Shanghai (ZXZC)- On Oct. 19, NIO formed a strategic partnership with Unisun Energy, a Chinese leading clean energy solutions provider, to turn its battery swapping stations into distributed photovoltaic power plants, according to a post on Unisun Energy's WeChat account.

Rooftop distributed photovoltaic power plants; photo credit: Unisun Energy

Under the agreement, Unisun Energy will build rooftop distributed photovoltaic power plants at NIO's second-generation battery swap stations nationwide. By the end of 2025, when NIO reaches the target of having 3,000 battery swap stations in China, the total photovoltaic capacity on the roofs of those stations will hit 300MW.

At the signing ceremony, Shen Fei, Senior Vice President of Power Management of NIO, said the distributed photovoltaic power is a mainstay to new energy power sources and is of remarkable significance to China's realization of carbon neutrality.

NIO Power Swap Station 2.0; photo credit: NIO

According to the NIO Power 2025 Plan launched in early July, the Chinese EV startup is ambitious to deploy 4,000 battery swap stations around the world, 1,000 of which will be outside China.

By the end of September 2021, the automaker had deployed a total of 517 battery swap stations in China, 316 of which were launched since the first NIO Power Swap Station 2.0 starting operation in mid-April 2021.

As publicly disclosed, there have been around 30 automakers in China, including NIO, BAIC BJEV, SAIC Motor, Geely Auto, and GAC Group, tapping the battery swapping business. The new cooperation formed with Unisun Energy will make NIO set itself apart with others as it is the first one to introduce distributed photovoltaic power stations in such a large scale.