China’s premium electric vehicle maker Nio claims it will help overcome range anxiety concerns with its unique approach to battery swapping, Kallanish reports.

The company completed on 24 March its 2 millionth battery swap at the Suzhou Delivery Centre, China, as part of its Battery-as-a-Service (Baas) solution. The Nio Power Swap programme offers customers chargeable, swappable and upgradable batteries, which the company says it allow users to “continuously enjoy the progress of battery technology.”

The milestone, announced last week in a company blog, reinforces Nio’s commitment to continuing to accelerate deployment of its charging solutions. It precedes the planned Nio Power Swap 2.0 programme, anticipated to be launched in mid-April.

The Chinese automaker claims to be the pioneer in the automated battery swap proposal, having recognised the early works of the Israeli start-up, Better Place. It also notes Tesla’s efforts, which then developed into a network of public chargers, as well as home and self-operated chargers.

Nio introduced the next-generation approach to battery swapping in 2014 with Nio Power Grid technology, offering several solutions to enhance user experience. It includes multiple power swap stations, chargers and mobile charging service. All Nio drivers have a lifetime free power swap service, which they can swap their flat battery to a fully charged one in just three minutes, instead of charging it themselves.

The traditional charging times (20% to 90% capacity) using Nio home chargers vary from 2.5 hours to up to 10 hours. Charging of a 70-kilowatt-hour battery EV in the Nio Home Power 2.0 charger will take seven hours, with the time rising to 10 hours for a 100-kWh battery. The 20-kW Power Home Plus charger reduces the charging time of a 100-kWh battery to 3.5 hours and of a 70-kWh battery to 2.5 hours.

At the automated power swap stations, every battery pack removed from a vehicle goes through a thorough electrical performance inspection, Nio explains. “If no problems are detected, the battery is recharged and prepared for the next user. But if a fault is identified, the battery is taken out of circulation for repairs to ensure the safety of all batteries in the system.”

Nio carries out swapping in 59 cities in China, with Harbin, Beijing, Chengdu, Haikou and Shenzen being the top-five cities with the highest per capita swaps. As of June 2020, the company had built 135 stations.

Through its end-to-end holistic ecosystem for electric vehicle production, sales, and service, Nio believes its unique approach to battery swapping “will level the playing field for EVs and help overcome the critical user concern about range anxiety."