Facility is located in Liwan, southern China, and will be further optimized with new NVIDIA hardware
Chinese electric car manufacturer NIO has opened its first NIO fourth-generation battery swap station in the world and unveiled a 640 kW ultra-fast charger in Liwan, south China’s Guangzhou province.
NIO’s new generation of battery changing stations offers users an efficient and intelligent battery changing service, with the battery changing speed being about 3 minutes. The battery change time of the NIO ET7 model tested on site was 2 minutes and 38 seconds, and the battery change time of the ONVO L60 tested on site was 2 minutes and 48 seconds. The battery change time of the third-generation charging station was 4 minutes and 40 seconds. The faster battery change speed allows the new generation of charging stations to have a maximum service capacity of 480 times per day.
The station’s smart battery swap function will be further optimized, with the hardware supporting this function being upgraded to 4 NVIDIA Orin X chips and 6 ultra-wide-angle laser radars. This not only increases the intelligence level of the battery changing station, but also improves safety performance. Existing third-generation battery swap stations only have 2 NVIDIA Orin X chips and 2 laser radars.
Furthermore, the fourth generation battery changing station also supports batteries of various specifications and different capacities, allowing users to change batteries of different capacities according to their travel needs. With the growing expansion of the NIO Battery Swap Alliance, well-known Chinese brands such as Geely, Changan and Chery will also be able to adopt battery swap technology in their new vehicles.
In some regions, battery swapping stations will also be equipped with solar panels.
The fourth generation of stations will support battery swapping of vehicles from other brands such as ONVO, and the first cooperation project of the Battery Swap Alliance will be implemented by the end of next year. Furthermore, NIO stated that all of the brand’s models can receive batteries of up to 150 kWh.
On the same day, the first battery swapping station from the partnership between NIO Power and Zhongan Energy was opened in Anhui, also a fourth generation battery swapping station. This station is the first project to be implemented after the signing of the cooperation agreement between NIO Power and Zhongan Energy on March 22. Both companies will base themselves in Anhui, expand to the Yangtze River Delta and promote the orderly construction of 1000 integrated battery storage, charging and switching stations.
