- Nio says it has performed more than 100 million battery swaps since 2018
- The technology is hailed for its ease and speed
- Slower on-site charging also reduces the strain on the grid
The history of EV battery swap technology is as long and as complicated as the electric vehicle itself, with numerous manufacturers attempting to create networks that would allow owners to drive in and have a fresh battery inserted in minutes.
Renault worked alongside the Better Place network with its early Fluence Z.E. model back in 2011 to push battery swap technology, and even Tesla had a stab at it, finally scrapping the idea due to a lack of interest.
But Chinese manufacturer Nio has continued to push forward with battery swapping technology, stating that during China's recent May Day travel rush, its Power Swap business completed over 1 million battery swaps in a single week, according to Inside EVs.
Nio’s all-electric sub-brand Onvo currently operates 2,491 stations across China but is targeting more than 3,300 by the end of the year. This is in addition to Nio’s own 3,843 Power Swap stations.
Nio said that on its busiest day, May 1, the company swapped out 170,585 batteries across its entire network. On average, each site swaps out around 40 batteries a day, slowly recharging the spent cells and replacing them in a different vehicle once fully charged.
From May 1 until May 5, Nio says it provided 15.4 gigawatt-hours of energy, which it claims was around 16.3% of all energy delivered to EVs in China over the same period, according to Inside EVs.
Analysis: a standardized system is needed
There are so many benefits of battery swapping technology, with the most obvious being speed. It takes around three minutes to swap a battery pack, while even the fastest chargers on the planet still take around ten minutes.
For most, the public EV charging experience takes at least 20 minutes, if not 45 or more.
Another plus point is that the spent battery cells are charged at a much slower rate on-site, meaning there is far less demand on local grids than an entire bank of ultra-fast-charging outlets delivering 1.5MW of power to multiple cars.
That said, battery swap technology is also very expensive, with a huge investment required from a manufacturer or provider to not only build the sites, but also ensure there are enough battery packs 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. Although the number is steadily increasing.
On top of this, there is a distinct lack of standardization in the automotive battery industry, meaning Nio’s battery swap tech only works with Nio or its Onvo models.
However, the Chinese marque has been working with the country’s leading battery supplier, CATL, to both standardize and deploy battery-swapping technology that could see it open to rival manufacturers, such as Chery and Geely.
This is likely to make Chinese car design even more homogeneous, as vehicles will have to be built around the battery-swapping hardware, but it is a great way to make EV charging more convenient and lower the cost of EV ownership.
In most cases, customers simply lease the battery pack (one of the most expensive parts of an EV) on a monthly basis, which means manufacturers can lower the sticker price and encourage budget-savvy consumers to make the switch.
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