The race is on in China to offer electric car drivers the fastest possible EV charging experience. XPeng and GAC Aion say they have 480 kW chargers coming, but at its second Power Day this week, NIO has topped both with its announcement that it will have 5o0 kW, 640 amp chargers in operation both in China and Europe by the end of this year.
According to CNEvPost, NIO provided few details about its new ultra high power chargers, but XPeng says its 480 kW equipment is capable of charging four times faster than those currently available on the market and 12 times faster than mainstream charging stations. Vehicles can add 200 kilometers of range in as little as five minutes of charging time and charge the battery from 10 to 80% in 12 minutes. Since the NIO chargers will have 20 kW more power, those performance figures should be enhanced, at least a little bit.
NIO began installing battery swapping stations several years ago. The first generation stations held 5 batteries and could provided up to 120 swaps a day. The company ultimately installed 200 before rolling out its second generation swapping stations in April of last year. As of now, there are a total of 1011 NIO battery swapping stations, most of them in China, but a few in Europe as well. The second generation facilities store 13 batteries and can perform 312 swaps daily. There are already four of them in Oslo, with more planned for Bergen, Stavanger, Trondheim and Kristiansand this year. NIO expects to have 20 of them in Norway by the end of 2022, according to Electrive.
NIO began installing battery swapping stations several years ago…
It’s possible one might want to take the story about the takeoff of NIO’s battery swapping, and indeed their financials, with a grain of salt.
I have no more information than anyone, but the short sellers are pounding the drums.
On the surface, as with most such bear reports, it seems a mix of quite plausible accusations and hype.
19000 users (late last year) doesn’t sound like a revolution.
I’ve worked in the electric utility industry for all my career and 500kW loads popping up here, then shutting off, then popping up there, then shutting off…is going to give ulcers to the design and load management departments.
A few of those chargers in well planned out, specific locations is certainly manageable but even a couple dozen seems like the stuff load balancing nightmares are made of.
A few of those chargers in well planned out, specific locations is certainly manageable but even a couple dozen seems like the stuff load balancing nightmares are made of.
And yet, Tesla has installed many thousands of SC v3 which are half that rating (250 kw) and not a peep anywhere that this causes problems.
Forgot…
They opened a location last year, pretty much in the middle of nowhere (Firebaugh CA) that has 56 250 kw chargers. There is also a location in China with 72 stations.
And yet, Tesla has installed many thousands of SC v3 which are half that rating (250 kw) and not a peep anywhere that this causes problems.
Hmmm, maybe not a peep in the press.
Some grid operators seem to be in the zone between crying bloody murder and warning of armageddon.
What works for a smallish number starts to break down at scale.
How many appliances do you own that draw that kind of current when switched on?
How many of your neighbours are switching on the same thing at a peak hour?
Maybe they are just nervous Nellies, but many grids are already pretty much at the limit for other reasons.
There is some good news in the speculation (hope?) that high current chargers likely won’t be used that much on a country wide basis.
Maybe 2/3 of customers in many countries have an off-street place they can put their own lower-rated charger that is slower and uses less current.
And that process probably still doesn’t take long as the person probably didn’t drive very far that day.
How many of your neighbours are switching on the same thing at a peak hour?
“Tesla introduced a new way to try to help out with a new in-car alert to Tesla owners in the state encouraging them not to charge between 3 p.m. and 8 p.m. if they can avoid it”
How many of your neighbours are switching on the same thing at a peak hour?
I recently read of a report on the problems that “smart thermostats” are giving to utilities.
People program their thermostat to reduce the temperature at night, and then turn it up at 6:00 AM for the new day. Everything has a clock that keeps accurate time these days, so there is a big demand jump at 6:00 AM. Same thing happens in the afternoon. Cut the usage in the day when nobody is at home, and turn it back on around 4:00PM so the house is cool/warm by the time you get home.
That’s people doing the right thing – reduce energy usage overnight and during the day. But the surge happens because things are synchronized.
Same as the “superbowl halftime water surge”.
Yeah, our electric company here has been sending us almost daily emails of “Peak Alert!!! please limit usage of electricity until after 8:00 PM.”
Some grid operators seem to be in the zone between crying bloody murder and warning of armageddon. What works for a smallish number starts to break down at scale.
And at an even bigger scale (thousands and thousands of high kw chargers) the problem, basically, goes away because of the randomness of when people plug in.
A more real problem is that smart thermostats that are all programmed to kick on at 6am throughout a given time zone. Easily “fixed” with a default setting that allows the device to add a random plus or minus 5 or 10 minutes to the scheduled morning on time.