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NIO Reaches 1,000 Battery Swap Stations; Better Said, They’re Already 1,011

NIO reached 10 million battery swaps before it could get to 1,000 Power Swap stations, but it took the Chinese EV maker only one day to celebrate that milestone. On NIO Power Day 2022, held on June 6, NIO opened 12 new stations at once. In other words, it already has 1,011 stations operating worldwide: 1,010 in China and one in Norway.
NIO celebrates 1,000 battery swap stations worldwide 7 photos
Photo: NIO
NIO celebrates 1,000 battery swap stations worldwideNIO celebrates 1,000 battery swap stations worldwideNIO celebrates 1,000 battery swap stations worldwideNIO celebrates 1,000 battery swap stations worldwideNIO celebrates 1,000 battery swap stations worldwideNIO celebrates 1,000 battery swap stations worldwide
The 1,000th station is in Lhasa, Tibet. It is NIO’s station at the highest altitude, but there’s something else that makes it special. According to NIO, it is also the first to use only renewable energy. The electricity it uses to charge the battery pack comes from solar panels and hydropower plants.

Curiously, NIO shared an image that talks about 1,012 Power Swap stations. We are not sure if it was a mistake or if the company had already opened another station after writing about them in its blog. At this point and at this expansion pace, it will not matter pretty soon.

The same map states that 256 of these 1,012 Power Swap stations are of the expressway kind – for extra quick battery swaps. They are all located along highways, where people typically do not want to waste a lot of time waiting. Tell that to people thinking that a 30-minute stop for fast charging is ok – when there are fast chargers available, and they are all working, mind you.

For those that are fine with waiting, NIO also offers 1,685 charging stations with 9,622 charging stalls. NIO announced it would start to deploy 500-kW chargers with peak currents of 650 A by the end of the year. NIO promises they can add 200 kilometers (124 miles) of range in only five minutes. The company also has access to more than 520,000 charging stalls. As these numbers are on a map of China, that number is probably restricted to third-party chargers in that country.

NIO said that these 1,011 (or 1,012) stations store 8,961 battery packs: 3,821 with 100 kWh and 5,140 with 70 kWh or 75 kWh. That implies each station holds around 9 battery packs. That must have to do with the balance between first and second-generation Power Swap stations.

The first stations could store 5 battery packs and perform 120 swaps per day, which means each battery pack slot could perform 24 swaps. The Power Swap 2.0 stations can hold 13 battery packs. The slot proportion is still 24 swaps, which means these new stations can replace depleted battery packs 312 times daily. By 2025, NIO wants 90 percent of its customers to have at least one battery swap station within 3 km (1.9 miles) of their homes.
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About the author: Gustavo Henrique Ruffo
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Motoring writer since 1998, Gustavo wants to write relevant stories about cars and their shift to a sustainable future.
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