Chinese electric automaker NIO reported record-breaking 50,000 single-day battery swap services in its homeland via its Weibo account on January 16, as per CnEVPost.
NIO’s power swaps (January 13-15)
NIO recorded its holiday travel high with 45,494 battery swap services on January 13. The next day, its battery-swapping services reached 51,040. Even more, that result surpassed its January 15 record of 55,481 battery swap services.
| January 13 | January 14 | January 15 | |
| Battery swap services | 45,494 | 51,040 | 55,481 |
As per the report, NIO’s battery swap stations along China’s highways had 9,671 services on January 13, 12,294 on January 14, and 13,333 services on January 15. Overall, the battery swapping services during these days totaled over 35,000 services.
| January 13 | January 14 | January 15 | Total | |
| Battery swap services | 9,671 | 12,294 | 13,333 | 35,298 |
NIO’s swapping and charging infrastructures
NIO currently has 1,311 battery swap stations in China, including 348 erected along highways.
On the other hand, its current EV charging stations total 2,307, including 13,560 charging piles.
Chinese New Year preparation
The Chinese New Year holidays will start from January 21 to 27 this calendar year. That said, the week before the celebration increases travel activities, especially now that China’s COVID-19 restrictions have been lifted.
NIO provides its users with free battery swap services to its stations along highways from January 13 to February 5. NIO’s information last week indicated that users are granted unlimited access from the 24-hour operating stations.
NIO’s battery swap tech footprint in China
NIO currently offers its owners up to 4 to 6 battery swap services monthly. Its owners have embraced the battery swap solution as a mode of car replenishment since its first inception in Shenzhen on May 20, 2018.
Remarkably, the electric automaker hit its ten millionth battery swap service milestone on July 5 last year. As per the calculations, 29 months had passed before the company recorded its first one million battery swap services.
Meanwhile, it took NIO 20 months to reach its nine-millionth record since its one-millionth milestone. Surprisingly, it hit its ten millionth record just a month after achieving its nine millionth milestone.
Third-gen NIO battery swap station
NIO launched its third-gen battery swap station on December 24 at the NIO Day 2022 event in Hefei. The company claims that its storage capability is eight units higher than the second-gen and 16 units higher than the first-gen of the station.
To put it simply, the third-gen battery swap station can store up to 21 battery packs. Remarkably, it boosts a single station’s daily service capacity to 408, which indicates an increase of 30% over the second generation.
NIO announced at the company event that it would officially launch its third-generation battery swap station by March 2023. NIO founder and CEO William Li further declared plans to deploy over 1,700 third-gen battery swap stations in the country by the year’s end.
In an effort to address the problems with EV charging stations, NIO is undoubtedly expanding the number of battery swap stations it has in China. Apparently, battery swapping is more practical because it does not require as much time as charging.
