China’s EV maker Nio eyes 1,000 Battery-Swap Stations In 2023

Nio, a Chinese electric vehicle (EV) startup, plans to build 1,000 battery-swapping stations in China in 2023, bringing the total number of such facilities to 2,300 by the end of the year, according to its Founder and Chairman William Li. According to Li, Nio will build 400 battery-swapping stations along highways and 600 in urban areas, with a focus on the country's third and fourth-tier cities and counties.

The move expands on its December plan to add 400 such stations this year. After visiting northeastern China and lower-tier cities in Zhejiang, Li discovered that more of them are required to improve user experience. Rather than plugging the vehicle into a charging station, battery swapping allows drivers to quickly replace depleted packs with fully charged ones. Swapping could help alleviate the growing strains on power grids as millions of drivers charge up, but experts warn that it will only take off in a big way if batteries become industry-wide standard.

Nio is among the few EV makers that are betting on battery swapping as one of the major power solutions for electric cars. Rival Tesla had previously dismissed battery swapping as “riddled with problems and not suitable for widescale use”.