- Nio currently provides more than 9,000 battery swaps per day in Shanghai.
- Shanghai has the largest number of Nio battery swap stations at 183.
The trend in the battery swap business is getting better, and Nio's (NYSE: NIO) battery swap stations in Shanghai are basically close to profitability, said William Li, the electric vehicle (EV) maker's founder, chairman and CEO.
Li mentioned this yesterday in a Weibo post when he shared a clip of a replay of a live video broadcast he made on February 8 on Douyin, a short-form video platform.
This year would be a big year for Nio's battery swap stations build-out, as the company seeks to make the power-up experience as convenient as gas refueling for users of Nio, Onvo and partner car brands, Li said.
During the live broadcast, Shen Fei, Nio's vice president for energy business, mentioned that the company is providing more than 9,000 battery swap services per day in Shanghai, and will soon be approaching 10,000 per day.
"I can boldly tell you that in the vast majority of places in Shanghai at the moment, you can definitely make money if you can build a battery swap station," Shen said.
Shanghai-based Nio currently has 3,110 battery swap stations in China, with Shanghai having the most at 183, according to data compiled by CnEVPost.
Last November, Nio CFO Stanly Qu told an automotive industry forum that the company had more than 150 battery swap stations in Shanghai at the time, with the vast majority providing more than 100 services a day.
A battery swap station can break even if it serves 60 to 70 times a day, Qu said at the time.
Nio didn't set a specific volume target for this year's battery swap station build-out, but announced last August 20 that by December 31, 2025, its battery swap station network would cover more than 2,300 counties in 27 provincial-level administrative regions in China.
This is part of its Power Up Counties program, which also includes having Nio's charging network cover all of China's county-level administrative regions by June 30, 2025.
In the February 8 livestream, Li reiterated that goal, saying that by the end of 2025, Nio should have more than 5,000 battery swap stations.
Li also mentioned in the livestream the increased efforts of Chinese power battery giant CATL (SHE: 300750) in the battery swap space, saying it proved that Nio's battery swap route was the right one.
"It's a good thing, and we have a strong relationship with CATL," Li said.
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