Chinese electric vehicle maker Nio has signed a deal with Zhejiang Geely Holding Group on their battery-swapping and charging businesses, in a bid to jointly expand and improve the companies’ charging networks.
Under the deal, Geely Holding Group will acquire a 30% stake in Nio Power, Nio’s battery-swapping and charging unit, Nio’s official statement mentioned.
“For the purchase, Geely will contribute its 100% equity in its battery-swapping subsidiary Yiyi Power, plus 640 million yuan (USD 95 million) in cash. That transaction values Nio Power at about 16 billion yuan (USD 2.38 billion),” stated Nio.
The understanding between Nio and Geely comes amid the Chinese EV makers stepping up their battle for technological supremacy in the domain called ultra-fast vehicle charging.
Nio has already deployed over 4,000 battery-swap stations where a full battery replacement takes about three minutes.
Geely Auto, a flagship affiliate of Geely Holding Group, last week unveiled a four-minute charging technology, challenging BYD’s supremacy.
“Nio Power aims to have 10,000 battery swap stations in operation by 2030, with annual electricity demand expected to exceed 10 billion kWh, while Geely plans to expand its network to over 22,000 charging stations by the end of 2027,” both the companies said.
In an industry-wide race over fast EV charging, BYD has taken a massive lead, building tens of thousands of flash-charging stations.
Nio and Geely have also promoted their partnership as a new model in China’s vehicle industry, aiming to create a denser and more reliable charging network to alleviate range anxiety for EV drivers, while also inviting other peers to participate in the partnership.
“The two companies will co-develop unified swapping standards and vehicle models,” Nio said.
“The collaboration between NIO and Geely in charging and battery swapping is open to the broader industry. We welcome and look forward to more industry peers joining us,” CEO William Li remarked.
As part of the deal, Nio will also acquire a 10% equity stake in Geely’s smart charging subsidiary, Haohan Energy.