Nio unveils 500kW charger and new battery swap stations

The Chinese electric car manufacturer and technology group Nio has presented a new ultra-fast charging station with a maximum output of 500 kW at 650 A current.

The DC charging station stack is said to be able to charge a long-range electric vehicle pack (100 kWh battery) from 10 to 80 percent in just 20 minutes.

A liquid-cooled charging cable drastically saves weight and makes it easier to handle by hand. This super-fast charging stack will be open to other brands of electric vehicles, the company adds.

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Of course it has to be a vehicle running on an 800V platform to reach the maximum rate – examples alongside Nios include the Porsche Taycan, Hyundai Ioniq 5 and Kia EV6.

The maximum charging power of the Nio tower exceeds that of the Chinese competitor brand Xpeng, which launched the S4 Supercharger in August 2022 with a cap of 480 kW (and a maximum current of 670 A).

Not long ago a 350kW charger (like the one made by Australian company Tritium) was top of the range and remains the best option for local public DC chargers.

In addition to its growing range of vehicles and its charger business, Nio is also known in China (and beginning also in Europe) for its battery swapping stations.

Simultaneously with the 500kW DC charger, it unveiled the design of the third-generation power exchange station, increasing the capacity to 408 exchanges per day, an increase of 30 percent.

The stations are highly automated for Nio products and use a summon-and-swap function that relies on laser radars and two Nvidia OrinX chips.

These stations allow Nio to sell Battery-as-a-Service (BaaS), meaning owners effectively lease battery access – meaning their car is always equipped with up-to-date packages.

While Nio is primarily focused on China, it is currently branching out into European markets with its burgeoning range that includes the ES6, ES7 and ES8 SUVs, EC6 and EC7 crossovers, and ET5 and ET7 sedans.

MORE: Brand overview on Nio