Chinese electric vehicle start-up Nio Inc. company logo is on display on its initial public offering day at the NYSE in New York, U.S., September 12, 2018. REUTERS/Brendan McDermidplans to build 1,000 battery-swapping stations in China in 2023 to bring the total number of such facilities to 2,300 by year-end, its Founder and Chairman William Li said on Tuesday.
Nio will build 400 battery-swapping stations along highways and 600 in urban areas with a focus on the country's third- and fourth-tier cities and counties, Li said in a post on Nio's social media platform. The move marks an expansion of its plan in December of adding 400 such stations this year. Li found more of them are needed to improve user experience after his trips to northeastern China and lower-tier cities in Zhejiang, he added.
Battery swapping allows drivers to replace depleted packs quickly with fully charged ones, rather than plugging the vehicle into a charging point. Swapping could help mitigate the growing strains placed on power grids as millions of drivers juice up, yet specialists caution it can only take off in a big way if batteries become standardised industry-wide.
What kind of a global ecological disaster could this cause!?
Will it help their stock price?