The “charging” of electric cars in less than 4 minutes arrives in Europe

The Chinese manufacturer Nio present in Europe organized this Thursday its Power Day, a major conference in particular dedicated to investors, in order to announce its projects and novelties. And the Chinese firm was not stingy with information. Battery swapping, ultra-fast charging, and lowering the cost of electricity bills, here’s all you need to remember.

If you haven’t heard of Nio yet, prepare to hear a lot about it over the next few years. Indeed, the Chinese firm is experiencing strong development in its native country and is now beginning to invade Europe with its electric cars. So much so that it scares some traditional brands, like Audi, which had tried to take its rival to court.

Better flexibility

The manufacturer, which already markets certain cars in Europe such as the ET5 or the EL7, among others, continues its expansion and has plenty of projects in mind. It is in particular to announce them, and no doubt also to reassure investors, that he organized this morning its Power Day 2023. A large-scale event that takes the form of a conference during which the firm unveiled its plans for the future. A sort of Tesla Investor Day equivalent if you will.

During this highly anticipated meeting, Nio therefore made some interesting announcements, relayed by the site CNEVPost. Among them, the arrival of a program allowing you to change the capacity of your car’s battery from day to day. Currently, it is possible to change the latter at best every month. And good news, we even know the price of this operation! Customers who want switch from a 70 or 75 kWh battery to 100 kWh will have to pay 50 yuan per day, or about 6.20 euros.

If the firm does not specify it, this change should logically be done in a battery exchange station. The co-founder of the brand, Qin Lihong takes the opportunity to recall the advantages of this solution, and underlines that Nio should achieve its objective ofset up 1,000 additional stations around the world about a month ahead of the initial schedule. A hundred should be installed in July.

Remember that these battery exchange stations allow you to leave with a full battery in 4 minutes. And, now, to be able to change the capacity of its battery (and therefore its weight, and the consumption of the car) from day to day.

But that’s not all. Because the Chinese brand is also making an announcement that should delight the first European customers. She explains that the first third-generation battery exchange stations should arrive here during the month of August in Sweden.

Nio specifies that before the implementation of the program allowing to increase the capacity of the battery according to its needs, most customers opted for the 100 kWh pack. Today, they choose the 75 kWh version instead, which reduces the demand for lithium and avoids a potential shortage. The manufacturer is also taking advantage of this Power Day to announce the arrival of chargers equipped with bidirectional V2G charging.

V2G charging is coming to cut bills

These wallboxes will be able to send electricity back into the electricity network, up to 20 kW, which will reduce tensions. It should logically also be possible to power a house, in order to reduce bills, especially during peak hours, as Renault showed with its electric R5. The manufacturer recalls that 1,012 stations battery swapping are already sending electricity back into the grid today.

This allows the Chinese manufacturer to announce that it has created a network of virtual power plants in China.

Nio also takes the opportunity to take stock of its 500 kW terminal, which can charge an electric car in just 12 minutes. The first was commissioned last April in China and 1,509 less powerful stations are already available to customers in the country. A figure that reaches 1,564 for battery exchange stations, while the 1,600 mark should be reached this week.

What about the 150 kWh semi-solid battery? This will finally be a little late, while the manufacturer announced that they will be available from July on its ES6. A dedicated event will be organized by the brand a little later, according to the co-founder.

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