On December 5th, Ledao Auto officially launched its nationwide battery swapping station doubling plan. According to the plan, Ledao will deploy over 8,000 new battery packs to its nationwide battery swapping network, including 4,500 85kWh battery packs.
The entire battery expansion project commenced in November and is expected to be completed by mid-January 2026. At that time, the number of Ledao batteries in the nationwide battery swapping network will more than double the initial planned amount. This initiative is expected to meet the battery swapping demand during the 2026 Spring Festival travel rush and provide the industry's leading and most convenient energy replenishment experience for the rapidly growing user base in the long term.
In addition, Ledao officially stated that its battery resource allocation strategy will prioritize northern regions based on regional user ownership and battery swapping demand. This, coupled with the subsequent availability of flexible upgrade coupons for 85kWh batteries, will help users upgrade their range as needed at a more favorable price during the winter.
Regarding this plan, Qin Lihong, co-founder and president of NIO, stated that Ledao invested in 2,000 additional 85 kWh battery packs at the initial launch of the L90, helping the L90 establish an excellent user reputation and achieve class-leading market performance. The core objective of this battery investment plan is to accelerate the market's shift towards pure electric and battery swapping services by improving the battery swapping experience for both new and existing users.
Previously, Li Bin, founder, chairman, and CEO of NIO, stated at NIO Day 2025 that "2025 is a turning point, a turning point where the benefits users gain from pure electric technology outweigh the losses in experience caused by the inconvenience of charging." Qin Lihong also mentioned the topic of "pure electric turning point" again during the Chengdu Auto Show 2025. He believes that, relying on the development of pure electric technology, users' range anxiety about pure electric vehicles is constantly decreasing, and the golden age of pure electric vehicles is coming.
Market performance also confirms this change. According to data from the China Passenger Car Association (CPCA), in the first half of 2025, cumulative sales of pure electric vehicles reached 4.415 million units, an increase of 46.24% year-on-year; sales of range-extended electric vehicles reached 538,000 units, an increase of 16.5% year-on-year, a growth rate far lower than that of pure electric and plug-in hybrid vehicles. Furthermore, according to CPCA retail data, in September and October 2025, in the large three-row SUV market, pure electric vehicle sales consistently outpaced all other powertrain types.
According to publicly available data, the Ledao L90 has delivered a total of 40,000 units since its launch on August 1st, consistently ranking first in sales of pure electric large SUVs. The Ledao L60 consistently ranked among the top three in sales of pure electric SUVs priced above 200,000 yuan in the first three quarters of 2025, and also won first place in the one-year residual value rate of pure electric mid-size SUVs in the "September 2025 China Automobile Residual Value Research Report" jointly released by the China Automobile Dealers Association and Jingzhen Gu. Thanks to the strong sales of the Ledao L90, Ledao's November deliveries reached 11,794 units, a year-on-year increase of 132.1%.
The rapid growth in sales has created a greater demand for battery swapping, which is the underlying logic behind Ledao's "Battery Doubling Plan." To date, a total of 2,252 battery swapping stations nationwide support Ledao's battery swapping services, including 657 highway swapping stations, with a cumulative total of over 93.63 million swaps in real time.
From a macro perspective, NIO Energy has deployed 8,436 charging and battery swapping stations nationwide, including 3,606 battery swapping stations and 4,830 charging stations, ranking first in the industry in terms of the number of stations built. In addition, NIO Energy has deployed 1,003 battery swapping stations along highways, averaging one station every 180 kilometers, and has established a high-speed battery swapping network connecting 16 major urban clusters with 9 vertical and 11 horizontal lines, linking more than 550 cities across the country.
Overall, Ledao Auto's launch of the "Battery Doubling Plan" is not only a positive response to its rapid sales growth and rising user demand for battery swapping, but also a key step in building a long-term, convenient energy replenishment system. It is expected to further solidify its core competitiveness in the pure electric vehicle market through convenient battery swapping. Against the backdrop of the industry reaching a "pure electric inflection point," this initiative is expected to alleviate users' energy replenishment anxiety during peak hours, improve the experience of existing car owners, and attract more consumers to switch to pure electric travel, thus accelerating the popularization of pure electric vehicles.
