Written by Cláudio Afonso | LinkedIn | X
Since Nio provided the first-ever battery swap in May 2018, more than 54.6 million batteries have been swapped by owners of Nio vehicles in China.
Earlier this week, the company reached a new record with over 103,000 swaps in just 24 hours.
At its latest annual event — known as Nio Day — held in December 2023, the company unveiled the fourth generation of battery swap stations capable of holding 23 batteries each, up from 21 in the third generation and 13 batteries in the second one.
Nio’s sub-brand Onvo aims at families and it was first unveiled in May. The deliveries of Onvo L60’s 60 kWh variant started in China on September 28 across 60 cities nationwide with deliveries in September reaching 832 units in a few days.
Onvo’s collaboration with Nio includes integrating its batteries at Nio’s third and fourth generation battery swap stations.
While Nio vehicles use 75 kWh, 100 kWh and 150 kWh batteries, Onvo’s SUV uses 60 kWh and 85 kWh batteries forcing the common stations to hold battery packs of four (our five if including the ultra-range battery of 150 kWh) different sizes.
When buying Onvo L60 under the battery subscription option, customers are charged a monthly battery fee of either 599 yuan ($85) or 899 yuan ($128), depending on whether they choose the standard-range or long-range version.
The company announced that by the end of this year, more than 1,000 of Nio’s third-generation stations, alongside newly constructed fourth-generation stations, will support both brands.
The integration of Onvo’s batteries, according to the company, will not disrupt Nio’s user experience. Both companies’ users will be served at swap stations, with cloud-based systems adjusting battery availability based on real-time demand to manage wait times efficiently.
In response to concerns about upgrading older stations, Onvo clarified that second-generation Nio stations, which have 13 battery compartments, will not be retrofitted to support Onvo batteries due to potential queuing issues, as reported by the local media outlet IT Home.
However, if user demand increases, new fourth-generation stations will be constructed to accommodate additional battery types.
The announcement follows Nio’s recent shift in its battery-swapping fee model, moving from a flat-rate system to a per kilowatt-hour (kWh) model, a change that aims to more accurately reflect the amount of electricity consumed during a battery swap.
Under the new pricing structure, the fee for a single battery swap is now calculated as the electricity fee plus a service fee, multiplied by the amount of electricity swapped.
If the amount is less than 20 kWh, the service fee will be charged based on that minimum threshold, with the electricity cost adjusted to the actual amount used.
“One obvious advantage of battery swapping is that users can benefit from battery technology upgrades. For example, users who bought the Nio ES8 Founder’s Edition six years ago, with a 70 kWh battery offering a range of over 350 kilometers, can now rent a 150 kWh battery on a daily basis, increasing their range to over 700 kilometers,” the company stated.
In his latest research note, Deutsche Bank analyst Wang Bin affirmed that Nio’s sub-brand has “received more than 30,000 non-cancelable orders.”
According to Nio management, December deliveries of the L60 will reach 10,000 units before jumping to 16,000 in January next year. Two months later, in March 2025, the production ramp-up will allow Onvo to deliver 20,000 units.
Written by Cláudio Afonso | LinkedIn | X
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