IT Home reported on May 17, citing "Ruijian Economy" today, that from May 15 to May 17, the 18th Xuanyuan Auto Blue Book Forum was held in Guangzhou under the theme "Turning Point." William Li, founder, chairman, and CEO of NIO, participated in a dialogue online.

When asked whether the battery swap stations are a profit center or a drain for NIO, Li responded, "I never consider it a drain."

Li pointed out that heavy-asset, high-tech companies have become a mainstream. Battery swap stations are a typical heavy-asset, high-tech endeavor. "In the long run, it will certainly become one of our important revenue sources, but we are still in the phase of advanced investment."

He said that NIO's battery swapping service is not charity; it charges a service fee for battery swapping, and can also store electricity for resale to participate in new power trading. He revealed that last year NIO used nearly 3 billion kWh of electricity, and this year it is expected to approach 4 billion kWh. "If there are 5 million vehicles in the future, that would be 20 billion kWh per year—this is a huge business."

IT Home learned from NIO's official sources that as of today, NIO has built 8,870 battery swapping and charging stations nationwide, including 3,849 battery swap stations, 5,021 charging stations, and 28,855 charging piles. It has provided over 100 million battery swap services cumulatively. .

According to NIO's previously released financial report, the company achieved an operating profit of 1.25 billion yuan in the fourth quarter of 2025, achieving its first quarterly profitability. Its cash reserves in the fourth quarter stood at 45.9 billion yuan, a significant increase of nearly 10 billion yuan quarter-on-quarter.

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