The battery rental (BaaS) transfer buyout scheme launched by Weilai has once again caused a "war of words" between car owners.
Recently, a screenshot circulating on the Internet shows that in the Weilai APP, the account signed as "User Big Boss" released the BaaS transfer buyout plan.
According to the plan, NIO will provide the service of terminating the BaaS lease agreement, and the user can replace the new battery at the NIO service center, and need to pay a service fee of 3,000 yuan and the corresponding battery payment. Among them, the cost of the standard battery pack (75/70kWh) is 70,000 yuan, the cost of the long-lasting battery pack (100kWh) is 128,000 yuan, and the service fee of 3,000 yuan includes power battery warehousing logistics, disassembly, testing, etc.
In addition, because the banking and financial company does not support the battery pack loan service, the BaaS user who chooses to buy out can only buy the new in full and does not support the loan mortgage; if the user does not need to replace the new battery, the service fee of 3,000 yuan can be waived.
BaaS battery rental program was previously considered to be able to effectively reduce the cost of user car purchase, Weilai said that most users choose BaaS car purchase method, the overall satisfaction is very high. With its BaaS service, NIO was named one of the 100 companies that changed the world by Fortune magazine and was the only automotive company to be selected.
According to the current CAR purchase policy of WEILAI, users can choose to pay the full price of the car at one time and obtain complete ownership of the vehicle and battery, or choose the BaaS scheme to obtain the right to use the battery in the form of monthly leasing, and according to the battery capacity, the amount of 70,000 yuan or 128,000 yuan will be reduced at the time of purchase.
Some Weilai car owners once told reporters that the most troublesome thing when buying a car is which plan to use to buy a car, hoping that Weilai can launch a battery rental buyout program, which can allow users to have the possibility of buying out the battery in the later stage after reducing the cost of car purchase.
But after Weilai Automobile really launched the battery BaaS buyout program, it triggered a "war of words" among users. In the WEI APP, there are 1,000 relevant information about "BaaS buyouts", of which the rental issue has become the focus of user discussion.
In the current online outflow of the plan, Weilai Automobile said that the BaaS business is used first and paid later, and the rent previously generated is not refunded, that is, all the rents from the pick-up date to the date of the buyout have been incurred as BaaS costs.
Some car owners and users believe that the current plan to buy out the cost of the battery, Weilai should refund the previously generated rental costs. In addition, some users said that the battery rental cost in the current Baas scheme is too high, which increases the cost of use, and hopes that Weilai will simultaneously reduce the BaaS fee.
But there are also a considerable number of users on the side of Weilai Automobile. This group of users generally believes that Weilai provides a BaaS buyout program, giving car owners a new opportunity to choose, and in the subsequent process of car use, they can no longer pay monthly fees and reduce the cost of use. In addition, the buyout fee proposed by Weilai is consistent with the new car buyout battery, which only covers the battery cost.
For the problem of non-refundable rental costs, users who support Weilai use the analogy of buying a house and renting a house, "BaaS is like renting a house, and buying out is like buying a house." In real life, if a person rents a house for 3 years and is ready to buy this house, the tenant cannot let the landlord refund the rental fee, and the landlord will inevitably not agree. ”
For these controversies, Weilai Automobile responded to the first financial reporter that individual users proposed the idea of buying out the battery for reasons such as their own car needs, and Weilai and Weineng Battery Asset Company revised the terms of service after studying and gave an exit plan, and the plan was generally recognized by users. The number of users who currently opt for a buyout is minimal.
Since its inception, NIO has always adhered to the ultimate "user experience", which is also where the company believes that its core competitiveness and moat in the future lie. Qin Lihong, president of Weilai Automobile, once said: "Li Bin or I do not need to use any agency, secretary, professional department to deal with our individual users, we can communicate directly, which most (car companies) can not do." "Before that, a number of car companies have also expressed their appreciation for Weilai's experience in user operation and experience.
However, following the "joint declaration of car owners" in late August last year, the BaaS buyout plan once again triggered differentiation and controversy among car owners. With the launch of the more affordable ET5 and the NIO Volkswagen brand, the composition of NIO's car owners is more complex and diverse, which may bring greater challenges to NIO's service system. The head of marketing of a car company once told the first financial reporter that although he believes that Weilai is worth learning and learning from traditional automakers in user operation, there may also be certain risks in opening up the voice of users with complete transparency.