NIO will be launching its EV charging services in 41 cities across China. Unlike before now the charging services and stations are compatible with all EV's including Telsa.
According to 36 Kr, Nio, one of China's biggest EV manufacturing company will be launching EV charging Services in 41 cities across China. The services will include mobile EV charging priced at USD 57 and Charging piles at USD 42 per session. Users can order these valet charging and mobile charging vans services right from the NIO app. Unlike before these charging services will be compatible with all EV’s including Tesla.
NIO CEO William LI told Teslarati that he sees the expansion of their services business as an opportunity to both grow revenue and expose more users to the NIO brand. “Lots of EV owners want to have better (charging) service and we have the capability to serve them,” LI stated. “Even if they don’t want to buy our car, we can introduce our brand and our service to other buyers. I think it’s very good for us,” he added.
Shen FEI, VP of NIO Power, stated that 22% of NIO owners lack home charging stations, creating a need for other power solutions. While public chargers are becoming quite prevalent in most major Chinese cities, NIO’s One Click for Power services allows owners to skip the trip to the charging station.
According to Teslarati, NIO owners have used the “One click for Power” service over 93,000 times since the company started vehicle deliveries last year. Approximately 70% of NIO owners have used the One Click for Power service, indicating that there is a real desire for flexible charging solutions.
The Chinese auto giant went public at the New York Stock Exchange last year and has since been on a bit of a rollercoaster as investors react to changing market conditions in China. Despite all of that, NIO is focused on servicing its growing customer base. The company now has 9,500 employees globally, including a team of more than a 1,000 NIO Power service workers. NIO expects to start deliveries of their mid-size SUV, the ES6, in June which starts at CNY 358,000 (USD 53,500) and with a range of 315 miles.
By 2025, China’s leaders want annual sales of new-energy vehicles, including pure-battery electrics, plug-in hybrids, and fuel-cell cars, to reach 7 million units. That’s the equivalent of about 20% of China’s total auto market.
NIO is not the first one to deploy superchargers and the scale remains unknown yet, its self-operated battery swapping station still makes NIO an upper hand in charging services than its competitors.
The charging infrastructure construction is very crucial for EV development. Earlier this month, another EV startup XPENG Motors put 30 supercharging stations into operation in five cities across China, including Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Shenzhen, and Wuhan, in the same day.
As compared to the United States EV charging technologies are similar in China. In both countries, cords and plugs are the dominant technology for charging electric vehicles.
In both China and the United States, many types of businesses have begun to offer EV charging services, with similar business models. The number of partnerships between Car manufacturers and charging companies is increasing day by day.