Chinese EV manufacturer NIO and Sinopec, Chinese biggest oil company, jointly unveiled the second-generation of its battery swap station, named NIO Power Swap Station 2.0.
Announced at ‘NIO Day’ in January, NIO’s inaugural second-generation battery swap station was deployed at Sinopec’s Chaoying Station in Beijing and also the first under the NIO-Sinopec partnership.
Primary goal of partnership between Sinopec and NIO is to build a network of 5,000 EV charging and swapping stations for electric car batteries in the next few years. In addition to EV charging and swapping network development, NIO and Sinopec will comprehensively cooperate in new materials, smart EV technology, Battery-as-a-Service (BaaS), vehicle purchasing, and recreational facility constructions to further leverage their advantages in building an innovative collaboration model between the global energy and automotive industries.
NIO claims the Power Swap Station 2.0 will be the world’s first mass-produced battery swap station that allows the vehicle to maneuver into the station automatically. Each NIO Power Swap Station 2.0 has 239 sensors and four collaborating cloud computing systems that maximize the application of visual recognition technologies. Enabled by the technology, users can complete a self-service battery swap with only one click while staying in the car. The system is capable of completing up to 312 battery swaps per day, significantly improving swapping efficiency.
Sinopec is an integrated oil company, the biggest in China. According to Yuzhuo Zhang, Sinopec’s Chairman, the state-owned company plans plans to deploy 5,000 battery charging and swapping stations. The partnership with NIO will enable both to leverage their advantages, deepen the collaboration in a broader scope, and ‘ultimately achieve more significant results, promoting a high-quality economic and social development and a higher quality of life for all.’
“NIO and Sinopec’s collaboration will efficiently consolidate their resources and bring a better charging and swapping experience to EV users. Sinopec’s determination to invest in green energy service will encourage more people to adopt new energy vehicles,” said William Li, founder, chairman, and CEO of NIO.
