Chinese EV start-up Nio cuts prices by US$4,200, ends battery-swapping services as sales stutter
- Nio, whose cars are priced above 300,000 yuan, will cut prices of all its models by 30,000 yuan with immediate effect
- The Shanghai-based carmaker’s sales fell 5.7 per cent month on month to 7,079 units in May after it refused to succumb to a price war initiated by Tesla late last year
Chinese electric-vehicle (EV) start-up Nio has slashed prices of all its models by 30,000 yuan (US$4,200) to spur sales and will stop its free battery-swapping services in a bid to become profitable in an extremely cutthroat market.
The Shanghai-based carmaker said on Monday that the decision on the price cuts was made after gaining insights into consumers’ needs and was effective immediately.
While Nio users currently receive as many as four free battery-swapping services per month, the carmaker’s charging stations will start collecting about 100 yuan for the service from new buyers.
“Obviously, Nio is resolute in driving up deliveries by offering discounts,” said Zhao Zhen, a sales director with Shanghai-based dealer Wan Zhuo Auto. “The price reductions have come as a surprise to the market because industry officials expect the price war [among carmakers] to end soon.”
The price cuts come after Nio posted a month-on-month sales decline of fell 5.7 per cent to 7,079 units. Nio’s peers – Beijing-headquartered Li Auto and Guangzhou-based Xpeng – posted higher sales last month, up 10.1 per cent and 6 per cent, respectively. The trio are viewed as China’s best response to US carmaker Tesla in China, the world’s largest EV market.
Nio builds premium EVs, most of which are priced above 300,000 yuan. It was a major victim of the price war initiated by Tesla last October as the Shanghai-based carmaker kept prices unchanged.