Rising Auto said in March that it has three battery swap stations in Shanghai and has completed the selection of sites for more than 50 battery swap stations in 10 cities.
Rising Auto, the electric vehicle (EV) unit of SAIC Motor Corp, is upping its bet on the battery swap business model, unveiling its latest infrastructure development plan.
Rising Auto is accelerating its battery swap program in full force, aiming to add more than 50 battery swap stations by the end of the year in more than 10 cities, including Beijing, Chengdu, Hangzhou, Guangzhou, Suzhou, Wuhan and Zhengzhou, it announced on Weibo today.
Rising Auto will build battery swap stations with local oil giants Sinopec and China National Petroleum Corp (CNPC) to accelerate the facility, it said.
For Nio (NYSE: NIO), currently the top proponent of the battery swap model, 50 battery swap stations is a goal that could easily be accomplished in a week's time. The company is in partnership with oil giants including Sinopec, CNPC and Shell.
For Rising Auto, completing the deployment of 50 battery swap stations this year may not be an easy task.
SAIC officially established Rising Auto at the end of 2021 and handed over the R Brand, which was formerly under SAIC Passenger Vehicle, to the new Rising Auto brand.
On February 22, 2022, Rising Auto launched its first model, the R7, a battery-swap-enabled coupe SUV, making it the second automaker after Nio to offer a battery-swap-enabled model to the general public, and deliveries of the R7 began in October of last year.
On March 27 this year, Rising Auto launched its second model, the F7, a mid-to-large-size sedan that supports battery swap.
At the time of the F7's launch, the company said it had three battery swap stations in Shanghai and had completed the selection of sites for more than 50 battery swap stations in 10 cities.
Rising Auto began delivering the F7 in early April and said on July 1 that it delivered 2,336 units of the sedan in June. The brand has not announced total deliveries, including the R7, this year.
While announcing today its battery swap station construction targets for the year, Rising Auto said its next-generation battery swap station will stock up to 40 batteries and be capable of up to 560 services per day.
Nio unveiled the third-generation battery swap station at its Nio Day 2022 event on December 24, 2022, capable of storing up to 21 battery packs, up from 13 in its predecessor and five in the first generation of the facility.
As of July 17, Nio had 1,563 battery swap stations in China and 19 in Europe, data monitored by CnEVPost showed.
Nio aims to add 1,000 battery swap stations in China this year, bringing the number of facilities to 2,300.
Nio, Aulton and Botan have the largest number of battery swap stations in China, with the latter two mainly targeting the cab market.
At the end of June, Nio, Aulton and Botan had 1,543, 615 and 108 battery swap stations respectively, according to the China Electric Vehicle Charging Infrastructure Promotion Alliance (EVCIPA).
Here is a demo video Rising Auto released of it's battery swap station.
