Financial News Agency, November 29 (Reporter Xu Hao) Following Changan, NIO's “circle of friends” in the electricity exchange business has once again expanded. On November 29, Geely Holdings and NIO signed a power exchange strategic cooperation agreement. The two sides will carry out comprehensive cooperation in various fields such as power exchange battery standards, power exchange technology, power exchange service network construction and operation, power exchange model development and customization, and battery asset management and operation.

Unlike the power exchange cooperation reached with Changan Automobile a week ago, the current cooperation between Geely and NIO is mainly reflected in the B-side operating market. According to the agreement, the two sides will work together to build two major power exchange standard systems for “private cars” and “operating vehicles” through the “co-investment, co-construction, sharing, and co-operation” model, to accelerate the promotion of connectivity and collaboration between vehicle terminals, stations, battery terminals, and operation terminals, and expand the scale of the power exchange network.

Easy Internet Technology Co., Ltd., which is the main partner in this partnership, is the main power exchange enterprise under Geely Holdings, which mainly operates in the B-side operating market. According to data, as of November 15, EasyLink has deployed and operated more than 300 power exchange stations in more than 30 cities including Chongqing, Hangzhou, Guangzhou, and Chengdu; as of November 21, NIO has built 2113 power exchange stations, including 651 expressway power exchange stations, and has opened up high-speed power exchange networks in 9 major urban agglomerations, 7 vertical, 4 horizontal, and 9 major urban agglomerations.

“According to the initial agreement reached between the two sides, the new power exchange station built by EasyLink will be next to Weilai in the future. This complements both sides' resources.” Some industry insiders who understand the background of this cooperation have analyzed that NIO has now begun large-scale construction of unattended third-generation power exchange stations. At the same time, it also has a large inventory of first-generation and second-generation stations. The two power exchange stations are adjacent, which is conducive to personnel sharing and reducing operating costs. Furthermore, for EasyLink, it is possible to draw on the operating experience of NIO power exchange stations to improve the risk control capabilities of battery leasing to a certain extent; for NIO, the significance of the cooperation between the two sides is that the NIO Power exchange system is moving from the C end to simultaneously serving both B and C ends, and also serves NIO and other brands at the same time.

This is the second power exchange cooperative enterprise reached by NIO within 10 days. Previously, on November 21, NIO announced the signing of a power exchange business cooperation agreement with Changan Automobile. The two sides will cooperate in promoting the establishment of power exchange battery standards, power exchange network construction and sharing, power exchange model research and development, and the establishment of an efficient battery asset management mechanism.

The industry generally believes that NIO has reached cooperation with Changan and Geely in a short period of time, due to both NIO's internal factors and policy promotion. NIO Auto's report for the second quarter of 2023 shows that its net loss for the second quarter was 6.056 billion yuan, a further increase from 4.74 billion yuan in the first quarter. Although NIO has already achieved cost reduction goals through personnel optimization and reduction projects, etc., there is no doubt that the asset-heavy NIO Power exchange system has become one of the reasons NIO Power exchange system continues to lose money. In response, Qin Lihong, co-founder and president of NIO, confessed on NIO Power Day in July that he hoped NIO's power exchange business would “lose a little less and profit as soon as possible.”

Obviously, opening up the electricity exchange ecosystem to amortize electricity exchange costs and thereby reduce the company's liquidity risk has become a problem that NIO needs to focus on.

Externally, the power exchange model, as one of the important energy supplementation methods for new energy vehicles, is also being promoted by policies. In December 2022, the “Outline of the Strategic Plan for Expanding Domestic Demand (2022-2035)” included power exchange stations in the national strategic development plan; in July of this year, “Certain Measures to Promote Automobile Consumption” also proposed speeding up the promotion, application and construction of the power exchange model. Influenced by the policy, in addition to Aodong New Energy, which previously had a presence in the power exchange field, Ningde Shidai, a leading power battery company, has also personally gone out and launched the “chocolate” power exchange module and the EVOGO power exchange brand. On October 28, Jidu CEO Xia Yiping revealed that it will cooperate with Ningde Times in various fields, including power exchange and other directions. In addition, SAIC Motor Group has also launched a power exchange business under its sub-brands.

However, despite the promotion of policies and the strong will of NIO to open up the power exchange system within NIO, the lack of uniformity in power exchange standards has become a major obstacle to the promotion of the power exchange model. “The cooperation between NIO and Geely has not been able to reach an agreement on battery standards this time, which means that the products of the two brands are not yet able to exchange batteries. However, the two sides have already communicated the battery standards for the NT3.0 platform that NIO will launch in the future, and it is possible that an agreement on battery pack standards will be reached at that time.” The aforementioned industry insider said.

After signing a power exchange cooperation agreement with Changan Automobile, Li Bin, founder and chairman of NIO Auto, once revealed that “there are still 45 companies to be discussed”; after reaching an agreement with Geely, Li Bin once again stated, “We will continue to improve the power-up experience of NIO users, and will work with our partners to start building a power exchange network for multiple brands to share.” According to a reporter from the Financial Association, potential partners in NIO's power exchange business include JAC and others.