Nio has already appealed to other manufacturers to convince them to switch to “battery swapping” in December 2022. William Li renews its invitation to use its battery swapping stations, but it remains unanswered from other manufacturers for the moment.
William Li, founder and boss of Nio, spoke at the China EV 100 forum, held in Beijing from March 31 to April 2, 2023. This event brought together some of the biggest names in the Chinese automotive industry . On this occasion, Nio was able to take stock of the main advances of its models on the Chinese and foreign market. Charging solutions developed by Nio were also on the agenda with charging stations and “battery swap” stations.
Nio has already performed close to 20 million battery exchanges in its automated stations. The brand is proud to announce that, on average, a Nio vehicle leaves a battery exchange station with a fully charged battery every 1.9 seconds. A success that does not encourage other manufacturers to implement the same system.
Nio confirms its battery swap network is open to everyone
Nio had already indicated in December 2022 that other manufacturers could have access to its battery exchange stations. The first announcement apparently did not make Nio’s competitors react. So, faced with Chinese manufacturers, during the forum in April, the brand launched a new appeal by reaffirming that its network of battery swap stations could be open to everyone. William Li compares his battery swap service to any other cloud service. That’s why he called it ” battery as a service “.
At present, Nio has deployed 1,326 battery swap stations in China and has already started setting up its first stations in Europe. The manufacturer already plans to open 1,000 additional stations in China. The implementation could also go even faster if Nio managed to convince other manufacturers to get their hands on the portfolio. At the same time, Nio has already established a network of 14,000 more traditional charging stations in China, and is starting to introduce ultra-fast stations with up to 500 kW of power.
Nio’s boss remains aware that opening his battery change stations is not as simple as opening charging stations for all brands: ” 80% of the electricity from our charging stations is used by other brands. It is a little more complicated to replace the battery. It must be designed according to the specifications of the battery pack. »
Nio already manages two different generations of batteries in its automatic battery change stations. The brand considers that it is possible to open the system to other types and other brands of battery. However, the station must be correctly programmed to deliver the right battery to the right vehicle, which will take time according to Nio. This is why it is now offering the service to other manufacturers, in order to make it available within 2 to 3 years for the brands concerned.
Other manufacturers rely more on fast charging
The advantage of the battery exchange station lies in the speed of the system. In less than 5 minutes, any vehicle can have a recharged battery to continue its journey. This is less than the 15 to 30 minutes needed to recharge the main electric cars from 20 to 80% on fast terminals. The battery swap system is particularly interesting for vehicles with poor efficiency or insufficiently fast charging, which is still often the case with Chinese electric vehicles.
The main disadvantage is that the network of exchange stations must also be particularly developed. If the 15 to 30 minutes of a typical recharge turns into 5 minutes of swap, but includes 35 minutes of waiting, it is not viable. In each station, there are now more and more terminals, making it possible to meet the simultaneous charging needs of several vehicles. This is not the case with the battery swap, which only deals with one vehicle at a time.
Despite the theoretical benefits of changing batteries, manufacturers are not really rushing to this solution. Renault has already broken its teeth on the subject, wanting to be far too pioneering, when the network of public terminals did not yet exist. Even Tesla ended up putting battery swapping in the drawer of non-viable projects.
Nio understood that to make his service profitable, he would need support. The leader of Nio also displays a certain confidence with the Chinese media The Paper: ” Today I met several bosses, and they all asked how to cooperate. »
It remains possible that some Chinese brands will adopt this technology for the local market. In any case, no announcement has been made in this direction by the other Chinese manufacturers, despite what the boss of Nio asserts. For the rest, charging stations and induction charging probably have a better chance of developing in Europe and the USA than changing batteries. Especially since battery swapping necessarily requires renting the battery of your car, a solution that Renault has also abandoned for good reasons.
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