14 cars, 41 days, 11 countries, and over 20,000 km: NIO aims to prove its charging network is the best in the world
12/09/2026 12:00
Updated to
12/09/2026 12:00
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The battery swapping network continues to expand beyond traditional urban and intercity areas. Chinese manufacturer NIO has announced the official launch at the end of September of its own Electric Silk Road, a 3,605-kilometer route equipped with 33 automated swapping stations along the way. NIO has been trying for years to prove that its battery swapping system is a better solution than conventional charging stations. From 0% to 100% battery range in less than 5 minutes.
The launch of this logistics network will enable any vehicle from the brand to depart from any station in China and travel to all regions of the Chinese mainland, relying entirely on battery swap technology. This new charging route adds to the corridors already established by the company along the country’s major highways. During last year’s Chinese New Year holiday, NIO recorded 175,976 battery swap transactions in a single day—a record high.
20,000-kilometer Euro-Asian Journey with NIO and ONVO Models
In parallel with this deployment, the company has partnered with the Silk Road Challenge 2026 to provide a fleet of 14 electric vehicles for a long-distance expedition. The convoy will set off on September 16 from Xi'an and travel over 20,000 kilometers across 11 countries over 41 days, passing through Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, Russia, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Turkey, Bulgaria, and Serbia before reaching the finish line in Budapest, Hungary.
The fleet will consist of 14 units of the NIO ES8, ES6, and ET5T models, along with the off-road vehicles ONVO L90 and L80 from its new general-purpose brand. In China, the fleet will travel westward along Nio’s battery swap route, the Silk Road. The company stated that the fleet will rely entirely on battery swapping for refueling during its journey in China.
Infrastructure Overview: Over 4,000 operational stations
The deployment of swap stations aims to reduce performance degradation caused by conventional charging during long-distance trips, standardizing service quality despite significant power inconsistencies in cross-border public charging networks. NIO Power operates 9,334 charging and swap centers in China, including 4,079 robotic battery swap stations and 5,255 wired fast charging points. These facilities have recorded over 200 million transactions. In Europe, the company is continuing its certification and technical deployment phase, with swap stations available in six countries and more than 300,000 battery replacements logged. Despite these figures, NIO’s sales in Europe remain very low, and the brand has been on the verge of collapse for months.