Photo: NIO
NIO has quietly started to expand its European presence and is preparing to take the difficult German market by storm. The first battery swap station, which NIO calls Power Swap Station, was inaugurated in Zusmarshausen ahead of the official October 7 market entry.
NIO’s first German battery swap station is located on the busy A8 highway between Munich and Stuttgart. The Chinese company still needs time to conduct final testing and calibration before opening it to the public. But since NIO is a Chinese company, they like festive events and reporting things ahead of schedule, so there’s that.
The battery swap station project started in June when NIO’s local installation partner TSG Germany broke ground. The station was supposedly delivered from NIO’s new factory in Hungary, as revealed in the previous reporting. In fact, the first Made-in-Europe power swap stations will arrive in Germany, even though NIO has sold electric vehicles in Norway for quite some time.
Unlike European and American EV makers, NIO thinks battery swapping is better than waiting to charge the battery. The Chinese company is already operating over 1,100 battery swap stations, most of them in China. They also have around 2,000 charging stations in China but are yet to start building a charging network in Europe.
NIO’s Power Swap Station is the size of a double garage and can operate up to 312 battery swaps per day. NIO says the station in Germany can charge “up to 13 batteries with 40 kWh to 80 kW of power in a grid- and battery-friendly manner without causing typical peaks in the power grid.” A complete battery swap takes about five minutes, much less than any charging session for a regular electric vehicle.
NIO is expected to launch the ET7, ET5, and ES7 during the NIO Berlin event on October 7, along with the power swap station in Zusmarshausen. The German swap station is more advanced than the first-generation stations NIO has so far deployed in China. By comparison, those stations can only hold up to five battery packs and have a maximum daily capacity of 120 swaps.
The battery swap station project started in June when NIO’s local installation partner TSG Germany broke ground. The station was supposedly delivered from NIO’s new factory in Hungary, as revealed in the previous reporting. In fact, the first Made-in-Europe power swap stations will arrive in Germany, even though NIO has sold electric vehicles in Norway for quite some time.
Unlike European and American EV makers, NIO thinks battery swapping is better than waiting to charge the battery. The Chinese company is already operating over 1,100 battery swap stations, most of them in China. They also have around 2,000 charging stations in China but are yet to start building a charging network in Europe.
NIO’s Power Swap Station is the size of a double garage and can operate up to 312 battery swaps per day. NIO says the station in Germany can charge “up to 13 batteries with 40 kWh to 80 kW of power in a grid- and battery-friendly manner without causing typical peaks in the power grid.” A complete battery swap takes about five minutes, much less than any charging session for a regular electric vehicle.
NIO is expected to launch the ET7, ET5, and ES7 during the NIO Berlin event on October 7, along with the power swap station in Zusmarshausen. The German swap station is more advanced than the first-generation stations NIO has so far deployed in China. By comparison, those stations can only hold up to five battery packs and have a maximum daily capacity of 120 swaps.
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