On May 8th, GAC Group announced the signing of a charging and swapping strategic cooperation agreement with NIO Automobile. Feng Xingya, General Manager of GAC Group, He Xianqing, Vice General Manager of GAC Group, Li Bin, Founder of NIO, and Shen Fei, Senior Vice President of NIO, attended the signing ceremony.
Feng Xingya and Li Bin both expressed their anticipation for each other's battery swapping models to be able to achieve battery swapping in each other's battery swapping stations as soon as possible.
This is the second cooperation between GAC Group and NIO Automobile, following the former "GAC NIO". For GAC Group, its pure electric vehicle energy replenishment business already includes overcharging and battery swapping, but battery swapping is still in the early stages of layout and requires more resources. For NIO Automobile, after reaching cooperation with automobile companies such as Geely, Changan, and Chery, it also reached a cooperation with a state-owned OEM factory, which has received a "strength endorsement" and continuously expanded its "battery swapping alliance".
Zhang Hong, a member of the Expert Committee of the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers, also stated that whether it is to obtain advanced battery swapping technology and avoid detours, or to gain a voice in the industry by participating in standard formulation, cooperation between car companies and NIO is a wise choice.
Changan, Geely, and Chery have reached a battery swapping cooperation with NIO Motors, aiming to share resources and establish standards
So far, according to incomplete statistics, NIO has reached cooperation agreements with companies such as Changan Automobile, Geely Automobile, Jiangqi Group, Chery Automobile, and Southern Power Grid in the past six months.
On November 21, 2023, Changan Automobile signed a cooperation agreement with NIO Automobile; On November 29th, Geely Holdings signed a cooperation agreement with NIO Automobile; On January 11, 2024, Chery Automobile signed a cooperation agreement with NIO Automobile. At one point, NIO Automobile gained several strong partners in the field of battery swapping.
In addition to jointly building battery swapping stations, NIO's cooperation with major enterprises also involves battery banking business, electric vehicle battery swapping standards, power battery operation management, battery operation data sharing and data asset operation, power battery cascading utilization, and power battery recycling.
Even Changan Automobile announced that it may collaborate with NIO Automobile to develop a new electric vehicle model. At present, Changan Automobile has not yet launched a new electric vehicle model, and in the future, there may really be Changan Automobile using NIO battery swapping technology in the market.
Zhang Hong, a member of the Expert Committee of the China Automobile Circulation Association, pointed out in an interview with a reporter from Shell Finance that NIO can be said to be a pioneer in the research and use of battery swapping technology among domestic new energy vehicle companies. When most new energy vehicle companies are still vigorously developing charging technology and raising doubts about battery swapping technology, NIO has already been at the forefront of vehicle electric separation, and even introduced concepts such as battery banks.
After the State Council issued a clear statement supporting the separation and battery swapping technology of electric vehicles, various car companies began to layout battery swapping technology one after another. However, at this moment, NIO's battery swapping technology is already in the 3.0 era and has a clear leading advantage.
The cooperation between car companies and NIO can help reduce detours in the development of battery swapping technology.
Meanwhile, Zhang Hong believes that Chinese car companies are actively participating in the development of new energy vehicle industry standards. The standard for battery swapping technology has begun to take shape, and NIO holds a large number of battery swapping technology patents. For major automobile manufacturers, cooperating with NIO can form a joint force and ride the ride, which is a good choice.
Guangzhou Automobile Group has a thin power exchange volume and weak sound volume, and there may be more opportunities through cooperation with NIO
For GAC Group, choosing to cooperate with NIO has certain similarities with the above-mentioned car companies overall. Public information shows that GAC Group and NIO Automobile will carry out comprehensive and multi-level deep strategic cooperation in battery standards, research and development and customization of battery swapping models, battery asset management and operation, and construction and operation of battery swapping service networks involved in the battery swapping industry, and promote the interconnection of their own charging platforms.
Both sides will also jointly explore and promote the establishment of a unified battery standard system, develop battery swapping passenger vehicles and compatible battery swapping service stations that are compatible with both battery swapping systems, and explore the promotion of interconnection between battery swapping operation networks and operators, establish a unified battery swapping operation management system, build a larger scale, standardized, and unified energy infrastructure network, achieve economies of scale, and establish a full life cycle management system for power batteries, as well as an efficient battery asset management platform and battery asset operation mechanism.
At the same time, GAC Group also has its own unique cooperation personality. Both parties will cooperate on charging platforms, relying on their respective charging facilities to establish dynamic data interconnection between platforms. At the end of May, both parties can achieve interconnection and interoperability of their respective charging facilities. Users can use their respective brand apps, mini programs, and car charging maps to achieve functions such as querying, navigation, startup, and payment of charging stations.
At present, GAC Group already owns the electric vehicle models Haobo GT and Haobo HT. But the sales of both high-end models are not particularly impressive, with an average monthly sales of about 1000 units since their launch. Guangqi Aian has done a lot of promotion for Haobo, but ultimately it has not been converted into sales. GAC Group may also leverage NIO's brand power to promote Haobo's products through cooperation with NIO.
In a short video jointly filmed by Feng Xingya and Li Bin, Feng Xingya expressed the hope that Aian's battery swapping models can be replaced as soon as possible at the NIO battery swapping station; Li Bin mentioned that GAC has over 60 battery swapping stations, and he hopes that NIO car owners can also exchange batteries in GAC's battery swapping stations.
Perhaps in the near future, both parties will achieve resource sharing and reach a deeper cooperation in the execution and application layers. Truly allow both car owners to enter each other's power stations for energy replenishment and replacement.