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"users' anxiety about the mileage of electric vehicles ultimately comes down to infrastructure anxiety. just like people may be less anxious about the mileage of gasoline vehicles, it's not because of how far a tank of gas can go, but because gas stations are a service that is available everywhere." during the 2024 chengdu auto show, nio co-founder and president qin lihong said in an exclusive interview with "daily economic news".

lihong qin, co-founder and president of nio (photo source: provided by the company)

as one of the earliest car companies in china to deploy charging and battery swapping station infrastructure, nio began to deploy charging and battery swapping facilities at the beginning of the delivery of its first car in 2018. official data shows that as of august 31, nio has deployed 2,552 battery swapping stations around the world, including 837 on chinese highways; 3,989 charging stations, 23,256 charging piles; and access to more than 1.638 million third-party charging piles.

at this year's chengdu auto show, nio announced that it plans to achieve "charging in every county" in sichuan by june 30, 2025, increase the layout of the charging/battery swapping network, and expand charging services to 183 county-level administrative regions in sichuan province. "sichuan will be the first province and city where nio will achieve 'charging in every county'," said qin lihong.

battery swap stations are the ultimate infrastructure solution

at the "2024 nio charging day", nio released the "charging in every county" plan, which aims to be the first to achieve nationwide charging in every county and battery swapping in every county in 14 provincial-level administrative regions before june 30, 2025; in terms of battery swapping station construction, nio plans to complete battery swapping in 27 provincial-level administrative regions by the end of 2025, covering more than 2,300 county-level administrative regions.

"starting from 2026, nio will focus on the remaining provincial administrative regions, covering more than 2,800 county-level administrative regions." nio chairman li bin revealed that by the end of 2025, nio will have built more than 5,000 battery swap stations.

in qin lihong's view, the ultimate solution for the infrastructure of new energy vehicles is battery swap stations. "for users, battery swap stations are more of a time-shifting game. instead of charging when you need it, they charge the battery when you are not there, and then replace it in two or three minutes and leave directly." qin lihong explained that battery swapping is the best way to preserve the value of power batteries, which are expensive and have a relatively short life cycle.

at the beginning of this year, nio announced plans to add 1,000 battery swap stations in 2024, but the plan will be delayed due to the fact that the fourth-generation battery swap stations were put into operation about two months later than expected, the limited production capacity of lidar, and some supply chain bottlenecks. "it is difficult to complete the construction of 1,000 battery swap stations this year. this plan is expected to be completed in february next year, or at the latest in march next year," said li bin.

regarding the choice between range extension and battery swapping, qin lihong said that for long-term considerations, nio chose the latter. "if nio makes range-extended vehicles, to achieve our current level, the additional parts cost for each vehicle will be around 30,000 yuan. based on nio's 1 million vehicles, nio will need to invest an additional 30 billion yuan in range-extended vehicles, which is equivalent to all the investment in building 10,000 battery swapping stations." qin lihong believes that the best solution is to build 10,000 battery swapping stations, whether for nio, users or the entire power industry.

qin lihong explained that although nio has only deployed more than 2,000 battery swap stations across the country, for many users, they can basically meet their travel needs. with the implementation of nio's county-to-county battery swap plan, adding more than 2,000 battery swap stations will make it possible to achieve county-to-county access. with a total of less than 5,000 battery swap stations, it will be possible to achieve a battery swap station in every county and district in china. "if the number of battery swap stations reaches 10,000, nio can basically achieve 50% of village access, which can be more convenient than refueling." qin lihong analyzed.

in qin lihong's view, unlike refueling of fuel vehicles, electric vehicle users have a bad charging experience, and car companies including nio are responsible. "although nio is not profitable in the short term, there is no doubt that we will enjoy the dividends of the development of this industry in the future, so we should also invest in the development of the entire industry, so we must replace the battery." qin lihong said.

firefly brand models will be released in the first half of 2025

previously, li bin revealed that the launch of the "charging in every county" plan was related to the ledao brand. "because the user distribution of the ledao brand is wider, including third- and fourth-tier cities, the user range is wider." li bin explained that the layout of the charging and swapping network is very important for the users, services, and sales of the ledao brand.

on the evening of may 15, nio's second brand, "onvo", was officially launched. at the same time, ledao automobile's first model, ledao l60, was unveiled and pre-sale started. ledao l60 is fully benchmarked against tesla model y, focusing on the 250,000-level household smart pure electric suv market.

image source: photo by li xing, reporter of china business network

in addition to ledao auto, nio's third brand (internal code name "firefly") will also be released in 2025. "in the first half of 2025, the firefly brand and its first model will be officially released and launched on the market." qin lihong said that although the firefly model is entry-level, it does not mean that it is a cheap car. its significance to nio can be understood as mini to bmw and smart to mercedes-benz, and it is positioned as a mini boutique car.

it is reported that nio's three brands focus on the high-end market, the mass mainstream market, and the entry-level market, with price positioning of more than 300,000 yuan, more than 200,000 yuan, and more than 100,000 yuan respectively. "nio uses three brands to cover three different price ranges, which is better than using one brand to cover all ranges." qin lihong emphasized.

according to qin lihong, the commonality of the three brands of nio is that they take products, services and communities as the foundation. they will not stop doing things that are good for users, including battery swapping services, just because firefly products are slightly cheaper. "battery swapping is nio's 'signature', and all three brands must have it." qin lihong revealed that ledao and nio can share battery swapping stations, but firefly cannot, and nio will set up a separate battery swapping network for it.

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