Nio presented 9 advantages of its battery swap system at the Nio Power Day 2023 event on July 20, saying they would be the official wording from the company.
(Image credit: CnEVPost)
The advantages of battery swaps are often mentioned but described differently by different people. Nio showed 9 advantages of its battery swap system at the 3rd Nio Power Day event on July 20, saying that they will be the official wording from the company.
Here are the 9 advantages of battery swap as mentioned by Nio.
1. As fast as refueling
It takes 3 minutes for a vehicle to replace a dead battery with a fully charged one, replenishing energy faster than charging.
The owner only needs the time to listen to a song to get back on the road with a full charge.
2. No mileage anxiety
Battery swap stations help eliminate mileage anxiety and can give owners the confidence to go anywhere.
As of July 20, Nio had 1,564 battery swap stations in China, and it said it will continue to deploy battery swap stations to cover urban areas and highways.
3. More comfortable than charging
When charging an electric vehicle, owners usually need to go outside the vehicle to connect it to a charging post and perform operations including scanning QR codes.
In contrast, Nio car owners do not need to get out of their cars to perform any operation when enjoying battery swap service.
4. Flexibility to use different battery capacities
Nio owners can choose a standard-range battery pack for their daily use, and when they need a longer-range battery, they can flexibly upgrade to a longer-range one.
This flexibility means that Nio owners have a lower cost of vehicle ownership.
5. Lower vehicle purchase threshold
When purchasing a Nio vehicle, customers can buy just the body and rent the battery pack.
By purchasing a Nio vehicle with a leased battery pack, they can see up to RMB 128,000 ($17,830) off the purchase price.
6. More frequent battery testing ensures safety
Each time the owner replaces the battery, battery swap stations will conduct a safety inspection of the vehicle's chassis and battery, thus eliminating potential safety hazards inside and outside the battery pack in a timely manner.
7. Better charging current for battery life
Nio's batteries can be charged at low currents, which reduces battery wear and prolongs battery life compared to the high currents of ultra-fast charging.
8. More convenient battery recycling
Nio's battery swap system decouples the life of the vehicle and the life of the battery, which is more conducive to battery recycling.
9. Interaction with the power grid
Battery swap stations not only provide vehicle owners with fully charged batteries, but are also energy storage facilities that can take advantage of lower electricity prices at night.
Battery swap stations are also able to participate in grid load regulation, improving energy utilization.
Before Nio announced these nine advantages, Nio Power senior vice president Shen Fei had listed 12 advantages of battery swap in an article posted on the company's app on May 17.
Here are the 12 advantages of battery swap as listed by Shen.
1. As fast as refueling
It takes 2.5 minutes to replace the battery in a vehicle, and if you add in the time for parking and self-testing, the whole process takes less than 5 minutes.
No matter how fast charging technology develops, battery swap technology still has obvious advantages.
2. More convenient than refueling
Vehicle owners do not need to get out of the car in the process of using battery swap, and the whole process can be completed automatically with a one-touch operation in the car to start getting the service.
Vehicle refueling and charging need to be operated outside the vehicle, and the high-power charging gun is heavy, making the experience even worse in cold weather.
Battery swap stations have a clear queuing mechanism, whereas most charging stations are very disorganized when unguided.
3. Users pay less for batteries
Users have more choices for batteries, with 75-kWh packs available in urban areas and larger capacity packs available for short-term rentals for longer trips.
Batteries are the most costly component of an electric vehicle, and for vehicles that don't support battery swap, owners have to buy a long-mileage pack, which is wasteful.
Nio owners can also purchase the body only and lease the battery, lowering the vehicle's purchase threshold and giving them more options.
Customers who choose to lease the battery with the purchase of the vehicle will have a lower purchase threshold of RMB 70,000 or RMB 128,000, and will be able to pay a monthly battery rental fee.
4. No need to worry about battery quality
For vehicles that don't support battery swap, batteries are extremely expensive to maintain or replace if they have problems.
Nio will ensure that all batteries in the battery swap system are in a healthy state, so if the owner finds a problem with the battery after using it for a period of time, he can just change it at a battery swap station.
5. Better battery safety
Each time the vehicle undergoes battery swap, the chassis and battery can be tested, thus eliminating hidden battery problems.
The battery swap mode provides Nio with the opportunity to deal with hidden problems quickly and inexpensively, and battery swap stations can intercept and maintain the battery with hidden problems.
For vehicles that don't support battery swap, it's usually too late for the owner to find out problems and it's very expensive to fix.
6. Access to the latest battery technology
Nio started with a standard 70-kWh range battery pack, but now customers can use 100-kWh packs when they need them.
For standard range battery packs, as technology advances, Nio's battery swap system now also offers packs with a capacity of 75 kWh, which is 5 kWh higher than the initial standard range battery pack.
7. More resource-efficient
Customers can choose batteries according to their own needs, without having to occupy large-capacity batteries for years, which saves costs and reduces the use of battery resources.
Because of the decoupling of Nio's vehicles and batteries, this realizes 17 percent to 30 percent savings in battery resources.
Nio's battery swap system equalizes the distribution of batteries with different mileage to avoid early retirement of some batteries with long mileage.
In addition, by interacting with the grid, Nio's batteries maximize their cycle life.
8. Higher utilization of power capacity
Both battery swap and charging require sufficient grid power capacity.
In the charging scenario, consumers charge randomly and only use the power capacity once they are on site. For battery swap stations, on the other hand, the electric capacity is used as long as there are not fully charged batteries.
Overall, sites with both battery swap stations and charging stations have more than three times the power capacity utilization of charging stations.
9. Extend battery life
The higher the charging current, the higher the battery loss.
In order to provide a better user experience, the goal of car companies for vehicles that only support charging is to make the charging power as high as possible.
And for battery swap-enabled models, high-power charging isn't necessary, it just has to ensure that a fully charged battery is available when the user comes over.
Battery swap stations can choose the optimal charging power, which can reduce battery loss and extend battery life.
10. More conducive to battery recycling
The service life of the vehicle is not the same as the service life of the battery, which is more conducive to the recycling of the battery.
11. Battery swap stations are energy storage stations.
Battery swap stations can be charged at night when electricity consumption is low and electricity costs are lower, and fully charged batteries can be provided to customers during the day, which can save electricity costs.
Nio's third-generation battery swap stations have a capacity of 21 batteries. Assuming that an average of 55 kWh of electricity is provided to a customer each time, and that each kWh saves RMB 0.6, each station can save RMB 250,000 per year in electricity costs.
12. Participate in grid regulation
The grid requires that the amount of electricity generated and the amount of electricity used at any given moment be in balance.
When there is more and more wind and solar power in the grid, it is especially necessary to quickly regulate the grid load to maintain the security and stability of the grid.
Battery swap stations can be aggregated into virtual power plants that participate in grid regulation as a single generating unit for additional revenue.
By participating in the frequency regulation of the grid, service delivery will not be affected.
($1 = RMB 7.1776)
