NIO Opens Battery Swapping to Firefly and Launches 5th-Generation Swapping Stations

Chinese automaker NIO is expanding its battery swapping network, a system where drivers pull into a station and swap a depleted battery for a charged one in a few minutes, instead of plugging in and waiting. NIO has now opened this network to Firefly, its small-car sub-brand. Firefly cars are smaller and cheaper than NIO's main lineup, and the company points out that small-car buyers are more likely to live in apartments without home charging, making swap stations a practical fit.

NIO also rolled out its fifth-generation swap stations, starting in seven Chinese cities: Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Suzhou, Hefei, Chengdu, and Quanzhou. These new stations can service any NIO, ONVO, or Firefly model, unlike earlier versions built around specific cars. The very first one, installed in Quanzhou, also happened to be NIO's 4,000th swap station overall.

The scale here is notable: NIO says it has now completed 120 million battery swaps total, up from 100 million in February. It operates over 1,000 swap stations along highways connecting more than 550 cities, and says 80 percent of its city-based customers have a station within about two miles of home or work.

None of this applies directly to US homeowners, since NIO does not sell cars in the United States and battery swapping is not part of the American charging landscape. It is mainly a signal of how EV infrastructure is developing elsewhere, in case swapping ever expands beyond China.