Just six years on from the completion of their first battery swap station in Shenzhen, Nio has reached the 50 million swap milestone.
With a network that now boasts 2,464 swap stations in China alone, Nio offers by far the most comprehensive battery-swapping experience in China, completing around 79,000 swaps every single day, or almost one every second.
Nio claims the swap system has provided a total of 2.62 billion kWh of electricity and saved customers 2.85 billion minutes of cumulative charging time compared to plugging-in at public facilities.
Despite these impressive numbers, scepticism still remains surrounding the cost of implementing such a comprehensive network and whether it will make its investment back, but Nio remains unwavering in its commitment.
Knowing that Nio customers have saved an average of 36,000 RMB compared to similar gas-powered cars, and that around 60 per cent of all energy charged into Nios is now provided via battery swapping, likely reinforces their dedication to the plan.
The idea has steadily gained traction with competing brands too, with many now signed up to look at the possibility of using Nio’s technology in their future products, one such potential product being the upcoming GAC AION V which is rumoured to be compatible with Nio’s battery swapping technology.
AION already offers battery swapping in some of its models but has a considerably smaller network of swap stations.
While attracting additional brands to battery swapping may help to fund the ongoing expansion and improvement of the existing network, it could also have the negative effect of reducing the time advantage currently offered by the platform, as well as attracting customers to competing brands.
Regardless, it’s unlikely the 100 million swap milestone is too far away. Despite taking 29 months to reach the first million, the milestones have come thick and fast since, reaching 10 million in July 2022, 20 million in April 2023, 30 million in October 2023, and 40 million in March this year.
With Nio’s more affordable but battery swap compatible Onvo brand about to hit the market, don’t bet against 60 million being reached before the end of the year.
