Geely and Nio have agreed to a wide-ranging energy partnership that will link their charging networks and develop a common battery-swap standard for consumer cars, according to Chinese outlet D1EV. But ordinary Geely owners hoping to pull into a Nio swap station tomorrow will be disappointed: the deal affects future models, not cars already on the road.
Under the agreement, Geely will hand over 100% of its YiYi Connect swap subsidiary plus 640 million yuan (about $90.1 million) in cash for a 30% stake in Nio Energy. In return, Nio will take a 10% stake in Geely's Haohan Energy charging unit. The two companies said their charging networks will be fully interconnected and that they will jointly develop consumer-facing (C-end) battery-swap technology and standards. Geely will develop models with swappable batteries, and Nio Energy will provide the swap service.
Why current Geely cars can't swap
Battery swap is not a software feature that can be added over the air, D1EV notes. It requires a detachable battery pack and a locking mechanism built into the vehicle at the factory - hardware that is fixed at the design stage. The analogy the outlet uses: an iPhone cannot gain a removable battery through a system update. So only Geely's next-generation battery-electric vehicles (BEVs) will be affected, and the first consumer models are unlikely to be simple facelifts of existing cars. D1EV's estimate is that the first Geely-branded consumer cars with swap capability could appear around mid-2027 at the earliest, assuming development began before the announcement.
One question the deal raises is whether Geely will adopt Nio-style battery-as-a-service (BaaS), the scheme where buyers purchase the car without the battery and rent it monthly, lowering the upfront price. Nio has run BaaS for years, and D1EV predicts Geely will follow with a similar pricing and rights structure, though the company has not confirmed any such plan. The partnership's stated goal of a "unified consumer battery-swap technology and standard" leaves room for battery asset management, the outlet says.
What the charging network actually delivers
Geely's Haohan Energy has built more than 2,500 charging stations with 12,000 charging guns across 232 cities, including over 1,500 ultra-fast stations. Nio, as of September 27, operates 5,307 charging stations with more than 30,000 chargers and 4,126 battery-swap stations. But D1EV stresses that the deal does not mean Geely owners suddenly gain thousands of new chargers. Nio has been opening its NIO Power network since 2021 and has said its chargers have served over 110 brands, with more than 78.97% of charging volume coming from non-Nio vehicles. The real change, the outlet argues, is that the two companies are moving from building parallel energy systems toward deeper resource and operational cooperation.
The partnership comes days after Geely unveiled a new smart-charging technology with a peak single-gun output of 2.25 MW, which D1EV notes could seem to conflict with the swap push. But the two approaches solve different problems: ultra-fast charging gets energy into a battery that stays in the car, while swap eliminates the wait entirely by exchanging for a pre-charged pack. A future Geely car, the outlet suggests, could offer both capabilities. For now, the practical takeaway for owners is simple: charging interoperability is already here, but swap freedom is a multi-year wait.
