China's 7-day National Day holiday (1-7/10), also known as "Golden Week", along with Lunar New Year, marks the two longest holidays in the country. This period sees a surge in travel demand, placing immense pressure on the charging infrastructure designed for China's vast electric vehicle fleet.
Operational data for flash charging and battery swapping infrastructure, recently released by BYD and Nio, indicates that Nio's battery swap stations achieved three times higher service efficiency compared to BYD's flash charging stations.
Fast charging versus battery swapping
BYD currently operates 12,165 flash charging stations, which facilitated over 1.22 million charging sessions during the holiday period. On the peak day, this network served 188,344 vehicles, averaging 15.5 charging sessions per station.
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Electric vehicles charging at a BYD fast charging station. *Photo: Chinaevhome*
In contrast, Nio continues to promote its distinctive battery swapping model. With 4,168 stations nationwide, Nio's system also peaked at serving 188,344 vehicles on a peak day. However, each Nio battery swap station averaged 44 battery swaps on that same day.
Comparing peak day performance, a Nio battery swap station demonstrated approximately three times the service capacity of a BYD flash charging station.
Examining individual stations, Nio's busiest station recorded a peak of 211 battery swaps per day, while BYD's busiest station managed 160 charging sessions per day.
Operational performance comparison
| BYD flash charging station | Nio battery swap station | |
| Total stations | 12,165 | 4,168 |
| Total holiday service sessions | > 1.22 million | - |
| Vehicles served on peak day | 188,344 | 188,344 |
| Average station efficiency/peak day | 15.5 sessions | 44 sessions |
| Busiest station record/day | 160 sessions | 211 sessions |
Shared versus proprietary networks
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A Nio battery swap station. *Photo: Nio*
According to Chinese regulations, manufacturers are not permitted to build "exclusive charging networks". All charging infrastructure must be open for use by vehicles of other brands. BYD's approach is to allocate 50% of its flash charging ports to all electric vehicle models and the remaining 50% as priority for BYD vehicles.
However, not all BYD models support flash charging technology. Similar to the "bottleneck principle" (where the weakest link determines overall capacity), the waiting time for flash charging users depends on the charging speed of the vehicle currently plugged in.
Consequently, BYD's flash charging system often operates below its full capacity. If BYD owners with flash charging compatible vehicles arrive at a station where ports are occupied by older BYD models (which do not support fast charging), they must wait for these vehicles to finish charging before their turn.
Conversely, as no other car manufacturers have joined Nio's battery swapping network, the company's stations have effectively become a proprietary battery swapping network for Nio electric vehicles. This optimizes operations, resulting in an overall power delivery efficiency three times higher than BYD's flash charging technology.
My Anh (according to CarNewsChina)
