As the Chinese manufacturer of electric vehicles comes under increasing pressure due to financial losses and sluggish sales, Nio announced on Monday that it would decrease pricing for all of its models and discontinue providing free battery changing services to new customers.
According to a statement from the firm, Nio will reduce pricing for all models starting June 12 by 30,000 yuan, namely $4,200. This includes the updated ES6 and ES8 sports utility vehicles. On Nio automobiles, that equates to rebates between 6% and 9%.
Additionally, the business informed customers who made deposits on Monday and afterwards that it would no longer offer free battery swapping services.
As automobile demand declines, more than 40 Chinese automakers, including Volkswagen and BYD, have joined a pricing war begun by Tesla this year in an effort to gain market share. The price war has reverberations that extend throughout the whole country's automotive sector.
Nio CEO William Li commented on the price reductions and the new battery switching policy on the firm's social media app, saying that the changes had been discussed within the company for a long time and we adopted suggestions and recommendations from some users.
However, we can't please everyone, he said, adding that now was the ideal time to publish it.
For a minimum of four times each month, Nio had been giving existing users the exchanging services gratis. In contrast to its primary rival Tesla, which has described swapping batteries as filled with problems that is not appropriate for wide - scale use, it is one of just a few EV manufacturers to count on it as a key source of power for electric vehicles.
A proposal to establish 1,000 swapping sites in China this year, bringing the total amount of such locations to 2,300 by the end of the year, was announced by Nio in February. Nio stated it will expedite the growth of its battery swapping network.
Investors, meanwhile, have raised concerns about the loss-making company's battery switching station investments, claiming they have hurt its profitability. In comparison to the first quarter of last year, when it had a net loss of 1.8 billion yuan, it had a net loss of 4.7 billion yuan.
As the pricing battle in China grew more intense and demand generally declined, Nio sales declined in April and May. Nio shipped 43,854 of its all - electric vehicles within the initial five months, each of which cost over 300,000 yuan.
In contrast, Tesla sold over five times as many cars in China during the same time period as Nio, while BYD sold 923,343 vehicles as a result of its low-cost pure electric and plug-in hybrid vehicle offers.
On Monday, Nio's Hong Kong stock increased by about 5%. The shares have fallen by about 20% thus far this year.