Nio’s Battery Swap Business Nears Profitability as Expansion Continues

William Li, founder, chairman, and CEO of Nio (NYSE: NIO), stated that the company’s battery swap business is showing positive momentum, with its battery swap stations in Shanghai approaching profitability.

Li shared this update in a Weibo post, where he included a replay clip from a live video broadcast he had conducted on February 8 on Douyin, a short-form video platform.

He noted that 2024 would be a significant year for the expansion of Nio’s battery swap stations, as the company aims to make the power-up experience as seamless as refueling for users of Nio, Onvo, and partner car brands.

During the livestream, Shen Fei, Nio’s vice president for energy business, highlighted that the company was already delivering over 9,000 battery swap services per day in Shanghai and was on track to reach 10,000 daily. He added that in most parts of Shanghai, constructing a battery swap station would be a profitable venture.

According to data from CnEVPost, Nio currently operates 3,110 battery swap stations across China, with Shanghai housing the largest number at 183.

Last November, Nio CFO Stanly Qu stated at an automotive industry forum that the company had over 150 battery swap stations in Shanghai at the time, with most providing more than 100 services per day. He noted that a station could break even if it handled between 60 and 70 swaps daily.

While Nio has not set a specific target for the number of new battery swap stations in 2024, it previously announced on August 20 that by December 31, 2025, its network would cover more than 2,300 counties in 27 provincial-level administrative regions in China.

This expansion is part of its Power Up Counties program, which also includes a goal to extend Nio’s charging network to all of China’s county-level administrative regions by June 30, 2025.

In the February 8 livestream, Li reaffirmed this objective, stating that Nio aimed to have more than 5,000 battery swap stations by the end of 2025.

He also pointed to the growing involvement of Chinese power battery giant CATL (SHE: 300750) in the battery swap industry as a validation of Nio’s business model, emphasizing that the two companies maintained a strong relationship.

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