said it hopes to strengthen its relationships with partners to help it reach its plan to add 1,000 battery swap stations in 2023.

(Image credit: Nio)

Nio (NYSE: NIO) yesterday made its third-generation battery swap station a real-life debut in Haikou, Hainan, but perhaps a more important move was its gathering with hundreds of partners in the city.

The company's energy division, Nio Power, held a partner conference in Haikou on March 28 with more than 300 attendees to discuss energy development, Shen Fei, the division's senior vice president, said in a post on the Nio App yesterday.

Nio hopes to strengthen its relationships with partners to help it reach its plan to add 1,000 battery swap stations in 2023 and to strengthen the foundation for ongoing collaboration, the article said.

The company's plan to add 1,000 battery swap stations and 10,000 charging piles this year will require the full support of its partners, the article reads.

William Li, founder, chairman and CEO of Nio, shared the growth of Nio Power and mentioned that China's new energy passenger vehicle penetration rate reached 27.6 percent in 2022, three years ahead of the national goal of seeing that figure reach 25 percent by 2025.

Located next to the Shangri-La Hotel in Haikou, Nio's first third-generation battery swap station and 500 kW ultra-fast charging station made its offline debut, the article reads.

Here's a video of the event from the article.

Nio originally planned to add 400 battery swap stations in China this year, a goal that was raised to 1,000 a month ago.

"We have set a new target and decided to add 1,000 battery swap stations in 2023, accumulating more than 2,300 stations by the end of 2023," Li said in a February 21 article posted on the Nio App.

Nio began the year with a noticeable slowdown in battery swap station construction, perhaps in anticipation of a ramp-up in the capacity of third-generation stations.

Nio has added only 20 battery swap stations in China so far this year, bringing the latest total to 1,325, according to data monitored by CnEVPost.

Nio's third-generation battery swap stations are expected to be ready for mass production in April, and deployment will pick up speed in May, Li said last month.

Starting in June, Nio will maintain a construction rate of 120-150 battery swap stations per month, he said.

NIO reveals aggressive plan to add 1,000 swap stations in 2023