NIO has delivered over 4.2 billion kWh of electricity through battery swaps, saving users more than 67 million hours in charging time. The company has deployed 3,407 battery swap stations and 26,781 charging piles across China, and integrated over 1.3 million third-party chargers.
On July 19, NIO CEO William Li announced via video that at 08:06:32 that morning, NIO officially completed its 80 millionth battery swap. This milestone comes just 109 days after reaching 70 million swaps on April 1.
Behind this figure lies a massive energy infrastructure: battery swaps have cumulatively delivered over 4.2 billion kWh of electricity—enough to power more than 2.11 million households for an entire year. At the same time, users have saved over 67 million hours in charging time—equivalent to giving each user 109 extra hours with their families.
According to official data, compared to gasoline vehicles, NIO users have saved approximately ¥20.9 billion ($2.93 billion) in energy costs, averaging savings of ¥34,000 ($4,760) per user.
As of this report, NIO has built 3,407 battery swap stations and 26,781 charging piles across China, and has integrated over 1.3 million third-party charging piles. This includes 1,000 highway battery swap stations, completing the “9 vertical expressway, 11 horizontal expressway, and 16 major city clusters” layout that connects north to south and east to west.
It’s worth noting that brands across the NEV (New Energy Vehicle) sector are accelerating their infrastructure expansion through different strategies. Deployment data as of July 18, 2025, for several major players:
- Li Auto: 2,891 charging stations, 15,721 charging piles.
- Tesla: Over 2,800 charging stations, 14,100+ charging piles.
- XPeng: Over 2,348 charging stations, 12,600+ charging piles.
- Zeekr: 1,690 charging stations, 8,432 charging piles.
NIO’s energy network stands out not just in scale but also in efficiency.
NIO’s fourth-generation battery swap stations are equipped with six ultra-wide-angle LiDARs and four Orin X chips, offering a computing power of 1,016 TOPS. These stations support unmanned swap operation and frameless parking. The number of battery slots has been increased from 21 to 23, improving swap speed by 22%. As NIO describes it: “A battery swap takes no more time than drinking a cup of coffee.”
NIO President Qin Lihong revealed that the fifth-generation swap stations are currently under development. The prototype will be ready in Q3 this year and is undergoing reliability testing and preparations.
According to NIO’s earlier plans, the fifth-generation swap station will for the first time support NIO, ONVO, and Firefly vehicles. The first batch is expected to be deployed in early 2026. Swap times will be reduced from 3 minutes (Gen 4) to approximately 2 minutes and 30 seconds, further boosting efficiency.
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