Nio, the company which has the largest battery swap network globally, is preparing to unveil its most advanced stations ever.
The EV maker will launch a pilot version of the fifth-generation stations around Christmas, as announced by Nio‘s co-founder and president Lihon Qin last month.
Nio provided the first battery swap back in 2018, and the cumulative number crossed 88 million earlier this week.
On Friday, the Shanghai-based brand announced in its ‘Nio Radio’ broadcast that the pilot will be located near its headquarters.
The details were shared on Friday by automotive blogger and Nio owner Arthur Shen on X, where he added that Nio plans to only build the latest generation stations starting from March.
“After CNY [Chinese New Year], almost 99% new stations will be 5th-gen,” Shen wrote citing the EV maker.
Nio’s existing fourth-generation swap stations, rolled out in 2024, can store up to 23 batteries — up from 21 in the third generation — and complete a swap in under three minutes.
The new system will hold more packs and perform swaps “tens of seconds quicker,” while featuring a retractable VGA robot — according to the X post.
The retractable VGA robot refers to a vision-guided robotic arm that could automatically performs the battery replacement process.
The retractable design allows the robot to extend during swaps and retract when idle.
Founder and Chief Executive Officer William Li said in early September that the company would fall short of its 2025 target for new battery swap stations in China as it shifts resources toward the next-generation system.
Nio had initially aimed to install 2,000 new stations this year before revising the goal to between 1,800 and 2,000.
As of September 10, when Li made the remarks, Nio had added 488 new sites — about 27% of the adjusted goal.
He said the rollout of current fourth-generation stations had slowed because they cannot be upgraded to support the different battery sizes used by Nio and its two sub-brands, Onvo and Firefly.
“Mainly because we have to think about deploying the fifth-generation stations,” Li said.
“Our fourth-generation stations cannot be modified to support different ones. The size of those battery packs is too different. So our fifth-generation station is a completely new design,” he added.
In April, Fei Shen — the former head of Nio’s power division and now chief of its Onvo sub-brand — said the EV maker is focusing on making future stations more flexible and customizable to meet different needs across brands.
“The key focus of our current iteration before the launch of the station is on its flexibility,” Shen said during the Shanghai Auto Show.
Nio has also filed a patent for a modular system that allows stations to expand by attaching new units, designed to handle rising demand in high-density markets.
