(Yicai Global) April 10 -- Chinese new energy vehicle startup Nio will stop providing new buyers with free home charging points and reduce the number of free battery swaps buyers can have to four a month.

From June 1, buyers of Nio’s ET7, EC7, ES7, and ET5 models will have to pay for home charging piles, the Shanghai-based automaker’s chief executive said at a press conference today, The Paper reported. Moreover, buyers will be able to swap vehicle batteries for free only four times a month instead of six, Li Bin added.

A battery swap costs CNY100 (USD14.55), Li pointed out, noting that Nio launched the service in September 2019 free of charge to get drivers used to it. From August 2021, it limited free swaps to six a month, Li said.

In the future, the service will become a fully paid one, Nio President Qin Lihong said. Battery swapping accounted for more than 56 percent of Nio car owners’ power consumption as of last month.

Battery swapping allows NEV drivers to exchange a discharged battery with a fully charged one in only a few minutes. Nio had built 1,305 battery-swapping stations in China as of last year. The firm plans to add 1,000 more this year, Li said in February.

Nio also said during today’s press briefing that it will make its navigate-on-pilot service fee-paying. It will be priced at CNY380 a month from July 1. Only a trial version is available at the moment, so users can enjoy discounts or free subscriptions.

Editor: Futura Costaglione