NIO launched its first battery swap network on China's G4 Expressway, as one solid step in its nation-wide deployment strategy, which indeed made quite a big difference. Congratulations!
Nov 15, 2018, NIO, The ever "Copycat" Tesla, finally made its solid step forward today, by launching its and even the world's first ever battery swap network on G4 Expressway in China, which is the approximately 2,285 kilometers, a major transit route running from Northern to Southern China, with another name “the Beijing-Hong Kong-Macau Expressway”.
NIO announced the official inauguration of this G4 Expressway battery swap network at a press conference in Guangzhou, China.
The first ever battery swap network deployed by NIO, located in 14 service areas along Shijiazhuang, Zhengzhou, Wuhan, Changsha, Guangzhou, and other major cities, with 18 battery swap station, which means technically an NIO ES8 owner could easily get recharged every 162.21 km, to have a travel on the go, at least along the G4 Expressway, even if some owners complained a fully charged ES8 could only achieve a 200 km range in some specific user scenarios, for instance, on the highway.
During the press conference, NIO also announced that ES8 Founders Edition owners, as well as owners who have put down a deposit with 2018 on the ES8 Standard Edition, will be able to enjoy 12 free battery swaps every year at any service station across China.
Before this, NIO only provided a beautiful concept rather than a practical solution to offer users a worry-free driving experience. EqualOcean used to release an analysis article with a comment that "Battery swapping service would be the greatest opportunity (for NIO), considering the lagged development of battery technology (related to capacity)", at that time, NIO had only deployed one battery swap station in Fengtai District in Beijing, not a central area of the city.
Congratulations to NIO, if everything would be fine with the network, which means that NIO will have much more pressure on delivering good battery swap user experiences, and making sure it will indeed be better than refueling, as they promised.
“With the support of our partners, we’ve dedicated ourselves to deploying our battery swap network in order to offer users a worry-free driving experience on China’s highways. The deployment of our battery swap network on the G4 expressway is the beginning of providing a charging experience beyond refueling”, said NIO co-founder and president, QIN Lihong (秦力洪).
NIO finally sees the opportunity to teach Tesla a lesson, at least on the Expressway in China, hope the company won't miss it.
- Author: ZHANG Fan; Write to ZHANG Fan at ZhangFan@EqualOcean.com