Chinese NIO has invested heavily in its technology with battery replacements. In China today there are over 2,400 stations for it and since the brand was launched in Sweden in 2022, eight have been built here as well. So far, it is only NIO’s own cars that can switch to a fully charged battery in five minutes as an alternative to fast charging. But recently, NIO has started collaborations with other manufacturers around the technology.
Most recently, Lotus, which, together with NIO, is starting a strategic collaboration regarding the charging and bye of batteries, and wants to develop a unified battery standard system.
– We want to work together with Lotus to drive the development of the smart electric vehicle market in the premium segment, make joint efforts in technological innovation and standardization for charging and switching, push for a large-scale, standardized and unified energy infrastructure network to deliver efficient and friendly experiences of charging services to users, says NIO’s founder William Li in a press release.
The agreement with Lotus does not come like a bolt from the blue. Last autumn it was announced that NIO entered into a partnership with Geely, which in addition to Volvo and Polestar also owns Lotus among others. According to Lotus CEO Feng Qingfeng, it sounds like we may see the possibility of changing batteries at NIO’s battery exchange stations on future electric cars from Lotus.
– Our collaboration with NIO to share the charging and swapping resources with each other will enable our users to experience the Lotus track genes and ultimate performance while enjoying the friendly services of NIO’s charging and swapping network throughout China, Feng Qingfeng says.
Whether that also means other brands within the Geely group such as Volvo, Polestar and Zeekr will also be able to change batteries is still unclear. NIO is also working on improving the technology for the exchanges. With the current third generation of the manufacturer’s Power Swap Station, the time for a swap has been reduced to four minutes. The first third-generation station in Europe was opened last autumn in Frihamnen in Stockholm. Recently, NIO also showed the fourth generation of the Power Swap Station, which will shorten the time for a change even further.
