The competition among electric carmakers in China is exceptionally high, so much so that the companies fight not just for the buyers, but also for potential users of their services and infrastructure. Nio already has more than 1,000 quick battery swap stations in China, but the company believes it needs a chain of fast charging stations as well.
The engineering department has come up with a prototype charging station supporting ultra-high-power charging at 500 kilowatts. The current leader in this regard is GAC Aion with its 480kW chargers. Nio has not yet revealed how long drivers will have to spend next to its stations, and there is no omitting the fact that the marque’s own EVs only support charging at 90kW at most. Replacing current battery tech with solid-state cells is expected to raise the capacity to 150 kWh, and the charging power should go up, too.
During the Nio Power Day earlier this week, the automaker also demonstrated a concept of a next-gen battery swap station (see the gallery). These are expected to start appearing in cities all around China in late 2022.