NIO Hands Geely a 30% Stake in Its Battery Swap Business

NIO has struck a deal that brings a major Chinese automaker into its battery swap operation. Under definitive agreements announced Sunday, a subsidiary of Geely Holding will take a 30% position in NIO Power, the division behind NIO’s swap stations and charging network, at a post-money valuation of roughly RMB16 billion, or about $2.4 billion.

Most of the consideration is not cash. Geely is folding in its own commercial battery swap business, Yiyi Internet Technology (Chongqing), and adding RMB640 million, around $94 million, on top. In a parallel arrangement, NIO China will subscribe to newly issued shares of Geely’s charging arm, Zhejiang Haohan Energy Technology, landing a 10% stake; Haohan will then use the proceeds to acquire some of NIO’s charging assets. Neither transaction has cleared regulatory review yet.

The ownership split after closing puts NIO China at 63.6% of NIO Power, Geely at 30%, and the Wuhan Guangchuang venture fund at 6.4%. Geely’s share can be adjusted according to operational milestones, with a floor of 20% if performance falls short, and it holds an option to inject another RMB640 million within two years, a move that would lift it to 34% and trim NIO to 60%.

For Geely, the appeal is scale through compatibility. Yiyi concentrates on fleet swapping rather than private cars, and the two companies say they have preliminary plans to extend battery swapping to consumer models from Geely-linked brands. That is the piece that could matter most: a Geely marque shipping NIO-compatible packs in volume would tilt a large slice of China’s swap market toward NIO’s network, which competes against CATL’s Choco-Swap and BYD’s ultra-fast charging push.