Written by Cláudio Afonso | LinkedIn | X
Electric vehicle maker Nio is preparing to open its first battery swap station in Belgium, the company’s Head of Power, Kajsa Sognefur, revealed in a livestream.
The station will be Nio’s first in a country where it does not sell cars, as the company accelerates the deployment of battery swap stations in Europe to over 50 locations.
“Our current focus is the main five countries that we are selling cars, but we are actually opening one station in Belgium in a couple [inaudible]. So we are also looking at other markets, but the main places where we installed today is the five regions where we are operating. But of course we are also looking at other regions as well,” Sognefur said.
Here’s the segment from Nio’s livestream where the new battery swap station in Belgium is announced.
Nio, founded and led by William Li, currently operates in five European markets, including Germany, the Netherlands, Sweden, Norway, and Denmark.
Although the company does not sell EVs in Belgium, the new station will benefit customers driving in the region who gain access to a new station to swap the car’s battery.
If in late May, amid a visit to Europe, William Li stated that the brand would “probably” expand to the UK in 2025, the current European plan is now to “focus on the existing” markets.
“So we will focus on the existing five European markets that we have already started. We also know that to establish Nio, such a premium brand in the European market, will also take a longer time and we are very patient with that,” Li stated on the earnings conference call.
The Shanghai-based EV maker Nio will face tariffs of 21.3 per cent after the European Commission raised them last month from 20.8 per cent for cooperating companies. So far, Nio has not increased its prices in Europe, although it is evaluating its decision.
In June, Matt Galvin, former country manager for Nio in the UK — where the company has yet to launch — announced he would join Geely-backed brand Polestar as Managing Director for the UK and Ireland.
The company, known for its battery swap technology that allows drivers to receive a 90 percent charged battery in just a few minutes, has currently 2,527 battery swap stations in the country and over 50 across its five European markets.
With over 53.6 million battery swaps provided in the last six years, Nio said recently it will build a new factory in Wuhan, China, to support the rollout of battery swap stations.
In addition to the new factory, Nio will establish a new headquarters in the Chinese City its Power division.
Written by Cláudio Afonso | LinkedIn | X
