Written by Cláudio Afonso | LinkedIn | X
EV maker Nio said on Friday it is adding Great Wall Motor to its charging network, giving Great Wall customers access to Nio’s 25,000 chargers across China.
The group, including Haval, Wey, Ora, and Tank, is the 17th brand to join Nio’s charging network, alongside recent additions like Xiaomi, Arcfox, SAIC-GM, Chery, Exeed, and Jetour.
As of Friday, Nio has 3,113 battery swap stations in China equipped with a total of 25,467 chargers. This year, the company aims to add 2,000 stations, bringing the total number to 5,000.
The company’s founder and CEO William Li said recently that 2025 will be a major year for the network’s expansion.
Battery Swap Partnerships
Over the last two years, the Shanghai-based EV maker has signed several partnerships with other Chinese carmakers allowing them to develop electric models that can use its battery swap stations.
Li stated that “many companies are entering the space”, remembering the “strategic cooperation agreements” Nio already signed with Chery, Geely Holding Group, Changan Automobile, FAW Group, Nio’s former manufacturing partner JAC, Lotus, and GAC Group.
Commenting on the breakeven, Nio’s chief said over the weekend that “battery swapping is gaining momentum” adding that the “stations in Shanghai are already close to profitability.”
CATL Enters the Battery Swap Market
In mid December, China’s battery giant CATL announced its battery swapping ecosystem, the ‘Choco-Swap’ stations, introducing two standardized battery models, named “#20” and “#25,” developed in collaboration with nearly 100 partners.
Commenting on the major investment announced by the world’s largest EV battery maker, Nio’s chief executive said that “the fact that CATL is firmly investing in this sector is a positive sign”, emphasizing the “close partnership” between both companies.
Robin Zeng, founder and CEO of CATL, said the company aims to build 1,000 stations and expand the network to Hong Kong and Macau later this year.
The mid-term target is to reach 10,000 stations and, “as the battery swap ecosystem expands”, achieve 30,000. Zeng predicts that, by 2030, “battery swapping, home charging piles, and public charging piles will each account for a third of the market”.
In December, William Li had previously commented that CATL’s new standardized batteries would play in a different segment than Nio’s recently launched sub-brand Firefly. Li had referred to CATL’s batteries as “likely targeting entry-level, relatively lower-priced vehicles”.