NIO is a Chinese electrical automobile manufacturer founded in 2014 with headquarters in Shanghai. Their flagship project is their alternative method of charging a car, their fast changing battery stations.
Current car models
In 2016 NIO presented their first car “EP9” which is a electric supercar. The model was created in limited quantity to show the abilities of workers in NIO.
Year later during Shanghai Auto Show NIO introduced their first car that will be mass produced, a fully electric SUV “NIO ES8” which was later brought into production and sale in China. Later, in 2019 made smaller and cheaper SUV “NIO ES6”.
In 2021 NIO presented their first classic passenger car “NIO ET7” with extra long range of 1.000km! It is a competitor for “Tesla Model S”.
The fast battery changing stations
Their most unique thing is a swappable battery. NIO install battery swap stations (now there are around 700 stations in China). It is alternate for superchargers. The process of swapping takes around 5 minutes. On September 29, 2021 NIO announced that 4 million swaps have been completed.
Expanding to Europe
In June 2021 NIO obtained a permit to distribute their cars to Europe and plan to make the network network of battery changing stations. The first point of sale NIO House in Oslo, Norway was officially opened on 1st October 2021.
Summary
In my opinion the idea of battery changing stations is a great idea and we can se that it works. I really look forward to see how NIO will expand in Europe.
Sources:
https://electrek.co/2020/06/02/nio-battery-swap-electric-cars-completes-500000-swaps/
https://pl.wikipedia.org/wiki/NIO
https://www.nio.com