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NIO has basically stood alone in its long-term commitment to EV battery swapping technology and infrastructure. Now, its youngest sub-brand, Firefly, is getting access to these battery swapping stations. Additionally, the company is starting to roll out its new, 5th-generation battery swapping stations.
Firefly, for those who haven’t followed along that closely, is a small-car brand underneath NIO’s wings. The cars are definitely cool and snazzy and premium-leaning cars, but they are much smaller and cheaper than NIO or ONVO vehicles. One might think they are therefore not the best fit for battery swapping, but people who own small cars are probably more likely to live in apartments and not have dedicated parking spaces where they can charge, so battery swapping might be the perfect solution for many of them.
As far as the new 5th-gen battery swapping stations, these are initially being rolled out in 7 cities — Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Suzhou, Hefei, Chengdu, and Quanzhou. Incidentally (or maybe it was planned this way for a while), the first 5th-gen station was also NIO’s 4,000th battery swapping station overall. It was installed at th Qiaoxiang Gymnasium in Quanzhou. These 5th-gen stations are more flexible and are the first that can accommodate/service every single NIO, ONVO, and Firefly model.
