E-car manufacturer Nio starts with car subscription in Germany

E-vehicle by Nio

The Chinese company made a loss in the second quarter.

(Photo: Reuters)

Berlin The Chinese electric car manufacturer Nio wants to start renting cars instead of selling them in Germany and three other European countries. According to his assessment, the flexibility of a car subscription is in demand among customers, said Nio boss William Li in an interview with the Reuters news agency published on Friday. “Flexibility is the new premium.”

Nio has been selling cars in its home market of China and Norway for a number of years. Germany, the Netherlands, Sweden and Denmark are now following with the leasing and subscription model. The brand will soon be opening its first store in Germany in Berlin at Breitscheidplatz. Later, a “Nio House” is to be built in Hamburg, Frankfurt and Düsseldorf as a contact point for tenants of the ET7, EL7 and ET5 models.

The subscription can be taken out for a period of one to 60 months, said Nio. The longer the contract runs, the lower the rate. With an annual subscription, for example, it costs 1295 euros per month to drive an ET7.

The customer does not have to worry about repairs or tire changes. Nio has already made renting instead of buying a principle for batteries, the most expensive part of an electric car. Drivers can swap batteries at an exchange station.

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This only takes a few minutes and saves customers long loading times at home or on the go. At least 120 such stations are planned in Europe by the end of next year, said Li. Since September, Nio has been producing them in Hungary instead of importing the interchangeable systems from China.

Lynk also uses a subscription model

Having sold almost 250,000 vehicles since its founding in 2018, Nio is still a small manufacturer that competes with Chinese brands such as BYD, Xpeng, Hozon or Leapmotor, as well as Tesla and all traditional car manufacturers. In September, sales were almost 32,000 units, 29 percent above the previous year’s level.

In the second quarter, Nio made a loss of almost 420 million euros despite sales growth. Other Chinese manufacturers also want to conquer the European market with e-cars via new sales models, including Geely. Their subsidiary Lynk also relies on a subscription model that customers can cancel at any time.

More: Chinese electric car manufacturer Nio ventures into Germany

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