From 2035, all new cars sold in the European Union must be zero-emission. For some car owners considering to switch to electric vehicles, one of the biggest hurdles is charging time.

However, with the new technology by Chinese EV maker NIO, the wait for batteries to charge may soon become a thing of the past. NIO's solution is high-speed battery-swapping – something quite familiar in China, but barely known in Europe.

Once the car owner drives into one of the battery-swapping stations, the machinery will remove the depleted battery and swaps in a fully charged one – all in barely five minutes. Meanwhile, the used battery is taken away to be recharged.

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One of the sector's leading names is NIO, and last year the Chinese company opened its first overseas plants on the outskirts of Budapest.

"For Europe, the investment from China is really important," says NIO's plant manager Tibor Soregi. "What we're doing is based on the Chinese knowledge and the Chinese drawings, but it's built in Hungary."

Covering around 10,000 square meters, the plant is responsible for manufacturing and after-sales service of battery-swapping stations, training for power operations in Europe, and the R&D of power products.

Nio says it already has more than 1,200 power-swap stations in China, and it plans to open more than 100 stations in Europe this year.

"We're really proud that all of the 18 stations we have in Europe were built here in Hungary, and then shipped to other countries," says Soregi.

"We get a lot of support from the Hungary government," says Yang Chow, Associate Vice President of NIO Power. "Hungary is a relatively lower-cost country, very friendly and close to the our main market. We can provide training and technical support for the whole Europe from here."

Other EV companies like Tesla have abandoned battery-swapping, saying it's not a large-scale solution to so-called 'range anxiety.' But NIO believes it has a future – and swapping stations can also act as battery storage for the grid.

"If we can integrate our swap stations with all the renewable energy systems, we can help to reduce the pressure on the grid," says Chow. "We have been continuously investigating and developing technology, working with the local societies, universities to explore more possibilities."

This report is part of our documentary The Green Silk Road - Connecting Europe's Renewable Grid.  You can watch the whole story here.

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