- Nio earlier this month introduced an additional five years of free battery swaps, capped at 240.
- The move is partly aimed at clearing inventory of current models in preparation for the launch of the facelift.
Nio (NYSE: NIO) reportedly got decent orders during last week's Qingming Festival holiday, after ramping up incentives for its 2024 models.
The electric vehicle (EV) maker received more than 3,500 new firm orders over the three-day Qingming Festival holiday after launching an additional five years of free battery swap service, local media outlet Jiemian said in a report today, citing a person familiar with the matter.
The incentive hike for car purchases had a significant boost on new orders, the report said.
This year's Qingming Festival, or Tomb Sweeping Day, holiday, was from April 4 to April 6, with the last two days being weekends.
This isn't the first time Nio had used the battery swap service as a sales-boosting tool; it boosted the appeal of BaaS (battery as a service) early last year, and then achieved 20,000 monthly deliveries in multiple months, Jiemian's report noted.
The company announced earlier this month increased car-buying incentives for the Nio brand, partly aimed at clearing inventory of current models in preparation for the launch of the facelifted ones.
Between April 3 and April 30, customers who pay a deposit for a 2024 Nio ET5, ET5 Touring, ES6, EC6, ET7, EC7, or ES8 will be eligible for an additional five years of free battery swaps, capped at 240, according to a Nio poster on April 4.
On April 1, Nio announced that it was continuing to offer a five-year zero-interest financing for car purchases in April, covering the main brand Nio as well as the sub-brand Onvo, after the incentive expired at the end of last month.
The incentive announced on April 1 also included the continuation of the 48 free battery swaps available in March.
The Nio brand currently has nine models on sale -- ET9, ES8, ES7, EC7, ET7, ES6, EC6, ET5, ET5 Touring.
Onvo currently has just one model, the L60, and another sub-brand, Firefly, will formally launch its first model on April 19.
From the second quarter to the fourth quarter, Nio Inc would have new product launches in every quarter, William Li, the company's founder, chairman, and CEO, said in a live video broadcast on February 8 on Douyin, a short-video platform.
The Nio brand's main selling models -- the ET5, ET5 Touring, ES6, and EC6 -- would get facelifts, with minor changes to their exteriors and updates to their interiors, Li said at the time.
The facelifted models would use a horizontal center screen instead of the current vertical one and would use Nio's own Shenji autonomous driving chip, Li said.
Nio Inc delivered 15,039 vehicles in March, up 26.74 percent from 11,866 in the same month a year ago and up 14 percent from 13,192 in February, according to data it announced on April 1.
The deliveries included 10,219 vehicles from Nio's main brand and 4,820 from Onvo.
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