Shanghai-based EV maker Nio provided one million battery swaps in China in less than a week, a first in its history.
The new milestone was reached during the Chinese New Year holiday, a period traditionally characterized by one of the largest annual migrations across the country.
Over the past few days, the company has been setting several new daily records with a vehicle completing a battery swap in less than 0.5 seconds on average, according to Nio.
Another daily record is expected this Monday or Tuesday, as drivers return from their hometowns.
Daily Records
This month, Nio has hit six different records for battery swaps in a day at its operating stations in China.
On the first day of the Chinese New Year, February 15 (last Sunday), the company achieved a total of 146,649 daily battery swaps.
However, this result was surpassed three days later, with 158,290 operations, marking the first time the brand broke the 150,000 barrier.
Over the following days, Nio set new daily battery swap records consecutively: 165,898 battery swaps on February 19, 170,305 on February 20, and 175,976 on February 21.
On Sunday, the brand hit its latest achievement for battery swaps in a day with a total of 177,627 times.
According to Nio, the highest-volume battery swap station was located in Longhushan Service Area in the Jiangxi Yingtan Yujiang District, with 191 swaps.
On February 6, the company reached 100 million cumulative battery swaps, which it described as a large-scale validation of the model by users and the market.
“Battery swapping has now become a mainstream energy replenishment solution for new energy vehicles in China,” the EV brand wrote on Weibo.
Battery Swap Background
Nio incorporated its energy and battery-swap business — named Nio Power — back in May 2017, opening its first battery swap station in Shenzhen a year later.
The EV maker operates 3,750 battery swap stations as of Monday, with 1,022 of them being located on highways.
Additionally, it has 4,926 charging stations, bringing its footprint to over 8,600 stations in its domestic market.
Last December, Nio‘s founder and CEO William Li confirmed that the company is preparing to roll out its fifth-generation battery swap stations in the first half of the year.
Initial pilot deployments are scheduled for the first quarter, with mass production set to begin in the second quarter.
Starting from the second quarter, all newly installed stations will be fifth-generation units.
Speaking at a media roundtable in Hangzhou last September, attended by EV, the company’s co-founder and President Lihong Qin said the new iteration will deliver approximately 20% more capacity than the current fourth-generation system.
This year, Nio aims to build 1,000 new battery swap stations in China.
Mirattery
Weineng (Wuhan) Battery Asset Co. — also known as Mirattery —, Nio‘s battery asset operator, completed its Series C3 equity financing round on February 12.
The company raised 1 billion yuan, equivalent to $144.7 million.
The move brought the total Series C financing to 2 billion yuan ($289.5 million) and its cumulative funding to over 3 billion yuan ($434.2 million) across six rounds since its founding in August 2020.
