Nio CEO Likens Battery Swapping To Cloud Services From Amazon, Microsoft, Alibaba — But Says People Forget One Key Thing

Nio Inc (NYSE:NIO) CEO William Li addressed company employees on Monday, covering various aspects of the company, its strategy, and the broader electric vehicle (EV) landscape. Li emphasized Nio’s commitment to battery-swapping technology, distinguishing it from the prevailing industry reliance on charging solutions.

What Happened: During the address, Li remarked, “The qualifying round for the EV race is in its final stages, and our current layout and direction need to ensure that we have subsequent cards to play in the two most competitive years,” as reported by CNEVPOST.

Responding to inquiries about the potential dominance of fast charging over battery swapping, Li clarified that the two are not mutually exclusive. Nio provides both battery swaps and has over 20,000 charging piles.

“Since our first day, we’ve been characterized as rechargeable, swappable, and upgradeable. However, what many people forget these days is that we have a strong charging service along with our battery swap service,” Li said.

While acknowledging the industry’s shift toward fast charging, Li underscored the ongoing advantages of battery swapping, including speed and the convenience of not requiring the driver to exit the vehicle. Additionally, he noted concerns about ultra-fast charging impacting battery lifespan.

Like Cloud Services: Drawing a parallel to Amazon’s cloud service, Li likened Nio’s technology to infrastructure in the energy internet. 

He stated, “Battery swap and cloud services are very similar; the battery swap network is equivalent to the cloud service infrastructure of the energy Internet.” 

“At the beginning, others do not believe that we can do it, but when the development comes to a certain stage, others will find that the threshold of investment and operation is very high because this is the infrastructure construction,” Li said.

A large part of the market value of Alibaba, Tencent, Amazon and Microsoft, is now contributed by cloud services, he added, hinting at his vision for the future of Nio.

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Photo courtesy: Nio