❯ NIO hits 4,125 swap stations, an 8GWh storage network, and opens a Xi’an–Khorgos swap route

The Silk Road route opensNIO chairman William Li said at the Power UP 2026 event that NIO now operates 4,125 battery-swap stations. The 4,125th, at Sayram Lake in Xinjiang, completes a 3,605 km “Silk Road” swap route from Xi’an to Khorgos with 33 stations along the way, open to both NIO and Onvo owners. According to IT Home, at about 2,000 kWh of stored battery capacity per station, the network can form an 8GWh energy storage grid.

Swap stations as power banksBattery swapping lets a car drive into a station where a machine replaces the depleted pack with a charged one in minutes, far faster than charging. Each station keeps a stock of spare batteries that can charge when power is cheap and discharge when the grid is strained, so the network can double as distributed energy storage. NIO’s years-long, asset-heavy commitment to swapping is one of its main differences from other EV brands.

Can storage pay its wayThe stations are expensive, and swaps alone make them hard to pay back. If 8GWh of distributed storage can genuinely help balance the grid, the network gains a second income stream beyond drivers, which is also the asset value Geely is buying into in the next story.

▪ SIGNALThe 4,125 stations are NIO’s heaviest burden, and possibly the only asset it can rent out to others.