Nio and Geely are rumoured to be preparing to sign a cooperation agreement in Hangzhou, Geely’s home city, on Monday, September 28, according to posts circulating on Chinese social media, days after a Geely communications official called Nio “a friend” and promised “more to come.”
Neither company has confirmed an event or said what it would concern.
While not confirmed, the announcement could concern the M97, an intelligent-driving chip that Nio’s chip unit, GeniTech Co., Ltd., known in Chinese as ‘Shenji’, developed with Axera Semiconductor.
A Geely agreement would bear out a September 2 report by Chinese outlet 36Kr, which said, citing unnamed sources, that Geely’s “preliminary plan is to use 2 M97 chips to develop an L3 autonomous driving system.”
The Geely employee, Kevin Chen, did not mention Hangzhou or Monday.
“@NIOGlobal is a friend of us as well as @WilliamLiNIO, the battery swapping is a genius idea!” Chen wrote on X on Thursday, in a post addressed to Nio and its founder, William Li.
Chen lists his role on X as “Global Communications & Brand” at Geely Auto Group, covering the Geely, Lynk & Co and Zeekr brands.
‘More to Come’
Chen’s comments came in a thread under his own post promoting Geely’s new charging system earlier that day.
When another user replied that he had “started a war of unprecedented consequences,” Chen answered: “No we just friends, actually we already joined hands on battery swapping back in 2023.”
He quoted a November 29, 2023 post from Geely Holding Group announcing a strategic agreement with Nio on battery-swapping technology.
Asked for his “take on all this,” Chen replied: “More to come and it will be more make sense to you and all of you, just stay tuned with us @GeelyAutoGroup.”
He did not say what was coming, when, or whether it involved Nio.
The “more to come” post had about 2,300 views on Sunday, and the post calling Nio “a friend” about 500.
Chen is a communications manager, not a named Geely executive, and his posts are not a company announcement.
Hangzhou Chatter
Several Chinese auto bloggers posted on Weibo on Sunday about an event in Hangzhou on Monday, September 28.
“Just landed in Hangzhou on the same flight as Brother Bin. Yes, Nio has something important to announce tomorrow,” the blogger ‘吴颖碎碎念’ wrote, according to the post, using a nickname for William Li.
The post included a photo taken in an airport showing a sign with Nio’s logo.
“There’s something big in Hangzhou tomorrow, but it seems it’s not Leapmotor or Geely, but Nio?” the blogger ‘鸭毛’ wrote earlier, according to the post. Leapmotor is also based in Hangzhou.
A Swap Pact Without Cars
The agreement Chen referred to was signed in Hangzhou on November 29, 2023, between Zhejiang Geely Holding Group and Nio,
It covered swap battery standards, swap technology, the building and operation of a swap network, the development of swappable models and battery asset management, under a “co-invest, co-build, share, co-operate” model.
The two sides aimed for separate standards for private cars and commercial vehicles.
“Changan and Geely will share Onvo’s battery pack, which Lotus doesn’t use,” William Li said in Beijing in April 2024, as EV reported, referring to Nio’s Onvo brand.
Nearly three years after the signing, no Geely-group car swaps batteries at Nio stations.
Nio’s annual report for 2024 names seven carmakers as charging and swapping partners: Changan, Geely Group, Chery, JAC, Lotus, GAC and FAW, according to the filing. Geely’s venture with Baidu, Jiyue, said in September 2024 that it had also joined.
None of the partners had launched a production swappable model by December 2025, as EV reported.
Nio then stepped back from the alliance.
“In the short term, we will not treat whether third-party companies use our battery swap network as a priority — it is not our strategic focus,” William Li said in April, as EV reported.
Charging Deals
The two groups have gone further on charging.
Owners of Geely, Lynk & Co, Zeekr, Polestar and smart cars gained access to Nio’s chargers through their brands’ apps under an agreement signed in March 2024, Sina reported.
Nio and Zeekr agreed two-way charging access in May 2025. Nio also signed a charging and swapping cooperation with Geely-controlled Lotus Technology in April 2024, as EV reported.
Chip Reports
A second possible link is a chip.
Geely’s “preliminary plan is to use 2 M97 chips to develop an L3 autonomous driving system,” Chinese outlet 36Kr reported on September 2, citing unnamed sources, as EV reported.
The M97 was developed by Nio’s chip unit Shenji with Axera Semiconductor. Shenji and Axera had been pitching it to Leapmotor and Geely since March.
Axera launched the chip on September 8, describing it as a 5-nanometer part with up to 720 TOPS of AI computing power that supports dual-chip redundancy.
It is sold through Chongqing Chuangyuan Zhihang, a joint venture formed in November 2025 in which Axera holds 36.4%, followed by OmniVision and Shenji.
Neither Geely nor Nio has confirmed a supply agreement.
Geely’s Megawatt Pitch
Chen’s exchange followed Geely’s launch of a charging system that it says charges a battery from 10% to 70% in 4 minutes 30 seconds.
Geely Auto Group presented the system in Ningbo on September 23, with a fifth-generation charging station rated at 2,250 kW, according to its release. It said a charge from 10% to 97% takes 8 minutes 40 seconds, citing tests on a Lynk & Co 10 and a Zeekr 001.
AI thermal management keeps the average battery temperature at 55°C and the peak below 65°C during fast charging, the company said. The release does not mention Nio or battery swapping.
“Speed is the headline. Battery health is the harder part,” Chen wrote on X on Thursday, promoting the launch. “Ultra-fast only works if the pack still lasts.”
At the same event, Geely showed its new Galaxy E5 driving itself along Chongqing’s Lanying Cliff Road, the road Onvo had used to film its L60 earlier in September, as EV reported.
Partners and Rivals
The two groups compete directly.
Zeekr, one of Geely’s brands, delivered 222,123 vehicles in 2024, more than the 221,970 delivered by all of Nio Inc., including its Nio and Onvo brands.
They have never exchanged equity.
Nio Capital, the venture firm co-founded by William Li, invested in Lotus Technology in 2021, and remained a shareholder when the company announced its US listing plan in 2023. However, Nio Capital is not part of Nio Inc.
Geely’s reported interest in buying less than 10% of Nio in February 2020 never led to a deal. A Geely Holding representative said at the time the company was “not aware” of it and did not comment on market rumours, 36Kr reported.
Nio’s Executive VP Feng Shen was president of Polestar China and president of Volvo Cars China R&D before joining Nio in December 2017.
