Gasgoo Munich-NIO activated its 4,125th battery swap station at Sayram Lake in Xinjiang on September 26, 2026, fully connecting the Silk Road power swap route. Spanning 3,605 kilometers from Xi'an in Shaanxi to Horgos in Xinjiang, the corridor includes 33 NIO swap stations along the way. This milestone also brings full swap coverage to the 4,395-kilometer G30 Lianhuo Expressway, which is equipped with 43 NIO stations. Notably, the Xingxingxia service area station—the gateway to Xinjiang—operates as the world's first zero-carbon, off-grid solar-storage-swap facility, running around the clock solely on photovoltaic power.
Image Credit: NIO
Qu Yu, NIO's CFO and head of NIO Power, outlined plans to establish 100 "scenic charging routes" by the end of 2026. These paths—covering the South Xinjiang West Pole, the 331 Northern Border, the Ngari North, and the Sichuan-Tibet North routes—will be lined with charging and swapping infrastructure. Founder, Chairman, and CEO William Li added that the new link allows drivers to cross the Hexi Corridor entirely on battery power. More broadly, users can now start from any swap station in the country and reach every provincial-level region in mainland China relying solely on battery swaps.
On the highway front, NIO has constructed 1,063 high-speed swap stations, creating a network described as "9 verticals, 11 horizontals, and 16 major urban clusters" that spans more than 550 cities. As of September 26, 2026, the automaker had deployed 9,431 charging and swapping facilities nationwide—split between 4,125 swap stations and 5,306 charging stations.
