- NIO is opening a 3,605‑km Silk Road battery‑swap corridor with 33 planned swap stations to support a 14‑vehicle Eurasian convoy, signaling focus on long‑distance cross‑border travel.
- NIO will deploy ES8, ES6, ET5T and ONVO L90/L80 vehicles for the 20,000+ km, 41‑day journey while operating 4,079 swap stations and 5,255 chargers across China.
- The route targets long‑haul EV travelers competing with roaming charging networks, but faces execution risks from cross‑border logistics, infrastructure continuity and regulatory coordination.
NIO has partnered with the “2026 Silk Road Challenge 2026” to provide 14 NIO and ONVO vehicles for the all-electric long-distance journey across Eurasia, the company announced on Sept. 10.
The convoy is scheduled to depart from Xi’an on September 16 and travel through Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, Russia, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Türkiye, Bulgaria, Serbia and other countries before reaching Budapest, Hungary.
The journey is expected to last 41 days, covering more than 20,000 km across 11 countries.
The fleet will include NIO ES8, ES6 and ET5T models, as well as ONVO L90 and L80 vehicles, with NIO providing vehicle services and technical support.
According to NIO’s plan, the Silk Road battery swap route will officially open in late September, spanning 3,605 km and featuring 33 planned battery swap stations along the route.
NIO said that once the route is completed, users will be able to start from any battery swap station in China and travel to every provincial-level administrative region on the Chinese mainland using battery swaps throughout the journey.
Previously, NIO has already established EV travel routes along the G318 Sichuan-Tibet Highway, Yunnan-Tibet Highway and Hexi Corridor.
The company also plans to expand its “Power Journey” routes to 100 by 2026.
In terms of overall battery swap infrastructure, NIO currently operates 9,334 charging and swap facilities across China.
This include 4,079 battery swap stations and 5,255 charging stations, providing more than 200 million charging and swap services to date.
The completion of the Silk Road swap route means NIO’s battery swap network is expanding from its previous focus on urban and intercity mobility toward long-distance transportation corridors.
Compared with simply increasing the number of urban stations, the density and continuity of infrastructure along long-distance routes represent another key factor that directly affects the EV travel experience.
For electric vehicles, cross-border travel involves not only driving range challenges, but also differences in charging infrastructure, service systems and road conditions across countries.
NIO’s battery swap network in Europe has also entered operational deployment.
As of the end of June this year, NIO had operated battery swap stations in six European countries, with cumulative swap services exceeding 300,000 times.
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