From 500 kW charging that defies expectations to a third-generation, automated battery swap station, NIO is raising the bar.
At the company’s second annual Power Day this week, NIO raised the bar for high-powered, ultra-fast EV charging with news that it will be rolling out 500 kW, 640 amp chargers – both in China and Europe, within a matter of months.
NIO was short on specific details about what its customers could expect in terms of charging time at the new chargers, but its Chinese-market rival, XPeng, claimed that its recently-revealed 480 kW chargers would charge an EV up to 4x faster than a “typical” DC fast-charger. That translates to drivers being able to add 200 k, (approx. 125 miles) of range in as little as five minutes, and about 200 miles in as little as 10 minutes.
If that’s still not fast enough for you, though, NIO also announced plans to roll out the first of its 3rd generation battery swap stations, which it’s developing in partnership with Shell Energy.
As we type this, NIO has over 1,000 swap stations throughout China, in addition to almost 2,000 publicly available charging stations. The company has proven the swap concept in practice, too, having completed literally millions of successful EV battery swaps over the past few years.
NIO currently has nearly 9,000 battery packs circulating through its swapping network — some 3,800 long range and more than 5,100 “standard range” units. The company is also believed to be developing V2G technology that will allow those batteries to provide energy storage for local power grids using a new back end interface that promises to serve as a large scale battery backup, and further help support local electrical infrastructure.
SOURCE | IMAGES: NIO, VIA CLEANTECHNIA.
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