FLEETDRIVE
BATTERY BOOM PREMIUM PUSH TESLA TAKEOVER
Chinese electric vehicle (EV) maker
Nio Inc has launched a battery leasing
service that will allow drivers to buy
an EV without owning the battery
pack - one of the most expensive EV
components - thereby lowering the
starting price of its cars.
The service, called “battery as a service”
(BaaS), entails drivers paying a monthly
rental fee for use of the batteries.
The cheapest Nio car after subsidies
is now an ES6 sport-utility vehicle
(SUV) priced at $55,030 AUD without
ownership of the battery pack, versus
$69,108 AUD with it.
“We believe with BaaS, more customers
of gasoline cars will consider electric
vehicles,” Nio’s chief executive William Li
said.
Nio operates 143 battery-swapping
stations around China, where drivers
can swap spent battery packs for fully
charged replacements. Li said Nio was
building a new battery-swapping station
in China every week and planned to
build 300 new stations next year.
Nio’s battery packs are the same
shape and size across its lineup,
which is comprised of three SUVs. It is
hoped that other manufacturers might
eventually include standardised batteries
to assist in making BaaS more common
across all future EV models.
Passenger-car sales have begun to
pick up in the past few weeks after
screeching to a halt earlier this year
due to the coronavirus pandemic and
sweeping containment measures.
Premium brands have performed even
better with some even registering yearon-year
growth as customers spent big
despite the economic shock.
Germany’s premium brands Porsche,
Audi, BMW and Mercedes-owner
Daimler, which sell 30-40% of their
cars in China, dominate the luxury car
market.
“German brands outperformed the
market up to June thanks to overall
consumption upgrade, and we haven’t
seen any change of trend yet,” UBS
auto analyst Paul Gong told German
broadcaster Deutsche Welle.
However, China’s sharp recovery
remains an exception among major
markets. While new car sales elsewhere
have also recovered from their pandemic
lows, they remain well below pre-crisis
levels.
New car registrations in Europe’s biggest
single market Germany fell just 5% in
July, after skidding 61% in April. Europe
as a whole — the biggest car market for
flagship German cars besides China —
also saw sales recover from their April
lows.
Tesla is still holding about 80% of the
US electric vehicle market despite
buyers not having access to the
federal tax credit anymore unlike they
do for some of the competition.
“Data presented by Buy Shares
indicates that Tesla unsurprisingly
accounted for 81.66% of all-electric
vehicles sold in the United States as of
the first half of 2020,” the report said.
“During the period, a total of 87,398
electric vehicles were sold in the US
with Tesla accounting for 71,375. The
company’s popular Tesla Model 3 was
the highest-selling with 38,314 units.”
It’s important to note that Tesla doesn’t
disclose its sales per market and
registration data is not readily available
everywhere in the US and, therefore,
some of the sale data for Tesla is
estimated.
Tesla took 4 of the first 5 top EV slots
for US sales with the Model 3, Model
Y, Model X, and Model S dominating
sales alongside the Chevrolet Bolt.
All 4 vehicle models have no access
to the $7,500 federal tax credit for
electric vehicles.
ISSUE 24 AUGUST 2020 / WWW.AFMA.ORG.AU
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