NIO confirms Hungary plant to produce swap stations, in a way that will make you laugh

NIO's William Li and Qin Lihong confirmed the existence of the plant in Hungary in a very entertaining way, and provided more information.

Earlier this month a Chinese media report said that NIO (NYSE: NIO, HKG: 9866, SGX: NIO) will build a factory in Hungary to produce battery swap stations and charging piles. Now the company's executives have confirmed it, in a very entertaining way.

NIO held a communication event with some owners in Hefei on Thursday evening Beijing time, and the event was streamed live online.

Executives including William Li, the company's founder, chairman and CEO, Qin Lihong, co-founder and president, and Li Tianshu, head of product experience, answered questions from users at the event.

Here's how they confirmed the existence of the battery swap station production facility in Hungary:

Qin: We have kicked off the full-scale layout of battery swap stations in Europe and last year we had a pilot ...... (interrupted by William Li).

William Li: We have set up a factory in Hungary to produce battery swap stations ...... (interrupted by Qin)

Qin: (Confused) You even revealed this? (laughter and applause)

William Li: No, it's been made public and has been reported by the media.

Qin: Since you have said it, it doesn't matter, the manager of this factory has been on board since last week ......

Here's the content from the event's replay, as shared by NIO's mobile app.

It's worth noting that NIO's confirmation of the battery swap station plant in Hungary seemed like nothing to many auto bloggers, but rather the process entertained many who praised the company's frankness.

While the vast majority of companies in China have serious and old-school management teams, it is extremely rare to find executives like NIO's William Li and Qin who are able to communicate openly and easily with their users, which is considered one of the company's core competencies.

The comments made by @董买买, another car blogger with 456,000 followers on Weibo, about the NIO event yesterday evening seem to represent the feelings of many NIO supporters. Here is what he said:

These three guys performed a talk show and they couldn't resist having to provide spoilers, which is a candid way to be honest with each other. How nice! They are the only ones!

I believe that for people who don't know NIO, they will like the values if they watch this live event. For something like sincerity, you can feel it all the time.

Back to NIO's battery swap station factory in Hungary, local media Cailian reported on June 2, citing an unnamed NIO insider, that the move was to meet its need to build battery swap stations in Europe.

At yesterday evening's event, Qin provided more information, saying that NIO's European version of battery swap stations will be manufactured in Europe, but that development is globally uniform.

"Battery swap stations are actually as big a technological innovation as NIO's cars," Qin said.

The environment in Europe is different from China, and NIO's battery swap stations will be smarter and more unattended, which may in turn drive the company's swap station technology in China in a year or two, he said.

It's worth noting that battery swap stations are NIO's signature facility, but that doesn't mean that's the only way the company's vehicles can recharge.

NIO's vehicles all support fast charging, just like Tesla's and other major electric vehicle companies' vehicles. The company also offers home charging piles for owners, including 7-kW, 11-kW and 20-kW options.

Data monitored by CnEVPost shows that NIO had 973 battery swap stations in China as of June 16, and its goal is to reach 1,300 by the end of the year.

The company also has 841 supercharging stations in China offering 4,626 charging piles, and 731 destination charging stations offering 4,300 charging piles.