Within a week, holding hands with two leading car companies, NIO's battery swapping "friend circle" is rapidly expanding.
Following Changan Automobile, NIO and Geely Holding signed a strategic cooperation agreement on battery swapping on November 29th. The two sides will engage in comprehensive cooperation in multiple fields, including battery swapping standards, battery swapping technology, battery swapping service network construction and operation, research and development and customization of battery swapping models, and battery asset management and operation.
From the perspective of cooperation content, the two collaborations are basically the same, both aimed at creating a standard system for battery swapping, developing new generation vehicle models, and building a multi brand shared battery swapping network. However, the content of this strategic cooperation announcement is more specific and emphasizes the plan for operating the market. This is NIO's first foray into the B-end market in the field of battery swapping, which will drive its battery swapping model to expand from the C-end market to the C-end+B-end market, further accelerating the popularization of battery swapping models.
Collaborate with C-end and B-end to expand the scale of battery swapping networks
After holding hands with Geely, NIO, which has been operating battery swapping business on the C-end, will achieve a collaborative layout between the C-end and B-end.
According to the agreement, both parties will work together through the "joint investment, joint construction, sharing, and joint operation" model to create two major battery swapping standard systems for "private cars" and "commercial cars", accelerate the connectivity and collaboration between the vehicle end, station end, battery end, and operation end, and expand the scale of the battery swapping network.
A detail of this cooperation also revealed that NIO will be involved in the B-end business: this cooperation is signed by Liu Jinliang, CEO of Geely Automobile Group's Yiyi Internet Technology Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "Yiyi Internet"), and Shen Fei, Senior Vice President of NIO, on behalf of both parties.
According to data, Yiyi Internet began to establish a research and development team for battery swapping technology in January 2017. In September 2020, it first released a battery swapping model to the public, taking a crucial step in battery swapping operation and gradually becoming the industry's first open platform with a full industry chain of "vehicle battery swapping operation". In October this year, Yiyi Internet released its brand vision of "building the first brand for battery swapping and energy supplementation in the operating market".
After 6 years of development, Yiyi Internet has laid out and operated over 300 battery swapping stations in more than 30 cities including Chongqing, Hangzhou, and Guangzhou. The battery swapping models it serves include Caocao 60, Fengye 80V, Fengye 60s, Ruilan 9, Ruilan 7, and British TX5.
"Geely Yiyi's battery swapping has achieved good results in operation in multiple cities across the country. Through this battery swapping strategic cooperation, the two sides will strengthen cooperation in the battery swapping industry chain, accelerate the standardization and generalization of battery swapping models, and jointly build a new ecosystem of battery swapping and energy supplementation." said Li Shufu, Chairman of Geely Holding Group.
Unlike Yiyi Internet, which focuses on the B-end operation market, NIO has been deeply rooted in the C-end market for many years and has a certain scale. Official data shows that as of now, NIO has accumulated over 2100 battery swapping stations worldwide, providing users with over 32 million battery swapping services. According to the plan, by 2025, NIO will deploy over 4000 replacement power stations globally and build over 3000 domestically.
Geely Automobile stated that both sides will complement each other's existing business advantages and carry out comprehensive battery swapping strategic cooperation. At the same time, automotive analyst Tian Li told the Huaxia Times that NIO's collaboration with Geely to create two major battery swapping standard systems for "private cars" and "commercial cars" will help promote a new development cycle for battery swapping basic services.
Li Bin, founder, chairman, and CEO of NIO, also stated that this strategic cooperation will further promote the popularization of battery swapping models. Next, we will continue to promote the construction of NIO's user exclusive battery swapping network, and work with partners to launch the construction of a battery swapping network for multi brand sharing.
Interindustry cooperation is becoming a trend, who will be the next partner?
With the rapid increase in the penetration rate of new energy, especially with the successive release of national policies, the battery swapping model has experienced rapid development. After more and more automotive professionals enter the market, the battery swapping market will enter a new stage of industry cooperation, openness and win-win.
According to data, since 2020, multiple departments of the country have successively issued several documents, including the "Development Plan for the New Energy Vehicle Industry (2021-2035)", "Implementation Opinions on Further Enhancing the Service Guarantee Capacity of Charging and Swapping Infrastructure", "Notice on Launching Pilot Work for the Application of New Energy Vehicle Swapping Modes", and "Key Points for Automotive Standardization Work in 2022", to promote the construction of battery swapping networks and standard systems, Encourage the promotion and application of battery swapping modes.
Tian Li said that if the national battery standard can be established, more and more companies will participate. And this means that the cooperation between NIO and Chang'an, NIO and Geely, will only be the beginning.
A week ago (November 21st), NIO and Changan reached a cooperation agreement in the field of battery swapping. At that time, NIO had revealed that the company was still negotiating cooperation with 4-5 automotive companies in the future. That is to say, NIO will also invite more car companies to join the battery swapping "friend circle".
At present, in addition to Geely and Changan, car companies that are laying out in the field of battery swapping have also been involved, such as FAW, SAIC, BAIC, and GAC. In a sense, the partners of NIO Battery Exchange Alliance will basically be these enterprises that carry out specific battery exchange operation projects, after all, both parties have the technical foundation for cooperation.
Among them, SAIC Feifan has started building its own battery swapping stations this year, with technical support from PetroChina, Jieneng Zhidian, Ningde Times, and others as its battery swapping and energy replenishment systems. According to the plan, Feifan Motors will complete more than 50 battery swapping stations in more than 10 cities including Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Chengdu, and Hangzhou by the end of 2023.
It is worth mentioning that in November of this year, when Feifan's first dual warehouse battery swapping station was launched, Vice President of NIO, Shen Fei, praised and forwarded Feifan's official Weibo account with a caption: "Help promote it.". Looking back at this news now, there may be a different understanding.
Meanwhile, BAIC, which has been exploring the battery swapping mode for many years, has deployed nearly 40000 battery swapping electric vehicles and built nearly 300 supporting battery swapping stations in more than 20 cities such as Beijing, Guangzhou, and Xiamen; Guangzhou Automobile Group has also built nearly a thousand charging and swapping stations in more than 150 cities across the country, achieving full coverage of first and second tier cities and the four major economic circles.
In fact, not only in the field of battery swapping, but also in the joint venture between Volkswagen and Xiaopeng and Stellantis to invest in Zero Run, to the recent establishment of a new company by Huawei and Changan to build an electrified intelligent open platform, and the joint venture between BMW and Mercedes Benz to build a charging network open to the public. It can be seen that industry cooperation and teamwork are becoming the new trend in the second half. Tian Li said, "Everyone is gradually realizing the importance of huddling together for warmth, or using existing technology to share and quickly gain competitiveness."