Chinese EV maker NIO has launched its Battery as a Service (BaaS) program in the People’s Republic, allowing customers to purchase a car without the actual battery, making EVs more price competitive.

The program also allows users to change battery capacity depending on their needs and pay accordingly. This means that BaaS also provides a solution for issues such as battery degradation, upgradability and low resale value.

So just how much more cost effective is it to purchase a car without the battery? According to NIO, if you buy an EV from them through BaaS, you can benefit from RMB 70,000 ($10,000) off the car price across all NIO models, and subscribe to a 70 kWh battery pack for as little as RMB 980 ($141) per month.

NIO has already achieved homologation for vehicles to be sold without a battery, and the first BaaS user has already completed their purchase.

Of course, BaaS wouldn’t have worked if it wasn’t for NIO’s battery swapping technology. The company has obtained more than 1,200 patents related to battery swapping and has already completed more than 800,000 swaps.

The Chinese government is on board with this plan too, after approving its first national electric vehicle battery swapping standard, promoting this type of technology and all the services that come with it. NIO even took the initiative and helped draft the document, together with the China Automotive Technology & Research Center (CATARC).

Interestingly enough, EVs that cost more than RMB 300,000 ($43,400) in China are only eligible for subsidies if they have the capability of battery swapping.