Weilan (Shanghai) Battery Technology Co., Ltd., a company backed by Chinese EV maker Nio and the world’s largest battery maker CATL, has tripled its registered capital.
Founded in December 2023, the company raised its registered capital from 500 million yuan to 1.5 billion yuan ($210 million), according to data from the business platform Tianyancha.
Weilan (Shanghai) is wholly owned by Wuhan Weilan Battery Asset Co., Ltd., an entity jointly controlled by Weilai Holdings Co., Ltd. — affiliated with Nio — along with CATL and Wuhan Optics Valley Industrial Investment Co., Ltd.
The firm specializes in battery leasing, charging control equipment, energy storage technology, and battery recycling research and development — according to official registration documents.
Earlier this week, Nio added battery manufacturing and related services to its corporate activities.
The change comes weeks after announcing it is deepening collaboration with the world’s largest battery maker, CATL. Additionally, the battery giant is investing up to 2.5 billion yuan ($346 million) in the company’s energy business, ‘Nio Power’.
In August 2020, Nio launched its BaaS (battery as a service) battery rental business, and Mirattery is the manager of these battery assets.
At the beginning of Mirattery’s establishment, its four initial investors each held a 25 percent stake.
After the changes in shareholding over the past few years, Nio is currently the largest shareholder with a 19.4 percent stake, while CATL and Hubei Science Technology Investment are both third largest shareholders with a 10.68 percent stake each.
Last March, local media 36kr reported that CATL would increase its stake in Mirattery, the company responsible for managing the batteries needed for the battery swap network.
Mirattery was founded in August 2020, through a joint investment by CATL, Nio, Guotai Junan, and Hubei Science and Technology Investment.
On average, each station can accommodate about 20 batteries. Nio’s fourth generation stations, the latest one to be launched in China a year ago, can store up to 23 batteries.
As of Thursday, Nio operates 3,337 battery swap stations across China, suggesting that, if all the stations are at full capacity, the company manages at least 60,000 batteries of different capacities.
In early April, CATL, which is also one of Nio’s key suppliers, was “in talks to acquire a controlling stake” in Nio’s battery services arm, Nio Power — Reuters reported.
“Nio and CATL will deepen collaboration on capital and business and further consolidate the strategic partnership to jointly build the largest battery swapping network globally,” the EV maker said in a statement to Reuters on April 7.
Three weeks earlier, Nio said CATL had committed to invest up to 2.5 billion yuan ($347 million) in Nio Power to co-develop battery swap infrastructure across China, further cementing the alliance.
