Nio, one of the most well-known electric car manufacturers in China, is increasing its presence in parts of Europe.

The company has just opened its first battery exchange station for electric cars in Sweden as it prepares to launch in various European markets before the end of the year. This was shared Nios Sweden’s Linkedin page and was also reported by cnevpost.

Nio delivered its first electric cars to Sweden last week, followed by the opening of its first battery exchange station in the country. The location is near the town of Varberg. The site is next to a highway that runs between Gothenburg and Malmö in southwestern Sweden.

At the opening, the audience was seen closer to the ground as they watched the battery change process on a Nio ET7 model.

Nio calls the battery swap technology to be very similar to refueling when it comes to the time it takes for the electric car to have a low charge pack swapped for a fully charged battery.

The company’s head of division Nio Power, Kajsa Ivansson-Sogne described the process to the visiting public as:

“With battery exchange stations, NIO makes starting an electric vehicle as quick as refueling a regular fuel car”

The entire process has previously been seen to take under 7 minutes at Nio’s other European stations, such as those in Norway.

In the European market, Nio offers a subscription service to rent a Nio EV instead of buying one. European customers will be able to choose between ET7, EL7 and ET5 mark-up electric cars. This was announced by the company last month with shipments already starting.

The subscription model has not been well received in the market so Nio will allow customers to purchase a Nio EV in Europe starting November 21, 2022. These purchased vehicles will be delivered to customers in early 2023.

Battery replacement is one of the key differentiators the Nio has in its home market of China with new reports confirming that 1,200 battery exchange stations now online.

Nio has doubled the number of battery exchange stations in less than a year and with European expansion they want to grow further.

Riz is the founder of carloop based in Melbourne, specializing in Australian EV data and trends. He is a mechanical engineer who spent the first 7 years of his career building transportation infrastructure before starting carloop. He has a passion for cars, especially electric cars and wants to help reduce emissions from transport in Australia. He currently drives a red Tesla Model 3.