- Nio claims to have completed over 100 million battery swaps since 2018
- The technology is praised for its ease and speed
- Slower on-site charging also reduces pressure on the network
The history of electric vehicle battery swap technology is as long and complicated as the electric vehicle itself, with many manufacturers attempting to create networks that would allow owners to drive and insert a new battery in minutes.
Renault worked alongside the Better Place Network with its first Fluence ZE model in 2011 to promote battery swapping technology, and even Tesla gave it a try, ultimately abandoning the idea due to a lack of interest.
But Chinese manufacturer Nio has continued to make progress in battery swap technology, saying that during China’s recent May Day travel rush, its Power Swap business completed more than 1 million battery swaps in a single week, according to Inside EVs.
Onvo, Nio’s all-electric sub-brand, currently operates 2,491 stations across China, but is aiming for more than 3,300 by the end of the year. This is in addition to Nio’s 3,843 Power Swap stations.
Nio said that on its busiest day, May 1, the company replaced 170,585 batteries across its network. On average, each site replaces approximately 40 batteries per day, slowly recharging used cells and replacing them in another vehicle once fully charged.
From May 1 to 5, Nio claims to have supplied 15.4 gigawatt hours of energy, which it says represented about 16.3% of all energy supplied to electric vehicles in China during the same period, according to Inside EVs.
Analysis: a standardized system is necessary
Battery swap technology has many advantages, the most obvious being speed. It takes about three minutes to replace a battery, while even the fastest chargers on the planet still take about ten minutes.
For most, the public electric vehicle charging experience takes at least 20 minutes, if not 45 minutes or more.
Another advantage is that used battery cells are charged at a much slower rate on site, meaning the demand on local networks is much less than an entire bank of super-fast charging sockets providing 1.5MW of power to multiple cars.
That said, battery swapping technology is also very expensive, with a huge investment by a manufacturer or supplier not only to build the sites, but also to ensure there are enough batteries available to service an entire fleet.
This is why Nio’s Power Swap technology is limited outside of China, with a handful of stations operating in Europe. Even if their number is steadily increasing.
On top of that, there’s a distinct lack of standardization in the automotive battery industry, meaning Nio’s battery swap technology only works with Nio or its Onvo models.
However, the Chinese brand has worked with the country’s main battery supplier, CATL, to standardize and roll out battery swapping technology that could make it open to rival manufacturers, such as Chery and Geely.
This will likely make Chinese car design even more homogeneous, as vehicles will need to be built around battery swapping hardware, but it’s a great way to make EV charging more convenient and lower the cost of EV ownership.
In most cases, customers simply lease the battery (one of the most expensive parts of an electric vehicle) on a monthly basis, meaning manufacturers can reduce the sticker price and encourage budget-conscious consumers to make the switch.
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