NIO’s massive recharging network for battery swapping can be a profitable model if each completes 60 swaps on average per day, and around 20% of the 2,500 or so facilities are reaching the breakeven point, founder and chief executive William Li said on Tuesday. Li provided more color on the outlook for the company’s multi-billion investment in public infrastructure for electric vehicles, two months after revealing that a NIO battery swap station already offers around 30 swaps per day during an earnings call on June 6.
The EV maker also announced it has partnered with six regional utility providers to share the cost and burden of making new facilities and will set up a factory capable of assembling 1,000 swap stations each year in the central Chinese city of Wuhan. Among the first several “Power Up partners” are the east China bureau of investment of China Energy Engineering Corporation,as well as a state-owned grid company that serves China’s southern Guangdong province.
The moves are part of an aggressive plan to expand NIO’s network of swap stations to more than 2,300 counties in 27 out of the 34 Chinese provinces by the end of next year, and move further to the remaining areas starting from 2026. Meanwhile, its proprietary fast chargers, also available to users of rivals’ EVs, will be accessible in every one of the 2,844 counties in China by next June, Li told a press conference. [TechNode reporting, NIO release, in Chinese]
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