Geely is buying into NIO’s battery swap network. NIO announced definitive agreements on Sunday that hand a Geely Holding subsidiary 30% of NIO Power, the unit running its swap stations and chargers, at a post-money valuation of about RMB16 billion ($2.4 billion).
Most of what Geely is paying isn’t cash. It’s contributing its own commercial battery swap business plus RMB640 million ($94 million), while NIO takes 10% of Geely’s charging arm in a parallel deal.
The terms
Here’s how the NIO Power side breaks down, according to NIO’s announcement:
- Geely’s subsidiary contributes 100% of Yiyi Internet Technology (Chongqing), a commercial battery swap operator, plus RMB640 million in cash.
- After closing, NIO China will own 63.6% of NIO Power, Geely 30%, and the Wuhan Guangchuang venture fund 6.4%.
- Geely’s stake can be adjusted after closing based on operational milestones, down to a floor of 20% if things underperform.
- Geely also gets an option to invest another RMB640 million within two years, or sooner if NIO Power lines up new financing. That would take it to 34% and cut NIO’s stake to 60%.
At the deal valuation, a 30% stake is worth about RMB4.8 billion. Take out the cash, and NIO is effectively valuing Yiyi at a little over RMB4.1 billion ($610 million). That’s what the milestone clause is for. If Yiyi’s business doesn’t deliver, Geely ends up with less of NIO Power.
The second leg runs the other way. NIO China is subscribing to newly issued shares of Zhejiang Haohan Energy Technology, Geely’s charging business, for a 10% stake. Haohan will then use that cash to buy some of NIO’s charging assets. NIO didn’t disclose the amount, but in practice it’s trading part of its charging network for equity in Geely’s.
Both transactions still need regulatory approval.
NIO finally gets a swap partner with real money on the table
NIO has been pitching its swap network to other automakers for years. Back in 2021, it announced plans to open its battery swap stations to other automakers, and we asked at the time if anyone would bite. Geely signed a strategic partnership on swapping with NIO in November 2023, promising joint standards for private and commercial vehicles. But that was a handshake. This one comes with assets and cash.
The network is big. NIO had 3,790 swap stations when it passed 100 million swaps in February, and it’s targeting 1,000 more this year. It also set a record of 175,976 swaps in a single day earlier this year. Swapping is also what makes NIO’s Battery-as-a-Service pricing possible, which it used to bring the ES9 flagship SUV in at $54K.
But it’s expensive to build, and NIO has spent a long time looking for someone to help carry it. NIO Power’s first outside money came in May 2024: RMB1.5 billion led by the same Wuhan Guangchuang fund that will hold 6.4% after this deal. Then in March 2025, NIO said CATL was “advancing an investment capped at RMB 2.5 billion” in NIO Power. CATL isn’t in the ownership table NIO published today.
The valuation hasn’t moved much either. The Wuhan fund’s 6.4% works out to about 9.1% before Geely comes in. If nothing else changed in the cap table, that puts NIO Power at roughly RMB16 billion back in 2024, when the network had far fewer stations than it does now.
NIO isn’t selling from a position of desperation, though. It delivered 107,658 vehicles in Q2 2026, posted an 18.5% vehicle margin, and eked out a small non-GAAP profit, according to its latest earnings. It still lost RMB528 million on a GAAP basis, and it had RMB56.7 billion in cash at the end of June.
What’s in it for Geely
Geely Holding is the parent of Geely Auto, Zeekr, Lynk & Co, Volvo Cars, and Polestar. Yiyi, the business it’s folding into NIO Power, focuses on commercial swapping for fleets rather than private cars.
According to NIO, the two companies have “preliminary plans” to bring battery swapping to consumer models from Geely-related entities, as well as to its commercial mobility businesses. Those plans still need to be finalized.
That’s the part that matters. China’s swap market is splitting into camps: NIO’s network, CATL’s Choco-Swap network, and BYD betting on ultra-fast charging instead. A Geely brand shipping NIO-compatible packs at volume would make NIO’s network the default for a huge chunk of the market.
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