to be launched by the end of this year or early next year.

SAIC's unified specification battery pack covers 11 models and can support lithium iron phosphate batteries, ternary lithium batteries, high nickel batteries and even solid-state battery packs, according to these reports.

On May 13, it was also reported that GAC was studying the feasibility of building a battery swap station, and its management team had visited a battery swap station in Guangzhou by battery swap service provider Aulton.

However, there have been no new reports on SAIC and GAC's battery swap business since then.

NIO BaaS battery swap upcoming disruptor within proven disruptive EV segment