Shanghai (ZXZC)- Chinese EV startup NIO formally launched on August 20 the BaaS (Battery-as-a-Service) service, which allows customers to buy electric vehicles and subscribe the usage of battery packs separately.

(Photo source: NIO)

The service will render the cost of using an EV more affordable. If users decide to purchase a NIO's vehicle and subscribe to use the 70kWh battery pack under the BaaS model, they can enjoy the vehicle purchase price with a 70,000 yuan ($10,114) deduction off the original price and pay a monthly fee of 980 yuan ($142) for the battery pack. Meanwhile, the users will still enjoy the purchase tax exemption and government NEV subsidies.

(Photo source: NIO)

William Li, Founder and Chairman of NIO, said at NIO's 2020 Q2 earnings call that the process of its first vehicle under the BaaS (Battery as a Service) model has been validated including insurance purchase, loan application, and license plate registration.

“The BaaS model has long been planned with our unique battery swap technologies. The successful launch of the BaaS model will enable NIO users to benefit from the lower initial purchase prices of our products, flexible battery upgrade options and assurance of battery performance,” said William Bin Li.

As of today, the startup has deployed 143 battery swapping stations across 64 cities in China and completed over 800,000 battery swaps for users, according to Li.

(Photo source: CATL)

A NIO-led new battery asset management company was established two days ago. Dubbed Wuhan Weineng Battery Asset Co.,Ltd, the newborn company involves a registered capital of 800 million yuan ($115,583,520) and is located at Wuhan East Lake High-tech Development Zone, according to Chinese corporate data search platform Tianyancha. Shen Fei, Vice President of Power Management at NIO, serves as its legal representative.

Tianyancha's records show that Wuhan Weineng has four investors, including NIO (Anhui) Holding Ltd. (the legal entity of NIO China) and the Chinese power battery giant CATL. The latter announced on the same day that it acquires 25% of equity interest in Wuhan Weineng at a consideration of 200 million yuan ($28,895,880).

Wuhan Weineng works on the battery asset management based on the separation of vehicles and batteries. According to Tianyancha, it features a line of businesses including the rental, maintenance, wholesale and retail of power batteries, the recycle of decommissioned batteries, electric power engineering, the operation and management of the industries and products related to new energy and electric power, the planning, R&D and design of EV charging and battery swapping infrastructures as well as the technical development of cloud-based platforms and big data.