By Kate Yuan

(JW Insights) Oct 9 -- Shen Fei, senior vice president of NIO Power, said in a recent post on Chinese social media Weibo that the charging time for extended-range vehicles is twice as long as pure electric vehicles, and swapping batteries proves to be a more time-saving option for long-distance travel.

Battery swapping is an unbeatable and significantly time-saving solution for long-distance travel in electric vehicles, surpassing traditional charging methods, added Shen.

He shared an image showing that NIO users’ average total duration for battery swapping is almost equivalent to normal times during the long holiday period when the number of battery swaps increased substantially, at around 9 to 10 minutes. The battery swapping orders in the expressway are about four times higher than usual, but the total duration for a full battery swap remains within 12 minutes.

Furthermore, he specifically mentioned the comparison of charging time between extended-range vehicles and pure electric vehicles.

“NIO users take about 30 to 40 minutes only considering the duration of pure charging from start to finish, and it is even faster when using NIO's own charging stations. On the other hand, several mainstream extended-range vehicles take 50 to 60 minutes for pure charging at NIO’s charging stations,” said Shen.

With the official launch of the G42 Hushan Service Area Battery Swap Station on September 30, NIO has accumulated a total of 1931 battery swap stations nationwide, including 572 stations on the expressway (as of October 2), said a Pandaily report.