On 24 March 2021, China-based electric vehicle maker NIO completed its 2,000,000th NIO Power Swap in Suzhou Delivery Center, China. On 26 May 2020—slightly less than 10 months ago—NIO had completed 500,000 swaps. NIO Power Swap stations have so far powered more than 396 million kilometers of driving distance.
The most frequent Power Swap user has completed more than 654 swaps; the most traveled Power Swap user has visited 67 stations nationwide. Harbin, Beijing, Chengdu, Haikou, and Shenzhen are the top five cities in China with the highest per capita swaps.
NIO’s battery swap is enabled by more than 500 patented technologies. The fully-automatic swap takes three minutes.
As an integral part of NIO’s Battery as a Service (BaaS) solution with chargeable, swappable, and upgradable batteries, apart from serving as the time-efficient solution for users’ daily needs, Power Swap also allows users to upgrade the battery and continuously enjoy the progress of battery technology.
NIO plans to deploy Power Swap 2.0 by mid-April. Announced at NIO Day 2020 in Chengdu in January, the Power Swap Station 2.0 will be capable of 312 swaps per day—three times more than the current swap station.
At the new Power Swap station, the vehicle can automatically drive into the station, and users can start a self-service swap with one tap on the center display and without getting out of the vehicle.
NIO will speed up the Power Swap stations’ deployment and plans to have 500 stations in operation nationwide by the end of 2021.
NIO also launched its 150 kWh battery on NIO Day. The new battery has an ultra-high energy density of 360 Wh/kg, and is compatible with all NIO models. The advanced production-ready solid-state battery technology enables it. NIO vehicles equipped with the 150 kWh battery can achieve an ultra-long NEDC range of more than 730 km for the 2018 ES8, around 850 km for the all-new ES8, more than 900 km for the Performance Version of the ES6 and the EC6, and more than 1,000 km for the ET7.
The 150 kWh pack, like the 70 kWh, 84 kWh and 100 kWh packs (the last launched in November 2020), can be handled by Power Swap 2.0 stations.
