Ledao Auto ran a 'Qingming battery swap' ad — NIO fired 2, disciplined 4

Just before the 2025 Qingming Festival, NIO's sub-brand Ledao Auto (乐道汽车) released a brand poster whose core copy read 'swap battery at Qingming, leave anytime' (the original Chinese, '清明换电随时走', uses a breezy catchphrase to promote Ledao's 85 kWh battery swap service). Qingming is China's traditional tomb-sweeping and ancestor-worship festival. Using a flippant 'leave anytime' alongside Qingming was widely seen as a cultural offence.

This was Ledao's second ad controversy in three months — an earlier 'swapping boyfriends is not as good as swapping batteries' campaign (original Chinese: '换男友不如换电') had already drawn criticism. On April 4, NIO issued an internal notice confirming the ad was designed by a regional marketing specialist tied to the Qingming holiday break. Six people were disciplined: two pushed to resign, four managers warned or recorded demerits.

From April 8, the topic appeared on Weibo hot search, accumulating roughly 95 cumulative hours on the trending list. A brand built on the 'user enterprise' promise had failed on cultural sensitivity twice in a row — not because nobody knew what Qingming meant, but because nobody in the review process was paying attention.