Nio teams up with GAC on battery swapping

Nio announced another partner for its battery swap business. This is the Chinese automotive group GAC. Both parties have agreed on a strategic cooperation in the field of battery replacement technology.

According to the recently signed agreement, Nio and GAC intend to work together to create a uniform battery standard and jointly develop corresponding vehicles and battery exchange stations, among other things. Important issues for the partners include compatibility and standardisation. For example, they will “facilitate the opening and connection of battery exchange networks that work with a uniform operation and management system and build a larger, standardised and uniform electricity infrastructure network to achieve economies of scale”, according to an accompanying press release.

Nio had previously entered into similar cooperation agreements with Geely, Changan, JAC, Chery and Lotus. So far, however, there are no vehicles from other manufacturers on the market that utilise Nio technology. With regard to their own charging stations, Nio and GAC want to “realise dynamic data interconnectivity” by the end of this month so that the respective customers of one company can also find and start the other manufacturer’s devices via their own app and pay for the charging process.

Nio CEO William Li attests that GAC, as a pioneer in the electric car industry, has a large user base and rich experience in the construction and operation of charging and swapping infrastructures. “The cooperation will amplify the two companies’ respective strengths in technology and operations, and push forward the unification of battery standards and operational and management systems, so as to make swapping a more approachable solution, and provide users with experiences as hassle-free as refueling.”

Feng Xingya, President of GAC Group, comments: “Going forward, with the growing NEV population, battery swapping will unleash unlimited market opportunities, especially in cities. Because it actually solves a pain point for many users who don’t have dedicated parking spots. I’m glad to see that NIO and GAC can partner in this area. The strategic cooperation agreement that we signed today is also a foundation and guidance for our future cooperation. With it as a starting point, we hope to build more battery swap stations with which our GAC Aion users will have a better swapping experience.”

Update 22 May 2024

Nio announces FAW as a further battery swap partner. Among other things, both sides want to work on the standardisation of battery swap technologies, the expansion of the business model and the expansion of the battery swap network. The number of partners thus continues to grow, after Nio had previously concluded similar agreements with GAC, Geely, Changan, JAC and Chery as well as Lotus.

nio.com