Chinese EV maker Nio to amp up battery-swap network with 900 faster stations this year
- The company promises to get drivers back on the road in 2.5 minutes, but battery advances are eating into the approach’s time advantage
The Shanghai-based company will build about 900 additional swapping stations this year, it said on Tuesday. The automated facilities allow drivers to get back on the road in just a few minutes after exchanging a spent battery module for a fully charged one.
The new stations reduce the wait by 20 per cent to 2.5 minutes, compared with Nio’s existing stations, said William Li, co-founder and CEO.
“Only one-third of Chinese EV owners have charging piles for household use,” he said. “Charging facilities and technologies still need to be improved to further ease range anxiety.”
Nio will establish a factory in Wuhan, capital of central China’s Hubei province, to produce the stations. The manufacturing centre, to be located in Wuhan Optical Valley Digital Economy Industrial Park, covers 20,000 square metres and is expected to have a production capacity of more than 1,000 units a year, Li said.
Nio currently operates 2,480 battery-swapping stations across mainland cities, having launched its first in Shenzhen in May 2018. Most of its existing stations can automatically navigate a car into the proper position, with the swap taking about three minutes to complete.
The time advantage of Nio’s approach is declining, as more advanced batteries now allow competing premium EVs with ultra-fast charging technology to get 400km to 500km of driving range in 10 minutes.
