Nio Rolls Out 100 Power Swap Stations In A Month In Rush To Meet Yearly Goal

Chinese electric vehicle maker Nio Inc NIO said on Sunday that it has opened its 1600th NIO Power Swap Station in the country.

What Happened: Nio announced its 1500th power swap station in China on June 25, implying that the EV maker added 100 stations in about a month.

In February, Nio said that it intended to add 1,000 battery swap stations by year-end in China, taking the total number of stations to 2,300. Nio now has 700 more to build before year-end to meet forecasts and five months to do the same, signaling a need to further pick up the pace.

The Chinese EV maker is a proponent of the battery-swapping service over battery charging and claims that it takes just 3 minutes to swap a fully charged battery. The continuous deployment of power swap stations will provide a charging experience beyond refueling, says Nio.

This is in contrast to most EV players including giant Tesla Inc, Volkswagen, and General Motors who rely on charging for their EVs.

“We’re very confident that more Power Swap stations will lead to more sales growth,” CFO Steven Feng said in the company’s first-quarter earnings call.

Why It Matters: However, last month, Nio said that it would no longer provide free battery-swapping services to new buyers after it reported revenue that missed consensus and deeper losses for the first quarter.

For the next quarter, Nio sees deliveries of 23,000 to 25,000, down by 8.2% – 0.2% year-over-year, and revenue of $1.27 billion to $1.36 billion, down by 15.1% to 9.0%.

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