Nio to supply 14 EVs for a 20,000-km rally from Xi'an to Budapest

Nio has signed on as a vehicle partner for Silk Road Challenge 2026, an overland expedition from China to Central Europe. Under a framework agreement signed on September 10 and witnessed by co-founder and president Qin Lihong, the company will provide 14 electric cars along with service crews and technical backup for the event.

The convoy brings together five models — the ES8, ES6 and ET5 Touring from the main brand, plus the L90 and L80 from Onvo. It leaves Xi'an on September 16 and is scheduled to arrive in Budapest after 41 days and more than 20,000 kilometers on the road, passing through 11 countries including Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Russia and Turkey.

The Chinese leg is designed as a showcase for Nio's infrastructure: drivers will use battery swapping exclusively along the company's Silk Road corridor, a 3,605-km stretch with 33 swap stations due to be fully operational in late September. Once it opens, the company says a driver starting from any of its swap stations in China will be able to reach every provincial-level region on the mainland without ever plugging in — a step up from the 2023 Xi'an-to-Horgos route, which mixed chargers and swap stations over 3,133 km.

The expedition fits into Nio's broader Power Journeys program, which added its 91st route — a 1,849-km loop in southern Shanxi — on September 6, with a target of 100 routes by the end of the year. As of September 10, the company's domestic network comprised 4,079 battery swap stations and 5,255 charging stations with over 30,000 chargers, and has processed more than 123 million swaps to date.