Li Bin: NIO's Battery Swap in Over-Investment Phase, Set to Become Key Revenue Stream

At the 18th Xuanyuan Automotive Blue Book Forum held from May 15 to 17, Li Bin, founder, chairman, and CEO of NIO, participated in a panel discussion virtually. In response to a question about whether battery swap stations represent a "cash drain" for NIO, Li stated that the battery swapping business has never been a cash drain but is currently in a phase of forward-looking investment. He emphasized that battery swap stations belong to a capital-intensive, high-tech sector and will become one of the company’s key revenue streams in the long term. Li stressed that NIO’s battery swapping operations are not a charitable endeavor but a commercial initiative generating revenue through battery swap service fees, energy storage and power sales, and participation in new electricity market transactions. He revealed that in 2024, NIO’s total battery swap volume reached nearly 3 billion kWh, with an expected increase to approximately 4 billion kWh in 2025. If NIO’s vehicle fleet scales up to 5 million units in the future, annual swap volume could reach 20 billion kWh. As of May 17, 2025, NIO has built a total of 8,870 charging and battery swap stations nationwide, including 3,849 battery swap stations and 5,021 charging stations, equipped with 28,855 charging piles, cumulatively delivering over 100 million battery swaps. According to NIO’s previously released financial report, the company achieved an operating profit of RMB 1.25 billion in the fourth quarter of 2025—the first quarterly profit in its history—and ended the quarter with cash reserves of RMB 45.9 billion, an increase of nearly RMB 10 billion compared to the previous quarter.