Gasgoo Munich-On September 28, NIO and Geely Holding Group forged a comprehensive strategic partnership in the charging and battery-swapping sectors. Under the agreement, Geely will acquire a 30% stake in NIO Power by injecting the full equity of Yiyi Power and 640 million yuan in cash. Yiyi Power' s commercial vehicle swapping operations will be folded into NIO Power. Meanwhile, NIO is taking a 10% stake in Geely' s Haohan Energy, with both parties agreeing to interconnect their charging resources.
Image source: NIO
During a media roundtable following the signing, NIO President and Chairman of Wuhan NIO Power Qin Lihong emphasized that commercial vehicles are a critical use case for scaling the battery-swapping network. He noted that a robust swapping network can save an individual vehicle up to 90 minutes in charging time per day, translating into a potential 15% to 20% boost in operating revenue. Furthermore, by managing battery assets and utilizing a BaaS-style rental model, operators can mitigate residual value losses caused by the differing lifespans of vehicles and batteries—potentially cutting total vehicle costs by up to 40% over the lifecycle.
Third-party data backs this up. Statistics from Caocao indicate that battery swapping extends daily operating hours by roughly 90 minutes, boosting monthly revenue per vehicle by approximately 1,200 yuan.
As of September 27, NIO had constructed 9,433 charging and battery-swapping stations across China. The network has delivered over 220 million charging and swapping services in total, with battery swaps alone exceeding 125 million.
