Battery swap shops like this Nio facility are widespread in China but there is only one in EuropePit stops aren’t just for Formula One, you know. In Norway, at a facility owned by Chinese electric car manufacturer Nio, it’s not wet weather tyres or a new nose box being ratcheted on by automated robots, it’s the substitution of a drained battery for a freshly charged one in as little as three minutes.
Such swap shops are widespread in China but the recently opened Power Swap Station, to the south of Oslo, is Europe’s first and only such specialist operation. So is battery swapping the future of EV?
Nio’s subscription service certainly has its benefits. Because batteries remain the most expensive EV component, removing that cost from the purchase of a vehicle and replacing it with a monthly fee to swap out the battery could save EV customers a few bob. The…
Is exchanging batteries the future of electric vehicles?
