Is this the electric car charging revolution we need? Chinese EV brand registers a huge new milestone, leaving us questioning whether we're invested in the right technology 

An EV charging infrastructure revolution could be underway without us even realising.

On February 3, Chinese electric car brand Nio and its Onvo sub-brand recorded a staggering 136,748 battery swaps in a single day, according to CarNewsChina.

The figure translates to an average of 44 swaps a day across the brand’s 3106 battery-swap stations in China, which doesn’t include the further 59 it operates in Europe.

In the lead up to the new milestone, Nio reportedly delivered more than 100,000 swaps a day over a 10 day period from January 23, which is well over one million in total.

Owners drive their car into a station like a car wash where their car’s battery unit is then swapped out autonomously from underneath for a fully-charged one.

Nio, which is the global leader in battery swap stations, claims the swapping process takes three and a half minutes on its fourth-generation station, roughly one tenth of the time it takes on average to charge an EV from 10 to 80 per cent using a DC fast charger.

When purchasing a Nio EV, you are given the option to rent the battery pack – the most expensive part of the vehicle – rather than buying it in combination with the vehicle outright.

It significantly reduces the up front cost of an EV, with some Reddit users in China claiming upfront savings of up to 70,000 RMB ($15,043).

Owners then sign up to a battery-swap station subscription for a monthly fee.

Chinese battery giant CATL, the brand behind batteries powering Tesla, Toyota, Hyundai and BMW EVs, also announced its plans to launch 1000 stations across China in 2025, with the aim of building 30,000 stations in the future.

Each station will have a footprint of about three parking spaces, according to CATL, which is also developing specialised ‘Choco-swap’ batteries for the stations. It claims they will be swappable in about 100 seconds.

At this stage the technology remains off the table for Australia, where there are more than 2000 EV charging sites in operation.

Nio has said that it plans to launch battery-swap stations in the UK, alongside the brand, in 2025.

As a fellow right-hand drive market, that would put Australia a step closer, though with a considerably larger EV market in the UK, it could be some time before Nio decides to come here.