--- title: "Nio to start internal testing of 5th-gen swap stations in late Mar to support Firefly" type: "News" locale: "en" url: "https://longbridge.com/en/news/280035837.md" description: "Nio has delayed the mass rollout of its fifth-generation battery swap stations to summer but aims to add 1,000 units this year. Internal testing will begin in late March, with five to ten pioneer stations planned for May and June. The redesign allows support for larger vehicles and the Firefly sub-brand. Despite the delay, Nio operates 3,763 stations in China and is focusing on partnerships to manage costs. The new stations will be manufactured in Wuhan, with an increase in Hubei from 139 to 200 stations planned for this year." datetime: "2026-03-22T01:43:19.000Z" locales: - [zh-CN](https://longbridge.com/zh-CN/news/280035837.md) - [en](https://longbridge.com/en/news/280035837.md) - [zh-HK](https://longbridge.com/zh-HK/news/280035837.md) --- # Nio to start internal testing of 5th-gen swap stations in late Mar to support Firefly > - Nio delayed the mass rollout of its fifth-generation battery swap stations to the summer but maintains its annual target of adding 1,000 units. > - Nio plans to build five to 10 pioneer stations between May and June, featuring a thoroughly redesigned architecture to support the Firefly sub-brand. (File photo shows a Nio battery swap station. Image credit: CnEVPost) Nio Inc's battery swap stations supporting all three of its brands are coming soon, despite a delay from the original schedule as the company redesigned the facilities. The company will launch its fifth-generation battery swap stations for internal testing in late March, which will additionally support vehicles from the Firefly sub-brand, Nio management said Saturday at an in-person user event in Wuhan, Hubei province. Nio plans to build five to 10 pioneer stations between May and June and these few trial sites will be open to users for trial operations. Join us on Telegram or Google News The mass rollout of the fifth-generation stations will begin in July and August. Compared to previous plans, the timeline for this broad deployment has been delayed. In September 2025, Nio management said trial sites for the fifth-generation battery swap stations would be put into trial operation before Christmas 2025, with a single station's capacity increasing by 20% compared to the fourth generation. The delay is attributed to a thorough restructuring of the station's underlying architecture, a redesign that allows the stations to support a wider range of vehicle wheelbases, Nio founder, chairman, and CEO William Li said on Saturday. This means the new stations can accommodate large vehicles like the upcoming ES9, as well as compact EVs from the Firefly brand. Nio hopes to ensure a high success rate for automated parking through sufficient validation. Despite the delayed rollout pace, Nio's target of adding more than 1,000 battery swap stations this year remains unchanged, Li said. As of today, the company operates 3,763 battery swap stations in China. Nio has slowed its infrastructure expansion over the past two years to control capital expenditures. The company added 679 stations in 2024 and 681 in 2025, according to data compiled by CnEVPost. To achieve its infrastructure construction goals, the company is increasingly relying on partnerships to share costs and revenues, an asset-light model that is also being applied in overseas markets. In terms of site selection strategy, Nio is placing more stations at highway exits. This approach has been found to effectively serve the needs of both highway transit and county-level markets simultaneously. Nio's fifth-generation battery swap stations are currently being manufactured in Wuhan's Optics Valley. It plans to increase the number of battery swap stations in Hubei from the current 139 to 200 this year. Its current fourth-generation battery swap stations were unveiled at Nio Day 2023 on December 23, 2023, and began deployment in June 2024. The fourth-generation stations are equipped with 23 battery bays, boosting the daily service capacity to 480 swaps and reducing the time per service by 22 percent. The fourth-generation stations can directly support vehicles from the Nio main brand and its Onvo sub-brand, while Firefly vehicles cannot be supported due to their shorter wheelbase. Firefly won't integrate with CATL's battery swap network, Nio's William Li says Firefly uses safer, higher-performance liquid-cooled battery packs, while CATL employs air-cooled packs primarily targeting the ride-hailing market, Li said. ### Related Stocks - [NIO.US](https://longbridge.com/en/quote/NIO.US.md) - [515030.CN](https://longbridge.com/en/quote/515030.CN.md) - [NIO.SG](https://longbridge.com/en/quote/NIO.SG.md) - [516380.CN](https://longbridge.com/en/quote/516380.CN.md) - [562700.CN](https://longbridge.com/en/quote/562700.CN.md) - [562260.CN](https://longbridge.com/en/quote/562260.CN.md) - [516110.CN](https://longbridge.com/en/quote/516110.CN.md) - [159323.CN](https://longbridge.com/en/quote/159323.CN.md) - [DRIV.US](https://longbridge.com/en/quote/DRIV.US.md) - [159306.CN](https://longbridge.com/en/quote/159306.CN.md) - [09866.HK](https://longbridge.com/en/quote/09866.HK.md) - [159565.CN](https://longbridge.com/en/quote/159565.CN.md) ## Related News & Research - [Nio Onvo to equip updated L90 SUV with in-house developed Shenji NX9031 chip](https://longbridge.com/en/news/282405215.md) - [Nio's William Li urges battery and chip standardization to curb EV supply chain waste](https://longbridge.com/en/news/282428181.md) - [Nio starts ES9 pre-sales with aggressive pricing, seeking to replicate ES8 success](https://longbridge.com/en/news/282208829.md) - [Mercedes investors warn luxury focus could hamper China recovery](https://longbridge.com/en/news/283006205.md) - [Nio ES9 display cars hit showrooms in China as flagship SUV debut nears](https://longbridge.com/en/news/282126040.md)