EV maker Nio said on Tuesday it opened a new battery swap station in Germany, marking the 20th in Europe’s largest car market and the 60th in Europe.
Although the latest stations launched in China are fourth-generation models, the newest one in Europe is a second-generation unit, with the capacity to store only 13 batteries, 10 fewer than the newer version.
The new station is located in Sankt Augustin and can provide up to 312 battery swaps per day. With the latest facility, Germany now matches Norway as the market with the highest number of stations, with 20 each.
In the release, the company did not disclose any reason for choosing a gen-2 station to be deployed in Germany instead of a more advanced third or fourth generation.
Nio Power, the company’s energy unit, has seen a marked slowdown in its European expansion plans, a person familiar with the matter told EV on Monday. As of that date, the company had installed an average of one station per month in Europe over the past nine months.
The EV maker entered Europe via Norway in 2021 and opened its first station in January 2022, aiming to replicate its success in China.
Most of the stations are located in Norway (20) and Germany (19), with only 26 stations also offering charging facilities alongside battery swaps. Denmark, the brand’s smallest market, has one station.
Nio said in December that customers in four of its five European markets could start upgrading from a 75 kWh to a 100 kWh battery on a monthly basis at its battery swap stations.
The standard-range battery costs €169 per month, while the long-range upgrade is priced at €289. The upgrade can be activated for one month and extended if needed. In China, Nio provides a more flexible option where customers can upgrade or downgrade on a daily basis.
In March, the premium brand sold 86 vehicles across the five European markets: 44 units in Norway, 21 in Germany, 13 in the Netherlands, eight in Sweden and none in Denmark.
In total, Nio’s upcoming 5th generation stations will need to store batteries of 42.1 kWh for Firefly’s compact EV, 60 kWh and 85 kWh for Onvo vehicles and 75, 100, 120 and 150 kWh batteries for the main Nio brand vehicles.
This year, William Li has stated that the company aims to build between 1,800 and 2,000 new stations in China — a slight reduction from the previous target of deploying 2,000 stations.
Fei Shen, former head of Nio Power and now leading Nio’s new sub-brand Onvo, said last week the company is working to make its battery swap stations more flexible and customizable, with plans to build larger “hubs” to handle higher demand in major cities.
As reported by EV on January 2, Nio has filed a patent for a new expandable battery swap station system in the final days of 2024. This new type of station is a modular extension unit that can be attached to existing battery swap stations, increasing the number of batteries available.
