Chinese automakers Geely and Nio have signed a strategic partnership agreement on battery swapping. This marks the second time that Nio has signed a battery swap agreement with a major automaker, with the first being with Changan Automobile a few days ago this month.
According to an official release, both parties will co-develop two battery swapping standards for private cars and commercial vehicles. The cooperation will also see the companies establish an efficient battery asset management mechanism, build a unified battery swap operation and develop battery swappable vehicles compatible with each other’s battery swap systems.
The partnership will see the companies adopt a “co-investment, co-construction, shared, co-operative” model and is said to be in line with China’s development direction of new infrastructure and new energy.
Nio has been betting on battery swap technology for quite some time, with all of its models being compatible with battery swap stations. Geely is also no stranger to battery swap vehicles as it revealed its E-Energee battery swapping service back in 2021, with plans to set up 5,000 stations by 2025.
By working together on established standards, owners of electric vehicles (EVs) will have access to a much wider network of battery swap stations. The advantages of this technology include getting drivers back on the road sooner, as swapping out a depleted battery for a fully charged one is much quicker than conventional charging.
Battery swapping is also claimed to be most cost effective and the stations themselves can be constructed quicker and take up less space. The latter makes them an ideal solution in densely-populated areas, which may be somewhat limited in terms of getting proper infrastructure installed.
Over in Malaysia, battery swapping exists for motorcycles, with Blueshark offering the service for owners of the R1 electric scooter. As reported back in October, the government is currently working on a national standard on battery swapping for electric vehicles.
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