Geely Buys 30% Stake in NIO Power for $220 Million

NIO has spent years and around 20 billion yuan building one of the world’s largest battery-swap networks for electric cars. Now, for the first time, a rival automaker is buying into that business. On September 28, NIO and Geely Holding announced a broad strategic partnership covering charging and battery swapping, with Geely taking a 30% stake in NIO Power.

Under the agreement, a Geely subsidiary will subscribe to newly issued NIO Power shares using 100% of its equity in Yiyi Interconnect, a battery-swap operator, plus 640 million yuan in cash. The transaction values NIO Power at roughly 1.6 billion yuan after the investment, or about 220 million US dollars. NIO China will retain 63.6% of the business and keep control.

For NIO, the deal brings a first outside automaker shareholder and, more importantly, a partner whose vehicles can feed traffic into its swap stations. Battery swapping lets drivers exchange a depleted pack for a charged one in minutes, an alternative to plugging in and waiting. The model requires dense networks and high usage to pay off, and NIO’s stations have long been seen as both a signature feature and a financial burden.

Yiyi Interconnect focuses on swapping for commercial fleets, including ride-hailing and taxi vehicles. Its operations will be folded into NIO Power, adding a customer base that drives far more miles per day than private owners and therefore uses swap stations far more intensively. That kind of high-utilization demand is exactly what makes a swap network economically viable.

Geely, one of China’s largest automakers, owns brands including Volvo, Polestar, Zeekr and Lotus. It has been building its own charging and swapping footprint but has now chosen to consolidate part of that effort with NIO. For Geely, the deal converts an existing swapping asset into equity in a larger, more established network while keeping access for its fleet customers.

China’s government has encouraged battery swapping as part of its electric-vehicle strategy, and several automakers have signed cooperation agreements to make packs and stations compatible across brands. Standardization has been slow, however, because packs differ in size, chemistry and mounting. Deals like this one are a step toward sharing infrastructure rather than each company duplicating it.

The partnership also reflects a broader shift in China’s EV market. After years of rapid growth, competition has intensified and prices have fallen, pushing automakers to cut costs and collaborate on capital-heavy infrastructure. Charging and swapping networks are expensive to build and slow to turn profitable, making partnerships more attractive than solo expansion.

NIO says its swap network has grown into the thousands of stations across China, with expansion into parts of Europe. The company has argued that swapping solves charging time, battery degradation and grid pressure, and that outside investment validates the model. Whether the network can turn a profit at scale remains the central question.

For global readers, the deal offers a window into how China’s EV industry is maturing. Instead of competing on every front, major players are beginning to share the pipes and plugs that keep electric cars running. If the model works, it could influence how charging infrastructure is financed and shared in other markets facing the same cost pressures.