NIO rounds cape of 2,500 battery swap stations

Chinese premium carmaker NIO has officially rounded the cape of 2,500 Power Swap Stations (PPS), of which 2,454 are located in China and 51 in Europe. Besides some local minor projects from Californian start-up Ample, NIO is the only one offering swappable batteries in Europe. But currently, only for its own models.

However, NIO has been working hard to sign up partners to make multi-brand battery swapping possible. Chinese state-owned Guangzhou Automobile Group (GAC), which joined the alliance in May of this year, will be the first to offer a version of its Aion U9 SUV, a sub-brand, with a swappable battery that can use NIO’s Power Swap Stations. But Aion is not on sale in the EU.

Connection with other brands

Other brands are likely to follow. According to Chinese media, Nio also achieved interconnection with car brands Hongqi, Deepal, Zeekr, Lotus, Cadillac, Buick, and Xpeng. That would open up a tempting alternative to fast charging, as swapping an empty battery for a fully charged one only takes two and a half minutes in NIO’s 4th generation PPS, and the process is completely automated.

In China, battery swapping is quite popular compared to the rest of the world, and several big names like CATL, for instance, have their own swapping standards. There, NIO is running the largest PPS network. The first 1,000 stations took four years to build up, but they accelerated quickly, with the next 1,500 in less than two years.

Slowing down in Europe

The latest Power Swap Stations in Europe, like the one in Bryn, just outside Oslo, can store up to 21 battery packs and do 408 swaps daily. They have been produced since 2022 in a brand-new factory in Biatorbágy, Hungary.

Still, in Europe, NIO had to slow down. The initial goal of 120 swap stations by the end of the year was later adjusted to 80 and will probably not be met, with 51 installed today. It opened the 50th Power Swap Station on the Old Continent just two weeks ago in Norway, where it started its European journey in 2022, and the total is 16 currently.

It also has PPS in the Netherlands (9), Germany (18), Sweden (9), and Denmark (1). NIO car owners could initially enjoy unlimited free battery swapping, but that ended in April of this year. Now, owners get two to four coupons per month for swapping, with only the price of the electricity to be paid. If you run out of coupons, a swap will cost you €10 extra.

In addition, NIO has 17 NIO charging stations (46 charging points). In China, Nio showed its latest innovation, a 640kW Liquid-Cooled Power Charger boasting a maximum current of 765 A and a voltage of 1,000 V. The company claims that the liquid-cooled charging cable developed by Nio only weighs 2.4 kg, comparable to a laptop and friendly to one-hand operation.

More swapping to come?

Other battery-swapping initiatives are scarce in Europe for now. Italo-French-US carmaker Stellantis said in December last year it would embrace battery-swapping technology from Californian start-up Ample to equip a Free2Move car-sharing fleet of a hundred Fiat 500e cars in Madrid this year.

However, other ‘Chinese-European brands’ might follow once NIO’s network gets broader, as important partners like Geely, parent company to Volvo, Polestar, Zeekr, Lynk & Co, and Lotus entered the alliance.

Joint development with Lotus

NIO and Lotus found each other at the Beijing International Automotive Exhibition to sign a strategic charging and battery swap technology partnership. According to a statement by NIO, the ultimate goal is to build a standard battery system and jointly develop passenger vehicles with a unified battery-swapping and fast-charging operational and management system.

Changan Automobile, Geely Holding, Anhui Jianghuai Automobile Group (JAC), and Chery already partnered with Nio on battery swapping. Lotus Technology is 51% owned by Geely Holding, and Nio Capital from NIO founder and CEO William Li invested in the new Wuhan Lotus Technology in 2021. So, the joining of the former British sports brand doesn’t come as a surprise.