Written by Cláudio Afonso | LinkedIn | X
Nio plans to add between 1,800 and 2,000 battery swap stations in China this year as the electric-vehicle maker overhauls its approach to expanding the network, while reducing costs and driving sales growth in underserved markets.
“This year, to realize ‘battery swapping in every county,’ we plan to add 1,800 to 2,000 more stations,” Nio founder and chief executive officer William Li said during a recent media event. The new target marks a slight cut from the 2,000 swap stations communicated in late December when highlighting 2025 as a critical year for expansion.
The push comes as Nio relies more heavily on third-party funding and partnerships to finance infrastructure growth. Under a model launched in 2024 called the “Battery Swap Partner Program,” external entities build the stations while Nio rents and operates them.
“Now, many parties are working with us,” Li said. “We’ve been building swap stations at gas stations for a long time and have cooperative agreements with PetroChina, Sinopec, and CNOOC.”
Nio has also teamed up with a range of provincial highway operators, investment firms, and state-owned enterprises such as China Southern Power Grid’s energy storage arm. These partners can access cheaper financing, Li said, making the arrangement more capital efficient for Nio. “If they build a swap station and we rent it, that’s very cost-effective.”
Examples of recent regional collaborations include a deal with Shouyi Kechuang Investment to build 100 stations in Hubei, and a partnership with Anhui Wenergy to install 1,000 stations in the province over three years. In 2025, Yanchang Petroleum Investment Group will build all stations in Yan’an city.
“This year, the vast majority of the swap station construction funding won’t come from us,” Li said. “We’ll work with battery swap partners and lease the stations. That way, they can make money, and we save capital expenditure. Everyone plays to their strengths.”
Shift in Rollout Strategy
Li said Nio is adopting a more flexible internal structure to accelerate deployment in less developed regions. Stores and regional teams are now allowed to fund new battery swap stations themselves, even in areas with no current users, if they believe it will boost vehicle sales elsewhere.
“This year, we implemented a new mechanism: if a store or regional company wants to build a battery swap station in a certain county and believes it will help boost car sales in the provincial capital, then they can pay for it themselves—even if there isn’t a single user there yet. But they have to pay the energy company,” Li said.
Ma Lin, Nio’s assistant vice president of brand and communications, is personally funding the construction of a station along National Highway 318. “That station might only support 5 swaps a day. If you ask the Nio Power department to build it, they won’t be motivated—a 5-swap/day station loses a lot of money,” Li said.
“But Ma Lin pays for it from the brand communication budget. This is the essence of the ‘basic business unit’: make the purpose of spending clear.”
The company has also mapped out 10,000 potential locations for battery swap stations and ranked them by projected return on investment, which includes expected vehicle sales and service fee revenue. “More than half of these locations have an ROI greater than 1, meaning they can recoup the investment within the same year,” Li said.
Regional units are now proactively requesting to build stations under this ROI-focused model. “In the past, we used a budgeting system, but now we’ve moved to an operating system focused on business objectives,” Li said. “We’ve now become a super-accounting company.”
Sales Correlation
Li acknowledged the link between battery swap coverage and vehicle sales, noting that half of Nio’s deliveries come from just three regions—Shanghai, Jiangsu, and Zhejiang—where one-third of its 3,000 stations are located.
“Jiangsu, Zhejiang, and Shanghai—these three provincial-level administrative regions—account for 50% of Nio’s sales,” he said. “In July last year, cumulative sales in Zhejiang reached 100,000 units; in December, Jiangsu hit 100,000 units; and this month, Shanghai will reach 100,000 units.”
He added: “So the contribution of swap stations to sales is enormous.”
“If I could go back two or three years, I would have been even more aggressive in building swap stations,” Li said. “The initiative to build swap stations in every county should’ve been completed last year—we were one year late.”
“Sometimes you need to save when you can, and spend when you must,” he added. “We’ve come to realize that battery swapping promotes sales through network effects—it’s not just about individual stations.”
Expanded CATL Partnership
Earlier this month, Nio signed a new agreement with top battery maker Contemporary Amperex Technology Co. Ltd. to jointly build a battery swap network for passenger vehicles and deepen capital cooperation. CATL committed to invest up to 2.5 billion yuan ($346 million) in Nio’s energy subsidiary, Nio Power.
The agreement also brings Nio’s sub-brand Firefly into CATL’s ‘Choco-Swap’ battery system, allowing it to avoid the costs of building a separate battery swap network for the entry-level segment.
Broader Swap Ecosystem
Nio has provided more than 69.5 million battery swaps in China since launching the service in 2018. It currently operates 3,198 stations, with most added in the past two years. The company aims to grow that number to 5,000 as more automakers join its battery swap alliance.
So far, Nio has signed agreements with Chery, Geely, Changan, FAW, Lotus, JAC, and GAC. Chery’s Exeed-branded models will be the first non-Nio vehicles to access the swap network when they launch between July and September. GAC is also developing a compatible EV, pending internal approval.
“Many companies are entering the space,” Li said.
Nio currently operates 59 battery swap stations in Europe, mostly in Germany and Norway with the network slowing down over the last months.
As of the time of writing, Nio shares are trading 7.50% lower after announcing plans to offer 118.8 million shares at HK$29.46 each, representing a 14% discount to its Wednesday closing price.
