Geely becomes the latest Chinese auto giant after Changan to enter into a partnership with Nio on battery swap.

(Image credit: Nio)

Nio (NYSE: NIO) has partnered with Geely Holding Group, one of China's largest private automakers, on battery swap services, adding another key member to a new alliance it spearheads.

Nio and Geely Holding signed a strategic cooperation agreement today in Hangzhou, Zhejiang province, where the latter is headquartered, to jointly promote battery swap services.

Nio said the two will work together to promote the development of standards for swappable batteries, the construction and sharing of battery swap network, the development of battery swap-enabled vehicles, and the establishment of an efficient battery asset management mechanism.

Jack Liu, CEO of Geely Holding's battery swap station operator Yiyi Power, previously known as E-Energee, and Shen Fei, Nio's vice president of power business, signed the deal on behalf of the two companies.

The two will work together to create a standardized battery swap system for private and commercial vehicles, and expand the scale of the battery swap network to serve customers with different needs, according to a Nio press release.

"We will continue to advance the construction of Nio's battery-swapping network for Nio users, continually enhancing the charging experience for our users, and collaborating with partners to initiate the construction of a battery-swapping network for multi-brand sharing," said William Li, founder, chairman, and CEO of Nio.

"Through this strategic cooperation in battery swapping, the two parties will strengthen their cooperation in the battery swapping industry chain, accelerate the adoption of unified standards, expand the ecosystem for battery swapping and charging," said Eric LI, founder and chairman of Geely Holding.

Geely Holding is the latest Chinese auto giant to partner with Nio on battery swap, following Chongqing Changan Automobile.

On November 21, Nio and Changan signed a battery swap business cooperation agreement, in which the two sides will work together on the construction and sharing of a battery swap network, as well as the research and development of battery swap-enabled models.

Similar to Changan, Geely Holding is one of China's largest car companies, owning a number of well-known local brands including Geely Auto, Zeekr, Lynk & Co, and Livan, and controlling several international brands including Volvo, Polestar, and Lotus.

Geely's local brands sold 1,113,439 units at retail in January-October, ranking fourth in the Chinese auto market with a 6.4 percent share, according to China Passenger Car Association (CPCA). The top three were BYD, FAW-Volkswagen and Changan.

In the new energy vehicle (NEV) market, Geely sold 346,464 units at retail in China from January to October, ranking fourth with a 5.8 percent share.

It is interesting to note that Geely and Changan signed a strategic cooperation framework agreement on May 9, a rare collaboration between two local auto giants.

Fu Bingfeng, executive vice-president of the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers (CAAM), attended the signing ceremony between Geely and Changan and said at the time that the two sides would cooperate on battery cell, charging and battery swap technologies.

Geely has had big ambitions for the battery swap model, announcing in September 2021 that it expected Yiyi Power to operate 5,000 of the facilities globally by 2025.

Geely had been developing battery swap technology since 2017, with more than 1,000 people involved in R&D and billions of dollars in capital investment, it said in September 2021.

On January 25, 2022, Geely set up a joint venture, Livan Automotive, with Lifan Technology, and said the new company would build a smart battery swap ecosystem based on the technologies developed in-house.

However, Geely has made few announcements about progress related to its battery swap business over the past roughly 2 years.

Opening up its battery swap system to other car companies is one of Nio's key strategies, with the company likening the service to a cloud service.

On November 20, Nio's Li said in an employee communication that the company will announce the first partner that will use its battery swap system on November 21, and that it is in talks with four to five other companies for similar partnerships.

Nio announced on November 21 that Changan is the first car company to become its battery swap partner.

Battery swap is a huge first-mover advantage for Nio, and the time has come to open it up to the entire industry, Li said on November 20.

Nio completed its first battery swap station in Shenzhen on May 20, 2018. It saw its 1,000th battery swap station in China go live on July 6, 2022, and its 2,000th site go live on October 26, 2023.

As of today, the company has 2,163 battery swap stations in China and has cumulatively provided about 33 million battery swap services, according to its charging map.

It also has 1,995 supercharging stations in China offering 9,369 charging piles and 1,454 destination charging stations offering 10,902 charging piles.

Nio ties up with Changan as it wins 1st partner on battery swap network sharing