State-owned Chinese car manufacturer GAC Group became the newest member of Nio‘s battery swap alliance. Together, GAC and Nio will promote the establishment of battery standards for swappable batteries and develop a battery swap service network. Last year, GAC Group sold almost 550,000 new energy vehicles.

GAC Group, a major player in the Chinese automotive industry, is renowned as the domestic manufacturer of Honda, Toyota, and Mitsubishi. In addition to these partnerships, GAC Group is actively developing its own brands, including Trumpchi, Aion, Hyper, and Hycan. Last year, GAC sold over 2.5 million cars, with more than half a million of them being new energy vehicles. Now, GAC has become a key player in Nio’s battery swap alliance, which also includes Geely, Chery, Changan, and JAC. 

Nio and GAC battery swap cooperation 

Nio and GAC signed a strategic cooperation agreement on May 8 in the state-owned manufacturer’s headquarters in Guangzhou. Together, they will establish standards for swappable batteries and develop the battery swap business. Their partnership includes such areas as battery standards, development of battery-swap enabled cars, and expanding of battery swap service network.

Currently, GAC runs three NEV brands in China: Aion, Hyper, and Hycan. Last year, Aion became the runner-up in electric car sales among Chinese NEV brands. In the future, GAC is eager to strengthen its sales performance through the cooperation agreement with Nio. So, GAC Aion is most likely a candidate for battery-swap-enabled models.

It is worth mentioning GAC and Nio previously had a joint venture called Hycan. However, Nio distanced from this JV due to financial reasons. Nowadays, GAC runs Hycan mostly on its own. GAC and Nio’s friendship seems to have been reborn in the new format. 

Nio battery swap alliance

Nio started forming the battery swap alliance on November 21 last year, signing the strategic cooperation agreement with Changan. Here, we will also mention that Nio and Changan also had a joint venture similar to GAC. On November 29, Nio signed a similar agreement with Geely. And on January 11 this year, JAC and Chery reached the same cooperation agreement with Nio.

On May 8, GAC Group became the latest member of the battery swap alliance. So, Nio signed cooperation agreements with Chinese car manufacturers. With a massive EV output from Geely, Changan, JAC, Chery, and GAC, Nio can focus more on providing a battery swap network than building cars. On May 8, Nio operates 2,413 battery swap stations in China.

Source: Nio