Nio Power Europe Plant in Hungary has started the battery swap station production. The first battery swap station was rolled off the production line and sent to Germany. Before the end of this year, the battery station is expected to be set up in Netherlands, Sweden, and Denmark as well.
The infrastructure rollout is related to the upcoming launch of the NIO ET7, which is the company’s flagship premium sedan. The system has a total of 14 battery slots – 13 battery packs (vs 5 in the 1.0 version) and an empty slot to pick up a discharged battery (or old/previous generation battery when upgrading). According to NIO, they are capable of completing up to 312 battery swaps per day (24 hours), which would mean 4.6 minutes or close to 277 seconds per swap (including the automated parking.
Having such infrastructure, and compatible electric cars (currently only NIO models), long-distance travel should be possible at a similar speed as in the case of internal combustion engine cars, which has been recently demonstrated in Bjørn Nyland’s 1,000 km challenge. On the other hand, there is no definite answer whether as to if it will be a viable (more cost-effective) solution, compared to fast charging.
Plans
NIO plans to install over 4,000 battery swap stations by the end of 2025, including 1,000 or so outside of China. This week, the company reached 1,100 stations installed in its home market. According to the press release, NIO intends to further increase its investments in Hungary and build an operation center to implement our strategies in the European markets. “NIO Power Europe Plant has a total area of approximately 10,000 square meters. As NIO’s first factory overseas, it serves as the center of manufacturing, service, and R&D for NIO’s power products and services in Europe. With the factory put into operation, NIO will further improve its power network and service efficiency, as well as user experience in Europe.”
Finally: NIO will start very soon in germany with battery swapping. Fully recharged in 5 minutes. Fully autonomous. Good to see that the German government sponsored „Forschungsprojekt Kreislaufakkus“ studies to understand, if swapping of batteries might be an advantage. pic.twitter.com/iI9EHC2CZv
— Florian Otto (@flotto2508) August 6, 2022
Located in Vestby district – just south of the capital of Oslo and on the major route to the second largest city in neighboring Sweden, Gothenburg – a battery swap station was opened in a little ceremony. The EV maker, sometimes seen as a credible rival to American EV darling Tesla, has been consistently in the headlines, of late, with the launch of EVs and the deployment of battery swap stations.
But it is Nio’s expansion out of its home country and into Europe that is of particular interest, given that such an expansion will pit the automaker against the big names of the global automotive industry.
