Nio's pace of building battery swap stations was slow at the start of the year, possibly waiting for fourth-generation station capacity to ramp up. It's aiming to end the year with a total of more than 3,310 stations.

The route started from Dandong in Liaoning in the east to Yumen in Gansu in the west, spanning 25 cities.

Nio deployed 88 charging and battery swap stations along the 5,199-kilometer route, an average of one every 59 kilometers, it said.

In Europe, Nio currently has 42 battery swap stations, with Germany having the most with 14.

Data tracker: Nio's charging and battery swap stations