A few days after BYD unveiled the latest generation of its battery charging system — capable of refilling a pack from 10% to 97% in nine minutes — Nio‘s founder and CEO William Li doubled down on the company’s commitment to battery swap technology.
The Chinese giant’s ultra-fast charging could pose a challenge to the battery-swapping networks established by Nio — the first to scale the tech — and CATL, the world’s leading EV battery manufacturer.
Chinese business outlet 36kr identified Nio as the primary target of BYD‘s new ultra-fast charging batteries, as the battery swap technology bets on the faster replenishment as one of its unique selling points.
In an apparent indirect response to the comparisons between the two technologies, William Li stated on Weibo this Monday that battery swapping remains “the most convenient and efficient way to replenish energy.”
“After meeting the demand for fast energy replenishment as early as 2018, we have focused even more on solving the issue of electric vehicles having different lifespans for the car and the battery,” the CEO wrote, stating that battery swapping is “a systematic solution” that fundamentally addresses that pain point.
Additionally, he noted that the Shanghai EV maker has been “exploring how battery swap stations can participate in building a new electricity market and integrate vehicles with energy systems.”
Since 2022, several Nio battery swap stations have been included in grid regulation programs in China, focusing on reducing electricity demand during peak summer periods.
“Together with our industry partners, we will continue working hard to make this initiative — one that has long-term value for users, the industry, and society—more solid and reliable, so that people can buy cars with greater peace of mind and use them with greater confidence,” Li added.
BYD’s Take
During a media briefing held last week in Shenzhen, BYD‘s General Manager of Branding and Public Relations Li Yunfei was asked whether the flash charging approach sparked a rivalry against battery swapping charging.
“I think both are actually quite good,” the manager stated, adding that “BYD has so many technologies, so many products, so many brands — all of it is ultimately about giving customers more choices.”
While “on the surface, flash charging and battery swapping appear to be different routes,” Yunfei believes that “they share a common direction: promoting the transition from fuel to electric.”
According to the executive, “the industry as a whole should let a hundred flowers bloom,” with “all roads leading to the same destination.”
Unlike conventional charging, battery swapping enables users to replace discharged units with fully energized ones in minutes.
“Battery swapping exists precisely because many users feel that charging is too slow — it was developed as a solution to that problem,” Li Yunfei noted.
However, BYD is now “solving the slow-charging problem through a different approach,” he stated, “so I see it as different roads leading to the same destination.”
Nio’s Network
Shanghai-based EV maker Nio was the first to invest heavily in battery-swapping technology, spending over $2.6 billion since opening its first station in May 2018.
Nio opened its first battery swap station in May 2018 and currently operates over 3,750 in its domestic market.
In an internal letter to staff on New Year’s Day, Nio‘s founder and CEO William Li wrote that “the full-year plan includes more than 1,000 new swap stations, with total stations exceeding 4,600 by year-end.”
BYD, however, is targeting more than five times that number in ultra-fast charging locations within a single calendar year: the company had 4,239 Flash Charging Stations commissioned as of March 5 and targets 20,000 by year-end.
Nio also fell materially short of its 2025 station construction targets. William Li set a goal of building 2,000 new swap stations during the year.
The company installed fewer than 650 new sites.
The founder and CEO acknowledged in September that Nio would miss the 2025 target as it reallocated resources toward the development of fifth-generation stations.
5th Gen Swap Stations
Nio is scheduled to deploy the first fifth-generation battery swap stations still this quarter, moving towards mass production by the second quarter.
The new generation is expected to be more flexible, store more batteries (the fourth generation stores up to 23), and perform each swap in less time.
Nio‘s current fourth-generation stations complete a swap in under three minutes, use LiDAR for vehicle positioning, and can handle up to 480 swaps per day.
The new hardware will be compatible with all three Nio group brands— Nio, Onvo and Firefly — as well as future alliance partners.
Scale Struggle
Despite partnering with other automakers, the company has struggled to expand its swap network beyond its own internal brands.
Since November 2023, when Changan Automobile became the first signatory, Nio has reached battery-swap alliance agreements with eight automakers, including Geely, Chery, JAC, Lotus, GAC and FAW Group.
As EV reported last December, more than two years after the first agreement, no mass-produced battery-swappable vehicle from any alliance partner has reached the market.
At a GAC media event in Guangzhou in January 2025, the company’s Director of Battery System Integration said GAC had completed technical alignments with Nio‘s system but was still awaiting internal approval for model development.
GAC has, however, become one of the first automakers to adopt CATL’s “Choco Swap” battery swap network, debuting the technology in its Aion S sedan.
CATL’s ‘Choco Swap’
Unlike Nio, which built a proprietary network specifically for its own vehicles, CATL designed its system for universal compatibility from the start.
The battery giant has already partnered with brands from GAC, SAIC, and Hongqi — with several more models expected to join the network soon.
CATL hosted EV last September to demonstrate its ‘Choco Swap’ stations, which can automatically replace a depleted battery in 70–80 seconds — about half of Nio‘s time.
The company initially aimed to reach 1,000 Choco Swap stations by the end of 2025, followed by 2,500 in 2026, covering more than 100 cities.
The company announced in late November that it would reach the 1,000-station milestone one month ahead of schedule.
Late last year, after revealing that 1,020 stations were deployed in 2025, CATL raised its 2026 target from 2,500 to over 3,000 stations across more than 140 cities.
For perspective, the battery giant plans to deploy around 3,000 stations in two years, while Nio has installed about 3,700 stations over the past eight years.
