Written by Cláudio Afonso | LinkedIn | X
Chinese electric vehicle (EV) maker Nio has announced several partnerships over the past year under its battery swap alliance, allowing other brands to develop models compatible with its battery swap stations across China.
The alliance includes automakers such as Chery, Geely Holding, Changan Automobile, FAW Group, Nio’s former manufacturing partner JAC, Lotus, Jidu, and GAC Group.
After Chery has stated last week that it expects to launch the first two battery-swap-compatible models in the third quarter, the GAC Group told reporters on Wednesday it is currently waiting for internal approval on the model development
At a media event held at its headquarters in Guangzhou, the company’s Director of Battery System Integration Qingquan Wang said GAC has already finished its “technical alignments” to make the upcoming models compatible with the Nio system.
Asked by EV when can we expect the first battery swap compatible models from the GAC Group, the company said it is in negotiations with Nio and waiting for internal approval for the model development.
The Chinese carmaker signed an agreement with Nio in May 2024 on charging and battery-swapping services.
“In terms of this cooperation in [battery] swapping, we are in negotiations with our partner and we are also trying to get [internal] approval about the model development,” GAC’s Battery Director said. “At this point, I will not give you a concrete timeline regarding the launch in the markets.”
The executive noted that the company had already finished its “technical alignments,” adding that some of GAC’s car models will only need “small modifications” to be compatible with Nio’s battery swap technology.
At Nio’s fourth-generation stations, drivers can replace their vehicle’s battery with one that is approximately 90-95% charged in just three minutes. Currently, Nio has over 3,000 stations across China and about 60 in Europe.
In Europe, GAC will use lithium iron phosphate (LFP) batteries and has started testing on a small batch of vehicles shipped from Guangzhou, including charging trials. The company will enter the old continent later this year via Portugal, Poland, and Norway.
In 2024, GAC’s sales declined 20% to 2,003,058 units, including the two joint ventures with Toyota and Honda. Of those, 414,591 were GAC Auto cars (known as Trumpchi in China) and 374,884 units from the Aion brand.
In December, Nio founder and CEO William Li said that the first model under the alliance is undergoing winter testing. Li added that the development timeline for a battery swap-enabled vehicle is approximately 18 months.
Just before the year end, Nio filed a patent for a new expandable battery swap station system where a modular extension unit that can be attached to existing battery swap stations, increasing the number of batteries available. The current fourth generation stations can store up to 23 batteries.
Nio has been upgrading its third-generation battery swap stations in China to accommodate vehicles from its second brand, Onvo. While Nio vehicles use 75kWh batteries for standard range, 100kWh for long range, and 150kWh for ultra-long range, Onvo vehicles are equipped with either 60kWh or 85kWh batteries.
Written by Cláudio Afonso | LinkedIn | X
