[vtires2018]

Many of you may have heard of NIO.
They have Cars with more than 75KW of batteries, and they can swap (remove the exhausted unit and put in fully charged one) in around 5 minutes.

Amazing technology indeed! NIO has more than 1300 battery swap stations in China, and currently 10 in Europe (Norway, Netherlands, Germany etc)

https://youtu.be/P3WjZzO8w3A

https://youtu.be/hTsrDpsYHrw

I would prefer, battery swap over high powered charging.
7kW AC home charging. Battery swap and "real" supper chargers from Xpeng, NIO and Tesla only for Highways, and big Cities, airports etc.


Xpeng put its first 480 kW S4 supercharging stations into operation in five cities in China

For comparison, Tesla's V3 charger has a maximum power of 250 kW and a maximum current of 631 A, and can get a range of 150 km in as little as 5 minutes.

[Swaminathan]

Originally Posted by vtires2018

Many of you may have heard of NIO.
They have Cars with more than 75KW of batteries, and they can swap (remove the exhausted unit and put in fully charged one) in around 5 minutes.

Amazing technology indeed! NIO has more than 1300 battery swap stations in China

I understand now that NIO has covered 66% of China mainland with their Battery swapping stations. Each swapping station costs 500k$, not sure of the operational costs though. In addition, the swapping service is free of cost for the NIO owners. Not sure how they break even.

Few facts that supports the business case

1) the swapping stations are portable, meaning these are not permanent structures and can be set up in a new location if there is no/lesser demand in the given location.

2) Rapid urbanization in China also limits customers with no charging possibility at their homes and dependency on public charging. Swapping can be effective since waiting times are less.


With the continuously increasing range of EVs and the reducing charging time, there is a strong possibility that swapping may see the sunset in the next few years. However, it depends on how the customer experience remains intact for NIO and similar OEMs who are banking on battery swapping.