's 1,400th battery swap station in China was built with German retail giant METRO, and the two have built a total of 21 such facilities together to date.

(Image credit: Nio)

Nio (NYSE: NIO) has surpassed 1,400 battery swap stations in China, as deployment of its third generation of the facility accelerates.

The electric vehicle (EV) maker today put eight new battery swap stations into operation, bringing the total to 1,403, with 374 of them located along highways, according to an article it posted today on the Nio App.

Nio's 1,400th battery swap station in China is located next to a store of German retail giant METRO in Shanghai, and is the 61st third-generation battery swap station of the EV maker.

The partnership between Nio and METRO began two years ago when the two signed a strategic cooperation agreement on March 29, 2021, to collaborate on the construction of charging stations and battery swap stations.

To date, 21 battery swap stations have been jointly built by the two companies, Nio said today.

Nio's owners have used battery swap services more than 22 million times, averaging nearly 50,000 times a day, and on average, a vehicle receives a fully charged battery from a battery swap station every 1.9 seconds, Nio said.

In addition to providing replenishment services, these battery swap stations have provided a total of 76,131 battery upgrades to owners, according to the article.

Nio allows owners to upgrade their standard-range battery packs to 100 kWh long range packs on a monthly, annual, or permanent basis.

On March 3, Nio began offering incentives to encourage owners to upgrade their battery packs to long-range ones.

At the Nio Day 2022 event on December 24, 2022, Nio's third-generation battery swap station was launched, capable of storing up to 21 packs, up from 13 in its previous generation and 5 in the first generation of that facility.

Nio announced plans at the time to add 400 battery swap stations in 2023, though that plan was raised to 1,000 on February 21.

William Li, Nio's founder, chairman and CEO, said at the time that the company would further accelerate the deployment of battery swap stations, with a goal of having more than 2,300 battery swap stations in China by the end of 2023.

Nio's first 10 third-generation battery swap stations went live in 10 Chinese cities on April 12.

On April 18, Li said on the first day of the Shanghai auto show that Nio will add about 200 battery swap stations every month starting in June.

As of May 15, Nio also had 2,580 charging stations in China, offering 15,312 charging piles. The company's charging map has access to more than 7,000,000 third-party charging stations.

NIO swap station count update: 8 added, total 1,403