Nio co-founder and president Qin Lihong (back left) witnesses the signing of a cooperation agreement for Silk Road Challenge 2026 on September 10, 2026. Credit: Nio
- The fleet will depart from Xi’an on September 16 for a 41-day journey covering 11 countries.
- The fleet comprises 5 models: the Nio ES8, ES6 and ET5 Touring, and the L90 and L80 from its Onvo brand.
Nio (NYSE: NIO) will supply 14 battery electric vehicles for a driving challenge across Eurasia, showcasing their long-distance capabilities as it expands its battery swap network.
The Chinese electric vehicle maker said on Thursday that it signed a cooperation framework agreement with Silk Road Challenge 2026 (SRC) to provide vehicles, service support and technical assistance throughout the event.
The fleet comprises 5 models: the Nio ES8, ES6 and ET5 Touring, and the L90 and L80 from its Onvo brand.
The fleet will depart from Xi’an, China, on September 16 and head to Budapest, Hungary, according to the company’s schedule. The journey across Eurasia is expected to last 41 days and cover more than 20,000 kilometers.
The route spans 11 countries, including Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Russia and Turkey, testing the vehicles across varying road conditions and charging environments.
In China, the fleet will travel west along Nio’s Silk Road battery swap route. The company said the fleet will rely entirely on battery swapping for replenishment during the Chinese leg.
The 3,605-kilometer battery swap route is scheduled to become fully operational in late September, with 33 battery swap stations along the way.
Once the route opens, users departing from any Nio battery swap station in China will be able to reach every provincial-level administrative region on the Chinese mainland using battery swapping throughout, the company said.
The expansion builds on an existing charging and battery swap route. In July 2023, Nio announced the opening of its Silk Road charging and battery swap route from Xi’an to Horgos in Xinjiang.
That route covered 3,133 kilometers and had a combined 33 charging and battery swap stations. The newly announced route is longer, and all 33 facilities are battery swap stations.
Expanding coverage along long-distance routes is part of Nio’s effort to ease concerns about replenishing EV batteries on road trips. Through its Power Journeys program, the company deploys charging and battery swap facilities along tourism and leisure routes.
On September 6, Nio announced the opening of its ninety-first Power Journeys route, a 1,849-kilometer circuit in southern Shanxi province with 13 battery swap stations. The company plans to expand the number of such routes to 100 this year.
As of September 10, Nio had built 4,079 battery swap stations and 5,255 charging stations with 30,296 chargers in China, and had provided more than 123 million battery swaps.
The new stations support wheelbases of up to 3.5 meters, allowing the Nio, Onvo and Firefly brands to share the network.
