NIO takes battery-swapping to Europe as it fights Tesla
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Industry-changing technologies can take years or even decades to standardize, and many battles can be waged until a clear victor emerges. One such battle is currently taking place in the EV industry as companies debate the best way to power the cars of the future. NIO (NYSE:NIO), one of China's leading EV makers, is looking to expand the uptake of battery-swapping (it has completed over 4M swaps to date), as it looks to gain ground on other automakers like Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) that have turned to recharging stations instead.
Quote: "We are open to selling the platform," said Hui Zhang, managing director of NIO in Europe, as the company looks to win over more drivers on the continent (currently one of the most competitive markets for EVs). It follows the recent opening of NIO's first European battery swap station in Norway, which was placed alongside superchargers used by Tesla, in part to display how much faster of a system it is. A battery swap by NIO only takes about 5 minutes via a dedicated robot-operated bay, compared to the fastest chargers on the market, which give some power quickly but take up to an hour to fully recharge an empty battery.
Other pros of battery swapping include eliminating the costs of the battery, which can account for more than a third of a new vehicle's price tag. Drivers are also not worried about depreciating capacity or the value of their cars since the battery is not deeply integrated into the vehicle. Other caution that the technology works better in areas with high urban density and a scarcity of driveways, while the costs of building a swap station could be much higher than the infrastructure of a fast charging network.
Some history: Tesla began conducting battery swapping trials in 2013, but dropped the project a few years later as consumers increasingly expressed interest in its Supercharger network. Three years earlier, Renault trailblazed the industry by becoming a primary partner for Better Place, an Israeli startup that hoped to revolutionize the e-mobility industry. The company initially set up shop in Israel, Denmark and Hawaii, but was plagued by financial difficulties and mismanagement, and eventually went bankrupt in 2013.
EV charging station providers: ABB (ABB), Blink Charging (BLNK), BP (BP), ChargePoint (CHPT), Chevron (CVX), ConocoPhillips (COP), EVBox (TPGY), Exxon Mobil (XOM), Phillips 66 (PSX), Royal Dutch Shell (SHEL), Sunoco (SUN), TotalEnergies (TTE) and Valero (VLO).