NIO expects to begin deploying 2nd-generation battery swapping stations in April

Shanghai (Gasgoo)- Chinese EV startup NIO has completed the validation and started the core testing for its second-generation battery swapping stations, according to a local media outlet. The stations are expected for deployment in April 2021.

NIO's second-generation battery-swapping stations; photo credit: NIO

The EV maker launched the second-generation battery swapping station at the NIO Day held last month. The station can accommodate 13 battery packs, and is capable of providing up to 312 battery swaps per day—three times more than the previous generation. Thanks to communications technologies, the station supports automatic parking for vehicles, enabling a user to complete a battery swap sitting in his car.

NIO plans to deploy a total of 500 battery swapping stations countrywide by 2021, 155 of which had been launched as of October 2020.

The startup is strengthening the cooperation on its battery swapping facilities. In early February, NIO agreed a strategic collaboration with Red Star Macalline, a leading Chinese furniture retailer, to jointly build EV charging and battery swapping stations.

Under the agreement, two parties would co-build 60 EV charging and battery swapping stations in 2021. The furniture retailer would support NIO in construction site and online operation, so as to help the EV maker significantly improve its energy supply service quality.

At the NIO Day, the company also launched its 150kWh battery pack. Using the solid-state battery technology, the battery pack boasts an ultra-high energy density of 360Wh/kg thanks to the in-situ solidification hybrid electrolyte, the inorganic pre-lithium Si/C composite anode and the nao-coating nickel-ultrarich cathode. It would increase the range of the new ES8 to 850 km, the ES6 to 900 km, the EC6 to 910 km and the ET7 to 1,000 plus km.