The draw of battery swapping station for electric vehicles is undeniable - it would save users time by not requiring them to leave their vehicles hooked up to a charger, often for many hours. Battery swapping stations can install a new and fully-charged battery pack in an EV that has been designed with that in mind in not much more than two or three minutes.

In China more and more of these stations are being constructed, and one of the companies promoting them is Nio. The automaker has over 700 stations in its native China, and it wants to increase that number to 4,000 by 2025 (with 1,000 of these new stations being planned for locations outside the country).

If you’ve not seen a battery swap station in action, check out this new video that closely analyzes how it all works and how the swap is performed. According to Nio, building each station costs around $500,000, and the company plans to halve that with its next generation of swapping station.

Outside China, Norway has been chosen by Nio as a European test market, where it not only sells its EVs but it also started building swapping stations too. The first one was inaugurated in Norway in mid-January and Nio intends to have a total of 20 operational by the end of the year - they will also include 150 kW fast chargers, according to Nio.

Nio isn’t the only Chinese company whose strategy includes swapping stations - Contemporary Amperex Technology Co. Limited (CATL) also announced that it was going to build some under the EVOGO name. It plans to open stations in 10 cities at first, before expanding throughout the country.

More on electric vehicle battery swapping

NIO Installs 700th Battery Swap Station In China

ABCs Of EVs: B For Battery Swapping

We want your opinion!

What would you like to see on Insideevs.com?

Take our 3 minute survey.

- The InsideEVs team