NIO, which has invested heavily and adhered to the "battery swapping model" for many years, is continuously refreshing the market's new expectations for it. Last year, Changan and Geely joined the NIO battery swapping cooperation circle, and at the beginning of 2024, they welcomed new partners. On January 11th, Anhui Energy Group Co., Ltd. (referred to as "Anhui Energy Group") Anhui Provincial Transportation Holdings Group Co., Ltd. (referred to as "Anhui Provincial Transportation Holdings Group") and NIO Holdings Co., Ltd. signed a strategic cooperation agreement in Hefei to jointly promote the construction of an open and shared storage, charging and swapping system. At the same time, Zhongan Energy (Anhui) Co., Ltd. (referred to as "Zhongan Energy") Formally established. Two state-owned enterprises and NIO will promote the construction of 1000 integrated storage, charging and swapping power stations by Zhongan Energy in the future, as well as multi-level and deep cooperation in the storage, charging and swapping industry. It is worth noting that two host manufacturers in Anhui Province, Jianghuai and Chery, have also reached a strategic cooperation agreement with NIO for battery swapping.
State owned assets+leading automotive companies, this time taking action is Anhui's "provincial strength"
In the years of development of NIO Automobile, the support of Anhui Province is crucial. This time, Anhui state-owned assets and enterprises have once again taken collective action to expand NIO's battery swapping plate. According to the agreement, Zhongan Energy is jointly established by Anhui Energy Group, Anhui Natural Gas Development Co., Ltd., Anhui Anhui Anhui Energy Capital Investment Co., Ltd., NIO, Guoxuan High tech Co., Ltd., Anhui New Energy Vehicles and Intelligent Connected Vehicles Industry Fund Partnership Enterprise, with a registered capital of 1.6 billion yuan. The company is mainly responsible for promoting the construction of charging and swapping infrastructure at the city, county, and township levels, Build an open and shared new energy vehicle storage and replacement network, create a unified charging and replacement service "one network" in Anhui Province, and promote the smooth operation of one APP throughout the province.
According to insiders, the construction model of 1000 integrated storage, charging, and swapping stations, which were first invested in, is currently the most efficient investment model for energy replenishment business. In the field of new energy vehicle energy replenishment, the establishment of Zhongan Energy is the result of the first government led capital operation platform, which is the recognition and support of the Anhui Provincial Government for NIO battery swapping. It is reported that Hefei, Anhui is currently focusing on the "primary industry" and making every effort to build the "capital of new energy vehicles".
In addition, Anhui state-owned enterprises and NIO will also carry out comprehensive and multi-level deep strategic cooperation in battery standards, charging and swapping technology, battery asset management and operation, new power system cooperation, and supply chain cooperation related to the production and manufacturing of storage and swapping equipment in the storage and swapping industry. After the addition of state-owned assets, NIO's charging and swapping technology will accelerate the layout of its energy service system in Anhui, including the installation of swapping stations in high-speed service areas.
It is worth noting that NIO has received support from the entire province of Anhui, not only from state-owned assets, but also from two local leading traditional host factories, Jianghuai and Chery. According to reports, in this cooperation, Jianghuai and Chery will cooperate with NIO in multiple fields such as establishing battery exchange standards, battery exchange technology, constructing and sharing battery exchange service networks, and establishing efficient battery asset management mechanisms. Jianghuai also plans to deeply cooperate with NIO in the subsequent planning of new energy vehicle models, launching "rechargeable, interchangeable, and upgradeable" models to comprehensively enhance the user's charging experience.
"Sleeping on firewood and tasting courage" is just to explode,
NIO Exchange Station is transforming into a public product
Starting from November 2023, NIO has announced cooperation with Changan and Geely in battery swapping to jointly promote the construction of battery swapping networks and standard systems. One stone stirred up a thousand waves, and the NIO battery swapping mode, once known as "self entertainment" and unsure of how long it would take to "endure hardships", seemed to have torn apart the fog and embarked on a bright and prosperous road.
More and more collaborations are being achieved, and the industry is also seeing the enormous value of NIO battery swapping.
"The construction of battery swapping networks requires a significant upfront investment, as it shares the same principle as the 'cloud services' in the internet industry. It requires a large amount of upfront investment and a certain return period, but once it is scaled up, it can form a very high industry entry threshold and commercial value." Li Bin previously analyzed the logic of NIO battery swapping network construction and pointed out that NIO battery swapping networks have undergone years of construction, It has already formed a certain scale and network effect, and at the historic opening node, it quickly received strong support from the automotive industry and capital. NIO believes that the current standard for battery swapping in the entire industry has entered the eve of unification, and the battery swapping network will also become a part of the "new infrastructure" of the intelligent electric vehicle industry.
In terms of policy, relevant national regulatory authorities have repeatedly mentioned encouraging the development of battery swapping. In June 2023, the three departments issued a notice on the continuation and optimization of the new energy vehicle purchase tax reduction and exemption policy, which clearly supported the battery swapping mode; In December 2023, at the National Conference on Industry and Information Technology, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology reiterated its support for the development of new energy vehicle battery swapping models.
Industry insiders point out that with the demonstrative cooperation and promotion of Anhui Province, more and more car companies are joining, and the public product attributes of NIO battery swapping stations have become apparent. With the expansion of broader cooperation, the construction and operation costs of NIO battery swapping stations will be greatly reduced, and it is expected to attract more capital to enter the market in the future, further accelerating the construction of battery swapping networks.
At the NIO Day at the end of 2023, NIO officially released the fourth generation of battery swapping stations and 640kW fully liquid cooled ultra fast charging piles. The fourth generation of battery swapping stations supports multi brand shared battery swapping, reducing battery swapping time by 22%. At the same time, they are equipped with a rooftop photovoltaic system, saving nearly 18000 kWh of electricity per station annually. Digital display shows that as of the end of 2023, NIO has laid out 2350 battery swapping stations, equipped with 21091 charging piles, and connected to more than 1460000 third-party charging piles. It has provided users with over 35 million battery swapping services in total. NIO has built a high-speed battery swapping network in 11 major urban agglomerations in China, including 7 vertical and 6 horizontal highways. According to reports, according to the new round of NIO's "Thousand Station Plan" in 2024, NIO will build 1000 new battery swapping stations and 20000 new charging columns this year. NIO plans to connect the 9 vertical, 9 horizontal, and 19 major urban agglomeration highway battery swapping network by 2025.
Text/Image/Guangzhou Daily · New Flower City Reporter: Deng Li