Nio Group‘s brand Onvo failed to meet its self-imposed deadline to add more than 8,000 battery packs to its swap station network across China by mid-January.
The family-oriented brand said on Sunday it had deployed 6,680 new battery packs across China’s swap network as of January 17, reaching 83.5% of the target.
Onvo announced the initiative on December 5, pledging to complete the expansion by mid-January ahead of the Spring Festival travel rush.
Battery Availability Concerns
The availability of Onvo-compatible batteries at Nio‘s swap stations has been a persistent concern for customers, who rely on the network to replace their vehicle’s depleted battery with a nearly fully charged one in approximately three minutes.
The issue is particularly acute for Onvo owners who purchased their vehicles through Nio‘s Battery as a Service program, which allows customers to pay a monthly subscription fee for the battery instead of buying it outright with the car.
BaaS subscribers depend on the swap network for their regular charging needs and face significant inconvenience if compatible batteries are unavailable when they arrive at a station.
Once the initiative is completed, the number of Onvo-compatible batteries in the nationwide swap network will more than double compared to levels before the plan began, according to the company.
Nio plans to unveil later this quarter a new generation of stations expected to store more batteries while reducing swap times.
The company said on Sunday it will complete the target by the end of January, pushing back the timeline by two weeks.
“In January we will complete the target of deploying over 8,000 new battery packs, achieving battery doubling,” Onvo wrote on Weibo.
A user on the social media platform noticed the target shift and pointed to the revised language. “The words ‘mid-month’ are gone?” a Weibo user wrote.
Slow Start, Late Surge
Progress was uneven throughout the six-week campaign.
By December 13, Onvo had deployed approximately 2,600 packs — just 32.5% of the target.
The pace accelerated in early January, with the company reaching 6,150 packs by January 11, or 76.88% of the goal.
The final week saw a notable slowdown.
Onvo added just 530 packs between January 11 and January 17, compared with roughly 3,550 in the four weeks prior — a drop from approximately 890 packs per week to fewer than 100.
Spring Festival Pressure
The delay adds pressure as China’s largest annual travel period approaches. Chinese New Year falls on February 16 this year, and highway traffic typically surges in the weeks leading up to and following the holiday.
Hundreds of millions of Chinese travelers return to their hometowns during the period, straining transportation infrastructure including EV charging and swapping networks.
L90 Sales Decline
The network expansion comes as deliveries of Onvo’s second model, the L90 three-row SUV, have fallen to their lowest level since launch.
According to China Passenger Car Association data, Onvo delivered 4,175 L90 units in December — a 30% sequential decline from November and down 64% from the October peak of 11,722 units.
Onvo delivered 9,154 vehicles in December across both models, with the L60 compact SUV accounting for 4,979 units.
