Nio to Set Up 1,000 Battery-Swapping Sites in 2023

Chinese multinational automobile maker Nio plans to build 1,000 battery-swapping sites in China before the end of the year. The company’s founder and chairman, William Li, revealed the intention and target, meaning that Nio will have 2,300 battery-swapping stations by the end of 2023 if the plan is successful. This will also address a major fear among potential buyers of charging points. Many people have expressed concern about the difficulty in driving range to travel between charging points.

Drivers can easily swap their exhausted Nio battery packs with fully charged ones at the battery-swapping locations. This will replace the search for charging locations to boost the cars’ batteries. While Nio is one of the few advocates for battery swapping to address one of the significant challenges of electric cars, Tesla Inc (NASDAQ: TSLA) has dismissed the idea. The Elon Musk-led company referred to battery swapping as “riddled problems and not suitable for widescale use”.

Nio Stretches Plan on Battery-Swapping Sites

According to the Nio boss, 600 battery-swapping stations will be in urban locations, while the remaining 400 will be set up along highways. The automaker wants to target China’s third and fourth-tier cities and counties in the latest development. Notably, the current plan to add 1,000 stations is not what the company initially announced. In December, Nio said it would expand by 400 battery-swapping stations this year. However, Li said he realized there should be more such stations to improve users’ experience. He came to this realization after he traveled to northeastern China and lower-tier cities in Zhejiang.

In other Nio-related news, the company has announced that its new factory will be in a province in the East of China. The Chinese automobile manufacturer revealed that the new plans would be in the Chuzhou Economic Development Zone, Anhui Province. The new factory in the location aims to produce electric vehicle models from the company’s third brand. Already, a commencement event of an EV parts production base was held in January, And reports revealed 98 projects with 89.5 billion yuan ($13 billion) investment. Out of the total projects, Chuzhou Economic Development Zone participated in 11 with 13.8 billion yuan investment.

The co-founder and president of Nio, Qin Lihong, said on January 26 that the new sub-brands are ready to activate. He added that “Firefly,” the third brand, will launch in Q3 2024 in Europe. Speaking further, Lihong said the third brand would focus on mini and small cars with a minimum price of 100,000 yuan and a maximum price of 200,000 yuan.