NIO Inc. and Zhejiang Geely Holding Group have announced a strategic partnership covering EV charging, battery swapping, technology standards, network operations and cross-investments. The agreement, announced on September 28, 2026, brings together two major Chinese automotive groups with sizeable charging and battery-swap infrastructure portfolios.
Cross-investments link NIO Power and Geely’s energy businesses
The partnership combines capital transactions with operational cooperation. Under the agreement, Geely Holding will transfer its entire stake in Yiyi Internet Technology and contribute RMB 640 million in cash in exchange for a 30% interest in NIO Power, subject to completion of the transaction.
Yiyi Internet Technology’s commercial-vehicle battery-swap operations are set to be incorporated into NIO Power. The companies did not provide further financial details in the announcement, but the structure places Geely’s commercial battery-swap activities within NIO Power while giving Geely a significant ownership position in the NIO energy business.
NIO, meanwhile, will acquire a 10% stake in Geely subsidiary Haohan Energy upon completion of the deal. Haohan Energy operates EV charging infrastructure and will become a key part of the partnership’s charging-network element.
The companies said their cooperation will span technology, operations and capital. They plan to share technologies and standards, jointly develop service networks and integrate their respective resources in battery swapping and charging.
A central aim is to establish unified battery-swap technologies and standards for consumers. NIO Power is expected to provide battery-swap services for future compatible Geely models, extending the potential use of NIO’s swapping infrastructure beyond NIO-branded vehicles.
The arrangement reflects a broader effort to link hardware, network operation and vehicle compatibility rather than treating charging and battery swapping as separate services. For Geely, the partnership opens a route to NIO Power’s established battery-swap network. For NIO, it adds Geely-linked assets and investment while potentially increasing utilisation of its energy infrastructure through compatible future vehicles.
Two extensive charging and swapping networks to be connected
Both groups enter the alliance with large existing networks in China. Geely Holding said Haohan Energy currently operates 2,500 EV charging stations with more than 12,000 charging connectors across 232 Chinese cities. According to Geely, this places Haohan Energy among China’s leading charging-network operators.
NIO reported that, as of September 27, 2026, it had invested more than RMB 20 billion in EV charging and battery-swap technology and infrastructure. Its nationwide network comprised 9,433 facilities, including 4,126 battery-swap stations and 5,307 charging stations. Those charging stations contained 30,598 charging points, according to the company.
NIO also said it had delivered more than 220 million cumulative charging and battery-swap sessions through its network. That total included more than 125 million battery swaps and over 99 million charging sessions.
Under the new partnership, NIO and Geely plan to connect their charging resources. The stated objectives are to broaden network coverage and raise operating efficiency. The companies did not specify a timetable for linking individual sites or identify how many stations and connectors will initially be available through the combined arrangement.
Battery swapping remains a major differentiator in NIO’s energy strategy. The model allows compatible vehicles to exchange a battery pack at a dedicated station rather than charging the pack in the vehicle. NIO’s agreement with Geely is therefore significant because it is intended to support common consumer-facing technologies and standards, as well as future compatible Geely models served by NIO Power.
Commercial vehicles are also included through the integration of Yiyi Internet Technology’s battery-swap operations into NIO Power. This adds a business segment beyond passenger EV charging and swapping to the partnership, although the companies did not disclose the scale of Yiyi’s operations in the announcement.
Ambitious expansion plans extend through 2030
Geely has outlined substantial charging-network expansion targets for the next year. By the end of 2027, the group plans to operate more than 22,000 charging stations and 100,000 charging connectors. Its planned total is expected to include more than 15,000 Geely Smart Charging stations and over 50,000 compatible connectors.
Geely said the planned network would extend coverage to county-level cities across China. These are company plans rather than current operating figures, and the announcement did not provide details on the investment required or the proportion of sites that may be developed with partners.
NIO Power has set a longer-term target of operating 10,000 battery-swap stations by 2030. NIO further projects that annual electricity demand across its network will exceed 10 billion kWh by that year. These figures are forward-looking targets and projections, not current network capacity or electricity consumption.
The alliance gives both companies a framework for expanding their energy-service operations while aligning aspects of their charging and battery-swapping systems. Connecting charging assets could provide broader access for users of the two groups’ services, while common battery-swap standards may be particularly important if future Geely vehicles are to use NIO Power stations.
For China’s EV market, where charging availability, connector access and energy-service convenience remain important parts of the ownership experience, the agreement places network scale and interoperability at the centre of the companies’ strategy. The first concrete steps will be the completion of the cross-investments, the incorporation of Yiyi’s commercial battery-swap operations into NIO Power, and the development of compatible charging and battery-swap services.
