NIO: Consumers Prefer To Exchange Electric Car Batteries From Battery Contents

NIO Power Swap Station. (Doc. NIO)

JAKARTA - Chinese automotive manufacturer NIO revealed that 60 percent of their electric car users prefer to swap EV batteries at replacement stations rather than recharge their batteries.

"This is a proud moment if NIO can be a reliable solution for our loyal customers," said NIO CEO William Li, quoted from InsideEV, Wednesday, April 26.

Since its establishment in 2014, NIO has risked a major strategy by building a battery replacement station. It turns out that this initially doubtful strategy was welcomed positively by consumers. NIO now operates 1,383 Power Swap stations in China and Europe, their dominant vehicle market.

The company also continues to strengthen its commitment to investing in power replacement networks. The third generation of NIO Power Swap stations are able to make 408 battery replacements per day, 30 percent more than the previous generation, with an average battery replacement time of only 1.6 seconds across the network.

Of course, the NIO Power Swap station allows vehicles to independently park to the station and switch to fresh and fully charged batteries in less than five minutes. Compared to conventional charging of DC fast chargers, battery replacement is considered faster if consumers rush.

Nio launched the service in September 2019 for free for buyers of the Nio ET7, EC7, ES7, and ET5 models to get used to it. Starting August 2021, limiting free exchanges of four free battery replacements a month, from six times a month before.

In early April, the Chinese car brand made the 20 million exchange at the NIO Power Swap Station, Wuchang Service Center in Hangzhou, China.

In the future, NIO plans to open another 1,000 stations in China to 70 other stations in Europe by the end of the year. They will also offer the Battery-as-a-Service (Baas) option, meaning EV owners will have to pay monthly fees for batteries.