Nio stock has surged, but we’re more interested in its battery subscription

Red pill or blue pill, Nio?... This six-year-old luxury EV maker is on both. Nio, sometimes called "the Tesla of China," has been on a wild ride this year. Kicking off 2020, Nio had a bad rap as a cash-bleeder:

• Red pill: In December 2019, Nio stock had plunged more than 70% since going public in 2018. The company had lost $6B since its launch and was almost out of cash. Now...
• Blue pill: Nio stock has soared ~700% since April 29, when it got a $1B cash injection from Chinese government-backed investors.
• New pill: The stock is up 30% this week thanks to analyst upgrades on "strong order backlogs" and growth momentum.

Not quite Musky... Unlike Tesla, which recently reported four-straight profitable quarters, Nio has never notched a profit. In 2019, it delivered just ~20K cars compared to Tesla's ~367K. But Nio has a cool differentiator:

• Battery Swapping: Nio's Battery-as-a-Service lets you swap your EV battery for a freshly charged one at one of its 130+ stations (instead of waiting for it to juice up).
• The subscription costs ~$145/month, but you get $10K off the price of the actual car (since the battery is the most expensive part).