Nio begins producing battery swap stations in Hungary

Nio, a leading Chinese electric-vehicle startup, opened a plant in Pest in central Hungary to manufacture battery swap stations for EVs delivered in the European market. 

The first battery swap station from the Hungarian factory will be shipped to Germany, Nio said.

The plant, the first battery swap production facility Nio will operate outside of China, covers a ground area of some 10,000 square meters (107,639 sq. ft). 

It will serve as the center of manufacturing, service and R&D for its battery products and related services in Europe, Nio said. 

Nio is set to export vehicles to the Netherlands, Sweden and Denmark in coming months. 

Later this year, the Hungarian factory will ship battery swap stations to the three European countries, the company added. 

In the third quarter of 2021, Nio began exports of the ES8 crossover and battery swap stations from China to Norway as the first step in an expansion in Europe. 

Nio is one of the few Chinese EV makers that develops and installs battery swap stations for EV fleets. 

As of July, Nio had installed more than 1,000 battery swap stations in China. 

Under a plan it disclosed last year, the EV startup expects to install 3,000 battery swap stations in China and 1,000 outside the country by 2025. 

Nio was incorporated in Shanghai in 2014. Since its inception, the company has delivered some 240,000 EVs, including sedans, crossovers and SUVs.

In the first eight months of the year, its sales rallied 28 percent from a year earlier to 71,556, Nio said earlier this month.