Nio is continuing its development and plans to install 500 kW terminals in China and Europe over the next six months. What drastically reduce the charging time of electric cars in the coming years.
As more and more electric cars are on the road, the supply of charging stations obviously has to keep pace. If we are still far from the objective of 100,000 promised by the government in France, while their number currently barely exceeds 60,000, development is accelerating as evidenced by the new offensive of the Chinese manufacturer Nio.
An overpowering network in Europe
After Rivian, which announced the creation of its network of charging stations located near national parks in the United States, it is Nio’s turn to give its news. If the Chinese firm already has many battery exchange stations, while it has just inaugurated the 1000th a few days ago, she now wants to launch her own network of fast terminals.
As it announced on the occasion of its Power Day, an annual event which took place yesterday, the manufacturer specializing in electric cars plans toinstall charging stations with a power of 500 kW (650 amps) in China and in Europe. For the time being, information remains scarce, but everything suggests that it will be accessible to all, while Qin Lihong, Nio’s boss, took advantage of the conference to call on manufacturers to open their charging networks to all owners of electric carsas Tesla does in Europe and soon in the United States.
For comparison, Tesla’s Supercharger v3 network is limited to a power of 250 kW against 350 kW for the Ionity network. A power of 500 kW is therefore really very high and should make it possible to greatly reduce charging times for future batteries. We recently talked about the CATL battery which could be recharged in 5 minutes or the future Qilin CTP 3.0 battery which will be available in 2023 and which could well saturate the current 350 kW terminals. The 500 kW terminals could therefore make it possible to reach the recharge in 10 minutes promised by CATL for 2023.
The competition is fierce since the Chinese giant GAC demonstrated a few months ago a 480 kW fast charger capable of recharging a battery from 0 to 80% in just 8 minutes!
Developments in the battery exchange system
But that’s not all, because Nio has also announced some developments with regard to the network of battery exchange stations. The Chinese manufacturer plans to offer more than 4,000 worldwide, including 1,000 abroad. At the beginning of the year, the first in Europe was inaugurated, then installed in Norway, a few kilometers north of the city of Drammen.
During its conference, the firm therefore presented its 3rd generation exchange stations, which should be installed by the end of the year or the beginning of 2023. This development will in particular make it possible to store more batteries to make life easier for customers. Nothing has yet been said about a possible establishment in France. Remember, however, that the battery exchange system is only compatible with the brand’s cars, namely the ET5, ET7 and ES7 marketed in Norway and which should be found in France in the coming months.
Nio wants to hit hard against the Tesla Model S. Its offensive is called ET5, a 100% electric sedan that is very ambitious in terms of autonomy in particular.
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