Nio & Shell join forces

Chinese electric car manufacturer Nio and petroleum company Shell have entered into a strategic partnership to collaborate on charging and battery swap facilities in both China and Europe.

The agreement is for Nio and Shell to construct and operate battery charging and swapping facilities. Nio and Shell plan to jointly install 100 battery swap stations in China by 2025 and construct and operate pilot stations in Europe from 2022.

For Shell, the deal offers the benefits of Nio’s already existing and fairly extensive network of fast-charging stations, battery swapping stations and destination chargers in China. For Nio, the European part of the deal is particularly interesting for its further expansion. The Chinese electric car company will not only have a partner with attractive locations for possible battery exchange stations in Europe, as part of the agreement, Shell’s charging station network in Europe will also be available to Nio users.

Nio is already delivering its vehicles in Norway as the first European market and is also planning battery swap stations there. This has not yet been confirmed for the rest of Europe, but the first step for battery swapping stations has already been certified by TÜV.

Beyond the specific infrastructure projects, Nio and Shell have also agreed to explore opportunities for further cooperation in battery asset management, fleet management, membership systems, home charging services, advanced battery charging and exchange technology development, along with the construction of charging stations in China.

“We believe that the cooperation between NIO and Shell will bring better services and experiences to electric vehicle users worldwide,” said Nio founder and CEO William Li.

István Kapitány, Global Executive Vice President of Shell Mobility, adds, “This means we’ll offer Shell Recharge high-speed charging at NIO locations and make battery swapping available at convenient Shell locations. We will also be offering NIO customers our best home and business charging solutions.”

For Nio, it is not the first cooperation with an oil company: the company operates 21 battery swap stations and 19 fast chargers at petrol stations with the Chinese oil company Sinopec, in addition to further battery swap stations at petrol stations of the Chinese oil company CNPC.

Moreover, Shell is not the first European oil company to want to build battery exchange stations in China: only this week, BP also announced its entry into the Chinese battery exchange market.

The time is indeed ripe for such a move: earlier this month the Chinese government announced that it is investing heavily in battery swapping infrastructure.

Source: email, cnevpost.com