NIO trumpets record battery swaps in China but jogtrots in EU

Chinese premium EV brand NIO has set a new battery-swapping record by performing 136,748 swaps in a single day in its 3,106 swap stations in China, an average of 44 changed battery packs per station. The brand, a clear leader in swapping technology, has already performed over 65 million of these swaps.

As travel peaked, Nio’s Power swap services soared during the just-ended Chinese New Year break, during which it provided 446,259 battery swaps. Three of the busiest battery swap stations along highways saw peaks of 183, 176, and 175 in a single day. NIO has 59 swap stations in Europe, but the brand rather jogtrots in its expansion here.

Onvos swapping for free

The record day was February 3rd, when the Nio group saw an average of 5,698 swaps per hour. Of the 136,748 swaps, some 8,000 were for the new, cheaper subbrand Onvo. Onvo offers free battery swapping for new customers of the L60, currently the only model on sale. They can get 24 vouchers to use the battery swap service for free, worth €214.

NIO officially launched its ‘affordable’ Onvo brand in China in September last year with the L60 crossover, a Tesla Y competitor offered at an incredibly lower price of 149,900 yuan, or some 19,050 euros. That’s without the swappable battery, which is rented under the Battery as a Service (BaaS) option.

The 60 kWh battery pack offering a 555 km range (CLTC) is rented for 599 yuan (€76) a month, and the 85 kWh pack (730 km) for 899 yuan (€115). Those wanting to buy the battery with it will have to spend 206,900 yuan (€26,293) for the Onvo L60 60 kWh RWD base model.

Expanding slower than expected

In January, Onvo offered its Chinese customers a zero down payment, a three-year interest-free financing program, three-year free access to the autonomous highway driving feature NOA, 12 battery swap service experience coupons, and up to 12 BaaS monthly bill waivers.

NIO has yet to introduce the Onvo in Europe. Although NIO has been selling cars in Europe since 2021, its expansion has been slower than expected. NIO has mainly focused on existing markets like Norway, Germany, and the Netherlands, with Belgium probably not coming earlier than 2026.

Sales have not been as spectacular as hoped. NIO currently sells six model variants in the three countries: the SUVs EL 6, 7, and 8, the sedans ET5 and ET7, and the ET5 station wagon. According to the latest figures from JATO Dynamics, Nio sold 1,709 cars in Europe in 2024, compared to 2,404 the year before.

The best-seller was the compact SUV EL6, with 545 units (+319%), followed by the luxury sedan ET7 (407, down 47%), the smaller ET5 (327, down 58%), the EL7 (182, down 53%), and the newly introduced EL8 (75).

Chinese BMW

Among the new EV makers, privately owned NIO is considered the ‘Chinese BMW’. For instance, its higher prices, ranging from 59,000 to 103,000 euros in Germany, reflect its ambitions to be a premium brand. The EU imposing a 20.7% import tariff in 2024, just like the cars BMW is building for Europe in China, didn’t make it cheaper.

A day before the deadline, at the end of January 2025, three Chinese EV makers, BYD, Geely, and SAIC, and the China Chamber of Commerce (CME) representing the others, like NIO, filed challenges at the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) in Luxembourg against the tariffs the EU is imposing on electric cars made in China. At the last minute, BMW and Tesla joined them.