Recently, there has been a high level of discussion and attention in the field of battery swapping. On January 28th, Ningde Times announced on its official WeChat account that Didi and Ningde Times have officially established a joint venture company for battery swapping in Ningde City, Fujian Province. At the same time, they have also formed a strategic cooperation intention with Didi's Xiaoju Energy, which will promote cooperation in a wider range of new energy fields such as integrated storage and charging. NIO also stated on its official WeChat account on January 26th that during the Spring Festival holiday from February 8th to 18th, high-speed battery swapping is free of service fees and only basic electricity fees need to be paid.
In November 2023, Yang Rui and others from Huaxi Securities pointed out in their research report that in the future, with the continuous increase in the number of new energy vehicles and the promotion of policies, the construction of infrastructure such as charging and swapping in China is expected to continue to advance. In addition to CATL, according to incomplete statistics from Caixin Press, A-share listed companies with layout in the field of battery swapping also include Baoxin Technology, GCL Energy Technology, Baoli New, Keda Intelligence, Shuangjie Electric, BAIC Blue Valley, Shandong Weida, Hanchuan Intelligence, Power Source, Ruida, Jinguan Shares, and SAIC Group. The specific situation is as follows:
Ningde and NIO are vying to expand their respective battery swapping territories. Both stock prices have experienced a high correction of over 60%, and the progress of their battery swapping businesses has not met expectations
In fact, CATL has already established a presence in the field of battery swapping. Since 2019, CATL has successively reached cooperation with companies such as Hello Chuxing, Ant Financial, NIO in the field of battery swapping; In 2022, Ningde Times will independently build a battery swapping operation company called Times Electric Service and its EVOGO battery swapping brand, and launch a "chocolate battery swapping block" with a single battery range of about 200 kilometers. As of March last year, CATL stated that "chocolate battery swapping blocks" had been mass-produced.
For Ningde Times targeting the ride hailing market this time, the industry believes that this is a collaboration with Didi's strong forces, 1+1> 2. The cooperation between the ride hailing industry and the battery swapping business is highly compatible; And unlike simple layout of battery swapping, "integrated storage, charging, and swapping" has become the focus of current competition among major enterprises. Some analysts further suggest that Didi's vast travel market resources have become the underlying logic behind Ningde Times choosing to collaborate with it. According to a research report by Ding Zhechuan and others from China Merchants Securities on December 18, 2023, as of the end of March 2023, Didi had a total of 411 million annual active users and over 19 million active drivers in the Chinese travel market.
In the secondary market, the stock price of Ningde Times closed slightly lower the next day after holding hands with Didi's official announcement. Looking at it for a long time, the cumulative maximum decline since the December high in 2021 is 63.18%.
As a pioneer in the domestic layout of battery swapping networks, NIO has recently increased its layout in this field. NIO announced on January 11th that it has reached strategic cooperation agreements with Jiangqi Group and Chery Automobile for battery swapping, and will cooperate in battery standards, battery swapping technology, battery swapping service network construction and operation. Jianghuai Automobile stated that the new energy vehicle models planned in the future will cooperate deeply with NIO to launch "rechargeable, interchangeable, and upgraded" models. As early as November last year, NIO also reached cooperation with Changan Automobile and Geely Holding in the field of battery swapping.
Not satisfied with deep cooperation with car companies in the field of battery swapping, Anhui Energy, Anhui Traffic Control, and NIO reached a strategic cooperation agreement on January 11th to invest in the construction of thousands of battery swapping stations, and announced the official establishment of Zhongan Energy (Anhui) Co., Ltd. (Zhongan Energy). According to NIO's official WeChat account on January 3rd, it and Longji Green Energy jointly announced the signing of a strategic cooperation agreement. The two sides will closely cooperate and jointly promote the use of photovoltaic power generation for green and clean energy in charging and swapping stations, creating an industry-leading integrated photovoltaic storage and charging station.
It is worth noting that while NIO's "battery swapping alliance" is growing, the capital market is giving a different picture. The stock price of NIO Hong Kong hit a historic low on January 31st, with a cumulative maximum decline of 40.56% this year. Since August last year, it has deeply retreated by 64.8%. The stock prices of the companies that have cooperated with NIO in the field of battery swapping have also been continuously falling. Jianghuai Automobile has accumulated a decline of 27.6% this year, while Changan Automobile has accumulated a decline of 41.57% since its peak in November last year.
Industry analysis indicates that the commercialization model of battery swapping business is not yet mature. On the one hand, the cost investment is relatively large for enterprises, and on the other hand, large-scale applications still need to wait for the unified construction of battery standards, making it difficult to promote and apply.
GCL Energy Technology announced in December last year that due to macroeconomic fluctuations and changes in the market environment, there are still many uncontrollable factors in the actual implementation process, which has led to the company's expansion progress of battery swapping stations in various cities temporarily not meeting expectations. Therefore, GCL Energy Technology has postponed the expected completion date of the "New Energy Vehicle Exchange Station Construction Project" for the fundraising project from December 31, 2023 to December 31, 2024. GCL Energy Technology has previously revealed to relevant media reporters that battery swapping is no longer the company's main business type.
Hanchuan Intelligence stated on the investor interaction platform in December last year that the application scenarios of the battery swapping mode are still in the early stages of industry development due to factors such as the implementation of standardized rhythms and the small number of electric swapping vehicles in the early stage. Coupled with the impact of macroeconomic factors this year, the process of implementing the battery swapping station did not meet expectations.