BaaS, Battery as a Service, is based on a simple idea: the customer buys the car, but pays for the battery separately, based on subscription, usage, capacity or exchange.
The industry is trying to resolve the most sensitive point of the electric vehicle: the most expensive component, most subject to technological evolution and most difficult to price used.
What really changed
NIO, in China, was one of the first brands to transform this idea into a business model. In 2020, it launched BaaS, allowing the purchase of a car without the battery. In the ES8, ES6 and EC6 models, the option reduced RMB 70,000 from the vehicle price and provided for a monthly subscription of RMB 980 for the 70 kWh package, according to the company itself.
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The battery is no longer just a part inside the car and becomes a separate financial asset. This changes the down payment, installment, warranty, insurance, repurchase and evaluation of the used vehicle.
The logic attacks three known barriers: initial price, fear of degradation and insecurity about resale. For the consumer, the car becomes more affordable. For the automaker, recurring revenue is born. For the bank, a new guarantee structure emerges. For the dealer, a more complex evaluation rule appears.
But this only ends with scale, standardization and infrastructure. In March 2025, NIO and CATL announced battery exchange cooperation, and CATL indicated investment of up to RMB 2.5 billion in NIO Power, the automaker’s energy arm.
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The advance of BaaS comes as the cost of batteries falls, but it still weighs on the purchasing decision. BloombergNEF calculated a 20% drop in the average price of lithium-ion packs in 2024, to US$115 per kWh, the lowest level in the series.
The International Energy Agency recorded a drop in prices in 2024, with a reduction of around 30% in China and 10% to 15% in Europe and the United States. This difference helps explain Chinese aggressiveness: those who produce on a large scale turn batteries into a competitive advantage.
Even though it is cheaper, the battery continues to define autonomy, reliability, liquidity and future value. When used, a car may be well maintained, but its battery may carry a different perception of risk.
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Renault experienced this tension with the Zoe in Europe. Battery leasing reduced the initial cost, but generated conflicts in some used vehicles, especially when it came to ending the contract, purchasing the battery or dealing with removal costs. The Guardian reported one such case in the UK in 2024.
In Brazil, BaaS will only make sense if it solves concrete problems: lower installments, clearer resale risk, understandable guarantee, predictable insurance and more accessible credit.
Electromobility has already gained enough scale to require better financial solutions. ABVE registered 223,912 electrified light vehicles sold in 2025, an increase of 26% over 2024. In the first two months of 2026, there were 48,591 units, an increase of 90% over the same period of the previous year, with a forecast of over 280 thousand electrified in the year.
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For the consumer, BaaS can reduce the amount financed, as long as the battery subscription does not return the savings through the back door. For banks, you can open a structure with two assets: car and battery. For insurers, this changes the calculation of the claim. For rental companies, it facilitates life cycle management. For dealers, it increases the responsibility of explaining contract, buyback and residual value.
The critical point will be in the used one. Pricing cannot depend solely on price list, mileage and general condition. It will be necessary to measure battery health, recharge history, active contract, contracted capacity, replacement cost and package liquidity.
Who wins and who loses
Potential winners are automakers with scale, service network, battery data and simple contracts. Banks, insurance companies, rental companies and used platforms that can transform uncertainty into a financial product can also win.
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The potential losers are brands without robust after-sales, opportunistic importers, operations with low technical transparency and retailers who evaluate electric cars with the same ruler as combustion cars.
The relevant indicators will be: difference between FIPE and transaction price of used trams; inventory turnover by technology; insurance cost for models with high-value batteries; credit approval rate; repurchase by car manufacturers and rental companies; battery health reports in negotiations.
BaaS will not be the future of all electrics. The drop in the cost of batteries tends to make many models more competitive without separating the asset. But in markets with high interest rates, pressured incomes, expensive insurance and concerns about resale, the separation can create a bridge between desire and purchasing capacity.
The battery will be treated less and less as a part and more and more as an asset with its own economic life. Whoever masters data, credit and residual value will have an advantage. Anyone who treats the electric car as just another car in the yard will discover that the energy transition is also a financial transition.
