Wuhan Nio Energy Co., Ltd., the operating company behind Nio‘s battery swap and charging infrastructure, raised its registered capital from 1.784 billion yuan to 7.484 billion yuan ($265 million to $1.11 billion) last Friday, an increase of 319.5%.
The filing was made two days after Nio Power and Optics Valley Transportation Group held a ceremony in Wuhan marking the delivery of their first 36 jointly built charging and swap stations — the transaction after which, Nio said, every existing swap station asset in the city is held by state-owned partners.
The change was recorded in Chinese business registration records last Friday and reported on Monday by local media outlets.
What the Filing Says
The company’s sole shareholder, Nio Energy Investment (Hubei) Co., Ltd., increased its subscribed contribution by 5.7 billion yuan, from 1.784 billion to 7.484 billion.
Registration records show three simultaneous entries on the same day, including an investor change covering the subscribed amount, contribution method and term; the registered capital change itself; and a filing of amended articles of association.
The contribution is payable in cash by June 3, 2030. Paid-in capital remains at 1.784 billion yuan.
The increase is therefore a commitment rather than a transfer, and the gap between the two figures is now 5.7 billion yuan.
The Company
Wuhan Nio Energy was established on May 27, 2017 — a year before Nio opened its first battery swap station in China — with a business term running to May 2067.
Its legal representative is Guo Chenggang, VP of Nio Power, who attended the Optics Valley handover on August 12 alongside chief financial officer Qu Yu — and who signed the company’s largest partner agreement to date, with Zhongan Energy, on June 25.
The role was previously held by Shen Fei, who left Nio Power in April 2025 to lead the Onvo sub-brand.
The company is registered at 117 Zuoling Road in the optoelectronics supporting industrial park in Wuhan’s East Lake New Technology Development Zone, inside the China (Hubei) Free Trade Zone.
It is classified as a limited liability company wholly owned by a foreign-invested enterprise legal person. Its 2025 annual filing recorded 177 people covered by social insurance, against a registered headcount band of 100 to 499.
The firm’s registered scope covers energy recovery system research and development, sales of new energy vehicle swap facility equipment, and research on motors and their control systems, alongside technical services, big data and artificial intelligence software.
Whether the 5.7 billion yuan is earmarked for station construction, manufacturing, the fifth-generation rollout or the partner programme is not disclosed in the filing.
Nor is it clear whether the increase relates to the Optics Valley transaction two days earlier.
Ownership Sits One Level Up
Wuhan Nio Energy is 100% owned by Nio Energy Investment (Hubei), the entity known as Nio Power, which has held the stake since the subsidiary’s incorporation in May 2017.
That is where the outside capital sits.
In May 2024 Nio Power took a 1.5 billion yuan investment led by the Wuhan Guangchuang Emerging Technology Venture Capital Fund Phase I, affiliated with the Optics Valley Industrial Investment Fund, which acquired a 10% stake — implying a valuation of 15 billion yuan.
Nio Power’s own registered capital rose to about 2.222 billion yuan.
CATL has invested separately in the unit.
In March 2025 the battery maker announced an investment of up to 2.5 billion yuan, and in April Reuters reported it was in talks to acquire a controlling stake, citing four people familiar with the matter.
Nio founder William Li told customers in a group chat: “Don’t believe or spread rumors.”
The Second Increase in Fourteen Months
This is the subsidiary’s second capital increase in just over a year.
In June 2025 its registered capital rose from 784 million yuan to 1.784 billion, an increase of about 128%, months after CATL‘s investment.
Across the two changes, registered capital has risen from 784 million yuan to 7.484 billion — a factor of 9.5 in fourteen months.
What It May Fund
Nio has not said what the increase supports, and a registered capital change is a commitment recorded with the authorities rather than a disclosed use of funds.
The context is a network in transition, and one whose strategy points the other way.
Nio said on August 12 that it had built 9,198 charging and swap facilities in China — 4,017 swap stations, 5,181 charging stations and 29,875 charging piles — and had invested more than 20 billion yuan in the technology and infrastructure.
In February, William Li put that figure at over 18 billion yuan across eleven years, meaning roughly 2 billion has gone in over the past six months.
Nio added 679 swap stations in 2024 and 681 in 2025, and stood at 3,851 in mid-May against more than 4,000 by Monday.
The charging side is larger and unusually open.
The Strategy Points the Other Way
The capital increase sits awkwardly beside the model Nio has spent two years building.
That model has a name.
Nio Power calls it “technology operation + asset holding”: the company handles swap technology and daily operations while partners hold the heavy assets, sharing the capital burden of construction.
On June 25 it signed an agreement with Zhongan Energy to build 500 swap stations within a year, following a first batch of 50 delivered in Anhui in December 2025.
Nio said the signing marked the model moving from regional pilots to nationwide replication.
Zhongan was established in January 2024 with Anhui provincial government backing and is funded by parties including Anhui Province Energy Group, Nio itself and Gotion High-tech.
Across the wider programme, Nio says it has worked with more than 40 local state platforms and financial institutions in 25 provinces to build and operate over 800 swap stations.
Wuhan is the base for that operation.
Nio Energy’s headquarters moved into the Optics Valley Digital Economy Industrial Park in July 2025, and its 20,000 square metre manufacturing centre in the district entered production at the end of 2024 with capacity for more than 1,000 swap stations a year.
