NIO, the Chinese electric vehicle manufacturer, has recently inaugurated a new factory dedicated to the production of battery swap stations. This move is in line with the company’s ambitious plan to add 1,000 battery swap stations to its network by the end of this year, a goal that was announced three months ago.
On Friday evening, a brand-new battery swap station was shipped from NIO’s Hefei plant in Anhui province. It was promptly installed in Xiamen, located in the Fujian province, the following morning. Shen Fei, the Senior Vice President of NIO Power, made this announcement on Weibo, providing the first insights into the company’s new battery swap station factory in Hefei. This city is already home to two of NIO’s vehicle assembly plants.
Shen Fei explained that after the Chinese New Year, NIO made the decision to expand its battery swap station network by 1,000 stations this year. To address the resulting capacity constraints, the company chose to construct a factory in Hefei specifically dedicated to manufacturing these facilities. According to Shen, it took approximately three months from the time the decision was made to ship the first battery swap station from the plant.
While Shen did not delve into further details, it appears that NIO’s battery swap station supplier played a crucial role in achieving this progress. Shandong Weida Machinery, a company traded on the Shenzhen stock exchange, has been supplying battery swap stations to NIO. On March 29, their subsidiary named Swap, based in Kunshan, Jiangsu, announced the successful development and delivery of third-generation battery swap stations for NIO. Weida stated that Swap would continue to develop, produce, and supply these stations according to NIO’s actual demand and orders in the future.
Swap, established as a joint venture in 2017 between NIO Power and Weida’s industrial robotics subsidiary Demac, specializes in the design, development, production, and manufacturing of automatic battery swap systems. However, it remains unclear how many factories Swap currently operates in China to fulfill NIO’s demand for battery swap stations. Notably, NIO also has a factory in Hungary that began producing these facilities in September 2022.
The third generation of NIO’s battery swap stations was unveiled during the NIO Day 2022 event on December 24, 2022. This advanced version has an increased storage capacity, capable of accommodating up to 21 packs, compared to 13 packs in its predecessor and five in the initial generation.
Initially, NIO had announced plans to add 400 battery swap stations by 2023, but on February 21, the company raised this target to 1,000 stations. William Li, NIO’s Founder, Chairman, and CEO, stated that they aimed to expedite the deployment of battery swap stations even further, with a goal of having over 2,300 stations across China by the end of 2023.
During a press conference held on April 18 at the Shanghai Auto Show, Li revealed that NIO plans to add approximately 200 battery swap stations each month starting in June.
As of May 29, NIO has a total of 1,432 battery swap stations in China, with 383 of them strategically positioned along highways. Additionally, the company operates 2,624 charging stations throughout the country, providing 15,591 charging piles. The expansion of NIO’s battery swap station network is a significant step toward bolstering electric vehicle infrastructure and supporting the widespread adoption of electric mobility in China.
