NIO battery swap-overall introduction

With the popularity of electric vehicles, the ways of replenishing power for the vehicles are becoming more diversified. The battery swap mode began to be recognized and accepted by more and more people in the industry. At present, the brand that has been insisting on applying battery swapping model in the Chinese market and has achieved initial results is NIO battery swap.

The history of NIO battery swap

On May 20, 2018, the first NIO battery swap station was established in Nanshan Science Park in Shenzhen. As it was the first generation of electric vehicle battery swap station, doubts were spreading. With the time passing, the battery swap technology was continuously upgrading and the battery swap stations continued to iterate, and by April 15, 2021, the second generation of NIO battery swap station was officially opened in Sinopec Chaoying gas station in Beijing.

The vehicle of the second generation battery swap station realized automatic parking, and the users do not need to get out of the car to achieve self-service in the battery swap station. By 2023, NIO battery swap station has reached the third generation. As the third generation battery swap station, NIO battery swap station has shown a trend of blooming everywhere, so that NIO owners have fewer worries and enjoy more convenient travel.

In 2023, NIO will build 1,000 new battery swap stations in China, of which about 600 are urban battery swap stations, focusing on third – and fourth-tier cities and counties that have a certain user base but have not yet changed battery swap stations. About 400 of them are high-speed battery swap stations to speed up the layout of high-speed battery swap networks in 19 large city agglomerations.

By the end of 2023, NIO will build more than 2,300 battery swap stations on total, and continue to lay out a full-scene energy service system of “rechargeable, swappable and upgrade-able” to provide users with a more convenient and comfortable travel experience.

Advantages of NIO third generation battery swap

At the 2023 Shanghai Auto Show, according to introduction, third-generation of NIO battery swap station has more improvements than the previous generation.

● NIO launched the world’s first on-board artificial intelligence system Nomi. The third generation of NIO battery swap stations adopt automatic technology, the owner does not need to get off the car, as long as say “I want to swap battery” to Nomi, the car will automatically drive to the nearby battery swap station and automatically swap battery;

● Adopt the new three-station cooperative battery swap mode to minimize the battery flow path, including the time of entering and leaving the station, the whole battery swap time is shortened by about 20%, the whole process of parking, storage, self-test and battery swap can be finished in 4 minutes 30 seconds;

● Of the same floor area, the number of battery swapping slot increased from 13 in the second generation to 21 in the third generation, and the daily service capacity of a single station reached 408 times, which increased by 30% compared with the service capacity of the second generation battery swap station;

● Equipped with 2 LiDAR and 2 NVIDIA Orin X chips, the total computing power is up to 508TOPS, and the station coordination can be realized more accurately to support smart battery swap functions such as call battery swap and automatic parking;

● Adopt the world’s first and self-developed HPC bidirectional high-power liquid cooled power module, compatible with 800V electrical architecture, with the highest efficiency of 98%, charge and discharge power of 62.5kW, greatly improve the charging and discharge efficiency of the battery in the changing station, achieve two-way interaction of the power grid, and help the power grid to cut peaks and fill valleys;

● At the same time, it is compatible with more brand models of Alps and other car companies.

Swapping mode of NIO battery swap

The NIO battery swap mode means that when the car battery is out of power, the fully charged power battery can be quickly replaced in the NIO battery swap station. With intelligent collaboration at the station, users do not need to get off the car, and the battery is automatically replaced throughout the process. Every time the battery is replaced, the battery swap station will conduct a comprehensive inspection of the battery.

The device-cloud integration BMS realizes precise control from the battery cell to the system, ensuring that the battery is in the best condition before the vehicle is fully charged. Batteries that are in poor health will withdraw from the battery swap system flow, and then make improvements. Battery swapping users can upgrade as needed, without directly purchasing large-capacity batteries, and a small number of large-capacity batteries can meet the needs of most users for long-distance travel.

NIO battery swap station itself is a natural energy storage facility. The third-generation swap station can be equipped with up to 21 batteries, which is equivalent to an energy storage facility capable of storing 2,100 kwh of electricity. It charges the batteries at night and swaps batteries for users during the day to reduce the grid load. When the power is in short supply, the battery swap station will participate in peak regulation and frequency regulation to balance power generation and power consumption.

The third-generation battery swap station is equipped with a two-way high-power charging module, which greatly improves the charging and discharging efficiency of batteries in the battery swap station, realizes two-way interaction, and helps the power grid to cut peaks and fill valley.

NIO’s battery swapping model realizes the separation of vehicles and batteries. Users can rent batteries without buying them, which lowers the threshold for car purchases and allows users to have more choices when buying a car. In August 2022, NIO launched the BaaS service (vehicle-battery separation battery rental solution). After choosing the Baas battery rental service, the ownership of the battery during the rental period belongs to the battery asset management company, and the daily operation and maintenance of the battery will be controlled by NIO.

According to the size of the battery pack, the cost of NIO Baas service can be divided into two types, namely:

1. Standard endurance battery pack (75kWh): the battery rental service fee is 980 RMB per month, and the vehicle price can be reduced by 70,000 RMB;
2. Long battery life battery pack (100kWh): The battery rental service fee is 1,680 RMB per month, and the vehicle price can be reduced by 128,000 RMB.

Whether choose to buy out the battery or lease the battery, users can enjoy the same financial plan for car purchase. Generally, the down payment for car purchase starts at 15%, and the annualized rate is 2.99% for the period of 1-3 years, and 3.49% for the period of 4-5 years. However, once users choose to rent the battery, they cannot buy it out. As long as users keep the vehicle, they need to pay the battery rental service fee on time every month until the vehicle is transferred out of the user’s name.

Taking the lease of the long-range battery pack as an example, the car price was saved by 128,000 RMB when buying a car, and the monthly fixed expenditure was 1,680 RMB for battery rent and 80 RMB for battery insurance. After 6 years and 3 months, the savings when buying a car will be smoothed out by the battery lease fee, so NIO Baas battery lease is more suitable for consumers who plan to hold vehicles for a short period of time.

This model is unprecedented, and it captures two major pain points of electric vehicle users. One is that through the battery swap mode, users only need to buy a bare car when purchasing an electric vehicle, which can effectively reduce the cost of car purchase and is more conducive to electric vehicles. Secondly, users are generally worried about the rapid depreciation of electric vehicles due to battery attenuation. The battery swap mode makes users no longer worry about battery attenuation, which fundamentally solves the problem of electric vehicle value preservation.

Through this business model, the products provided by NIO to users have truly achieved the goal of “rechargeable, swappable, and upgrade-able”. This is the reason why NIO battery swap can exist and is so popular, and it is also an important reason why many users choose NIO.

NIO battery swap user benefits

On April 10, 2023, Li Bin, President of NIO Automobile, announced the adjustment of users’ charging and swapping benefits. Users who purchase NIO ET7, EC7, ES7, and ET5 before May 31 will receive free home charging piles. On the basis of keeping the home charging pile, users can enjoy free battery swap for 4 times a month, and users who do not keep the home charging pile can enjoy free battery swap for 6 times a month.

Users who purchase NIO ET7, EC7, ES7, and ET5 from June 1st need to pay for the purchase and installation of home charging piles, and enjoy 4 free battery swaps per month. New ES8 users who pay a deposit before July 31 can still enjoy free home charging piles, and enjoy 4 or 6 free battery exchanges per month depending on whether charging piles are installed.

NIO also implements Power North benefits for users, providing 1,000 degrees of self-operated charging free rights in 8 provinces and autonomous regions in northern China every year, and promises to build more battery swapping facilities to improve the experience of electric vehicles in northern areas.