Written by Cláudio Afonso | LinkedIn | X
China’s Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) is working on guidelines for the battery-swapping model for new energy vehicles (NEVs), local media reported citing MIIT spokesperson Zhao Zhiguo.
At a media briefing, Zhao Zhiguo said the ministry will continue to implement measures to encourage consumer spending, including vehicle trade-in programs and tax incentives on car purchases, as initially reported by ITHome.
The ministry will also extend NEV promotion activities in rural areas and launch new pilot projects for the full electrification of public sector vehicles.
In addition, MIIT will continue pilot projects for intelligent connected vehicles and “vehicle-road-cloud” systems, while progressing the commercialization of autonomous driving technology.
China’s National Industry and Information Work Conference in late 2023 detailed plans to strengthen key industries and improve the NEV supply chain.
Battery swapping is part of this effort, with further pilot projects focused on public sector vehicle electrification planned for this year.
A decade ago, Tesla launched a battery swap demonstration station at Harris Ranch in California aiming to swap a Model S battery in about 90 seconds. However, the project was later scrapped with Elon Musk claiming there was a lack of interest.
Here’s the demonstration showed by Musk back in 2013.
The EV maker Nio is, by far, the biggest believer in the technology. The Shanghai headquartered company opened its very first battery swap station in China six years ago, in 2018.
As of Wednesday, the company has 2,589 stations across the country and more than 50 in Europe.
Over the last year, Nio has been announcing several partners for its battery swap technology including Geely, Chery, JAC, GAC, Changan, FAW Group and Lotus.
Starting in 2025, Nio’s partners are expected to launch their first battery swap-capable models in the Chinese market.
Nio built and opened 58 new stations in China during September while providing an average of 73,595 battery swaps per day.
Nio has recently said it will build a new factory in Wuhan, China, to support the rollout of battery swap stations. In addition to the new factory, Nio will establish a new headquarters in the Chinese City its Power division.
The company is targeting full coverage of its battery swap station network across all 2,300+ counties in 27 provincial regions by the end of 2025.
The company has also added two new swap stations along China’s expanding highway network, with an average distance of 213 kilometers (132 miles) between stations, according to Nio’s monthly report.
For the first time, Nio provided recently more than 100,000 battery swaps in one day with the company’s Senior Vice President of the Power division Shen Fei celebrating the milestone on the Chinese social media platform Weibo.
In Europe, the company has more than 50 stations and is preparing to open its first one in Belgium marking the first station in a market where it doesn’t sell its vehicles.
Written by Cláudio Afonso | LinkedIn | X
The post China to Draft Guidelines for Battery Swapping in New Energy Vehicles first appeared on EV.