Charging infrastructure is a priority for electric vehicle makers if they want to expand their customer base, and Nio has just announced its ambitious goals in this regard.

Nio plans to have 5,000 charging and battery swap stations by 2025, William Li, founder, chairman, and CEO of Nio, said after the company signed a deal with fossil fuel giant Sinopec.

It's the first time we've seen Nio publicly mention its goal for 2025. In addition, Li said the company has more aggressive plans for battery swap station deployments.

Nio is also currently developing a battery swap station overseas with smart retail capabilities that would allow users to buy products without getting out of their cars, Li said.

It's still in the concept stage, but the technical groundwork is already in place, he said.

In China, it's common practice to plan development in five-year increments.

For example, the Chinese government's 14th five-year plan, covering the period 2021-2025, lists priority work goals for the next five years.

Some companies, such as Sinopec, said today that it is accelerating its transformation into an integrated energy service provider, with plans to reach 5,000 of its charging and battery swap stations by 2025.

To be clear, 5,000 is Sinopec's target for the next five years. It is not yet known how much charging infrastructure Nio will build with the fossil fuel giant.

In response to its partnership with Sinopec, Nio co-founder and president Qin Lihong said that the partnership was finalized in a month and a half.

Considering that there will be more and more electric vehicles and fewer gasoline vehicles in the next 20 years, Sinopec wants to transform itself from an oil operator to a full-service provider, he said, adding, "So our partnership clicked into place to bring them traffic of high-end models."