Source: Daily Economic News

 

“In 2023, NIO plans to add 1,000 new power swap stations in China, 90% of which are third-generation power swap stations. In the later stage, the company will gradually stop expanding the second-generation power stations.” On March 29, Shen Fei, senior vice president of NIO Energy, said in an interview with the reporter from Daily Economic News.

 

Just on March 28, NIO’s first batch of ten third-generation power swap stations went online simultaneously in 10 cities across the country, and started trial operation experience. They are planned to be officially put into use in early April.

According to the official introduction, the maximum daily power swap capacity of the third-generation power station can reach 408 times, the service capacity is 30% higher than that of the second-generation swap station, and the time of the whole swap process can be shortened by about 20%.” NIO’s third-generation battery swap station is compatible with models of other brands under the company based on different platforms, including the Alps brand.” Shen Fei said.

According to the previous plan of NIO Chairman Li Bin, starting from April this year, NIO’s third-generation power station will begin mass production. Starting from June, NIO will basically maintain the construction speed of 120-150 battery swap stations per month. “Building 1,000 power stations a year is a great challenge for our energy team, but we will go all out to achieve the goal.” Shen Fei said frankly.

It is worth mentioning that while speeding up the deployment of power swap stations, the high cost behind NIO’s power swap stations has been attracting attention from the outside world. The financial report released by NIO shows that in 2022, NIO had a net loss of approximately 14.437 billion yuan, which is nearly 3.6 times the loss in 2021. Many voices believe that the intensification of NIO’s losses is mainly caused by the power station business. In this regard, Shen Fei said: “The power swap stations (business) will definitely not take the blame.
NIO has always emphasized value orientation, considering the long-term and overall situation. The value created by power swap stations is very large.”

Qin Lihong, co-founder and president of NIO, also said in an interview with reporters before that NIO’s failure to achieve profitability is not caused by the power station business. “Whether a company can make profits depends on the overall operating conditions and profit targets, rather than being determined by a certain aspect. Tesla does not do battery swap, and it took more than ten years for the company to become profitable.” Qin Lihong said.