{"id":19207,"date":"2022-04-05T05:59:36","date_gmt":"2022-04-05T09:59:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/autosector.com\/?p=19207"},"modified":"2022-04-05T05:59:36","modified_gmt":"2022-04-05T09:59:36","slug":"nio-talks-license-battery-swap-stations-to-other-automakers-europe-us","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/autosector.com\/?p=19207","title":{"rendered":"NIO is in talks to license its battery swap stations to other automakers as it expands to Europe and US"},"content":{"rendered":"

NIO is the only electric automaker that has successfully managed to make battery swapping part of its business. It is now reportedly in talks to license its battery swap stations to other automakers as it expands to Europe and the US.<\/p>\n

Over the years I have been covering electric vehicles, I\u2019ve seen several companies attempt to add value to EVs by using swappable battery packs.<\/p>\n

The idea is that if charging takes longer than refueling a tank of gas, we could just swap a battery pack for a fully charged one.<\/p>\n

A startup called Better Place built its entire business model around it and went bankrupt.<\/p>\n

Tesla rolled out\u00a0its own battery swapping technology back in 2014<\/a>, but it only built one battery-swapping station and quickly killed the project.<\/p>\n

You have to manage what happens to the battery packs after they are swapped: Do owners need to come back and get them or can they keep the new pack? Do you use a pack rental model? What is the cost of those rentals? There are a lot of questions to answer when using battery swapping as part of your EV business.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s why we were a bit skeptical when NIO, a Chinese EV manufacturer, launched\u00a0its own battery-swapping scheme with its first electric vehicles<\/a>\u00a0back in 2018.<\/p>\n

But the automaker has defied the odds, and\u00a0the program has been quite successful<\/a>\u00a0as we previously reported when they completed 500,000 battery swaps in 2020.<\/p>\n

The company has truly become the only electric automaker to successfully make battery swapping a part of its business.<\/p>\n

Last year, we reported that NIO announced a plan to open its battery swap stations to other electric automakers<\/a>, but we weren\u2019t sure if there would be any takers.<\/p>\n

Apparently, there are as the Financial Times<\/a> is reporting that NIO European president Hui Zhang confirmed that the company is currently in talks with \u201cseveral other carmakers\u201d about licensing its battery swap technology:<\/p>\n

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\u201cChinese electric vehicle start-up Nio is in talks with several other carmakers about licensing the battery-swapping technology that is at the heart of the group\u2019s strategy to win over petrol-driving motorists in Europe, one of the company\u2019s most senior executives said.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

The move comes as NIO is expanding its network of battery swapping stations from currently 888 to 5,000 by the end of the decade.<\/p>\n

Almost all of those over 800 stations are in China except for a few being deployed in Norway, NIO\u2019s first European market.<\/p>\n

By 2025, NIO wants to have over 1,000 battery swap stations outside of China \u2013 especially in Europe and the US, which is expected to be NIO\u2019s next market expansion after Europe.<\/p>\n

Now the interesting thing is that if other automakers want to take advantage of NIO\u2019s growing network of battery swapping stations, they also going to have to adopt NIO\u2019s battery pack technology for their own electric vehicles.<\/p>\n

This creates another opportunity for the Chinese automaker.<\/p>\n

So far, they are not revealing which automakers are interested in the technology.<\/p>\n

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