Nio is expected to build more than 300 second-generation battery swap stations this year, Bitauto.com said, citing a supplier of battery swap station solutions to the Chinese electric vehicle company.

The supplier is Shandong Weida Machinery Co. Ltd. which, according to the report, has a full order book on hand and expects 20-30 percent growth in each product line for at least the first three quarters.

Shandong Weida will probably follow the customer overseas this year to establish factories overseas, the report said, without specifying the name of the customer.

A subsidiary of Suzhou-based DEMAC expanded the company's workforce from 100 to 400 after the Chinese New Year in preparation for the Nio battery swap station layout, the report said.

Nio's second-generation battery swap station has completed its validation work and started critical testing before deployment, which is expected to begin in April.

The next-generation battery swap station occupies four parking spaces in size and has a larger battery compartment. It can carry up to 13 batteries and has a daily service capacity of up to 312 times, an increase of more than three times compared to the first generation battery swap station.

It can be activated with a single touch on the vehicle's center screen, and the vehicle can be automatically parked in the battery swap station and automatically change the battery swap pool.

Qin Lihong, president of Nio, mentioned in a presentation in January that this unattended feature provides the possibility for Nio to bring the battery swap model to developed markets in Europe and the US.

Nio plans to have 500 battery swap stations in China by the end of 2021, and it currently has about 200 battery swap stations.

In a January report, Essence Securities said that the battery swap model solves the biggest problem in the electric vehicle industry and is expected to grow rapidly in recent years due to the significant increase in policy support since 2020.

Shandong Weida is the main supplier of Nio battery swap stations and is gradually expanding to other customers, which will be the first to benefit, Essence Securities said.

(Source: CnEVPost)