Chinese car brand Nio performs 165,898 battery swaps — IN A SINGLE DAY

While DC fast charging infrastructure and range anxiety dominate Western EV headlines, Nio’s battery-swap system in China reached a new milestone that proves battery swap tech can rival traditional refueling models at scale: Nio customers performed more than 165,000 battery swaps in single day.

The Chinese car brand broke its single-day battery swap record yesterday, 19FEB, the third day of the Chinese Lunar New Year celebrations and marking the third such record for Nio in nearly as many days.

If you’re doing the math, 165,898 battery swaps in a single 24 hour period works out to about two (2) swaps every second across Nio’s China-wide network. The surge came as millions of EV drivers hit the road for the Lunar New Year return trip — traditionally the busiest travel day of the year and a demanding annual stress test for the country’s transportation infrastructure.

And, from everything we can see, Nio’s swap stations handled the day with exactly the sort of high-tech precision we’ve come to expect from the brand that claims battery swapping, not increasingly faster charging, is the right solution for road tripping travelers.

Why it works

Despite a number of early EV adopters with an overdeveloped concept of ownership, battery swap technology has proven to be both extremely effective and extremely positive to the overall EV ownership experience. For drivers, the process is simple: the driver pulls into a swap station, and in three to five minutes leaves with a fully charged battery. No getting out in the rain or snow, no worries about being stuck in an immobilized vehicle if someone’s harassing you outside, no worries about elderly or disabled drivers tripping over charging cables.

Multiply that sort of convenience by 165,000 takers in a single day, and what you’re seeing isn’t just a PR-friendly marketing record — it’s proof that battery swaps work. And, when you see how simple it is to add hundreds of miles of driving in just 100 seconds (quicker, in many cases, than pumping a tank of liquid fuel into an ICE-powered car), you might come around.

As for American drivers who would be willing to give battery-swapping a try, here’s hoping we get the option in the US somewhat sooner than later.

SOURCE | IMAGES: Nio, via CNEVPost.

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