Electric vehicle company NIO and battery giant Contemporary Amperex Technology (CATL) are partnering to build China’s ‘largest’ battery swapping network for passenger vehicles.
The plan comes after the Chinese firms signed a strategic partnership deal earlier this month in China.
Under the agreement, the companies will combine their technology, management, platforms, and brand influence to create the ‘largest’ and ‘most advanced’ battery swapping service network for passenger vehicles.
This includes NIO adopting CATL’s Choco-Swap SEB battery swapping technology – which supports lithium iron phosphate (LFP) and (lithium nickel manganese cobalt) NMC chemistries – in its new vehicle brand, Firefly.
The strategic partnership includes CATL investing up to RMB 2.5 billion ($345million) in NIO Power, the later company’s battery swap department.
The firms will also look to create a complete battery lifecycle loop that includes R&D, swapping services, asset management, reutilisation, and material recycling across the entire value chain of new energy vehicles.
William Li, Founder, Chairman, and CEO of NIO, said the partnership would enable his company to ‘extend to more regions and provide better services’.
60 million swaps
Last year, Nio performed more than 60 million battery swaps in China and it now has 3,172 battery swap stations across the country.
In March 2024, the two firms signed a framework agreement to jointly work on developing longer-life lithium-ion batteries. https://www.nio.com/news/NIO-Joins-Hands-With-CATL
