NIO He Xu: Enhancing Charging Networks Requires Vehicle–Station–Cloud Synergy

At the "New Scenario Ecosystem" session of the 22nd Teda Automotive Forum held on September 18, 2026, He Xu, Assistant Deputy and Head of Energy System Management at NIO, delivered a keynote speech outlining NIO's foundational thinking and technical practices for intelligent electric mobility energy infrastructure. He emphasized that an efficient charging network is not merely about deploying isolated facilities — it is a holistic technical system reliant on seamless synergy among vehicles, battery-swap stations, and cloud platforms.

He Xu noted that the energy replenishment logic for EVs has fundamentally diverged from the centralized gas station model of the internal-combustion era. Leveraging China's rapidly upgraded power distribution grid, NIO is committed to building a "decentralized, scenario-specific, distributed" charging solution covering three core use cases: opportunistic charging (e.g., home and office slow charging), dedicated charging (liquid-cooled fast charging), and intercity travel (highway battery swapping). As of August 7, 2026, NIO has built 4,089 battery-swap stations — including over 1,000 along expressways — forming a "9 North–South, 11 East–West, 16 MAXUS Corridors" network, with an average station spacing of 200 km along major routes; simultaneously, it has deployed more than 10,000 liquid-cooled fast-charging piles, 80% of which are open to the entire industry.

Technically, He Xu outlined four key capability upgrades: First, in-house developed Bayobolt threaded locking technology enables highly reliable vehicle–battery separation within three minutes and supports over 3,000 swap cycles. Second, cross-platform compatibility allows even the first-generation models launched in 2018 to accept the latest 150 kWh batteries, enabling flexible user upgrades on demand. Third, autonomous parking at swap stations — achieved via fixed LiDAR plus edge computing — guides vehicles precisely into position without relying on the vehicle's own ADAS system. Fourth, a digital twin operations & maintenance system enables fully unmanned operation for over 95% of swap stations, allowing a single engineer to manage more than 15 stations.

On business models and energy value, NIO continues advancing battery-as-a-service (BaaS) implementation and deeply integrating its swap network into the construction of China's new power system. Its battery monitoring system deploys over 300 algorithms, achieving 95% accuracy in both fault detection and identification. Over recent years, over 1 billion kWh of electricity have been intelligently scheduled for off-peak charging/discharging — supporting wind and solar power integration. He Xu stated: "We're transforming fragmented charging loads into grid-adjustable, trustworthy, and usable regulation resources."