- Nio and CATL will focus on joint development of long-life batteries and battery swap compatibility technologies.
- The two companies will jointly advance the establishment of battery swap technical standards and the sharing of battery swap network resources.
Nio Inc (NYSE: NIO, HKG: 9866) and CATL (HKG: 3750, SHE: 300750) have signed a new agreement to strengthen collaboration on long-life batteries and battery swap network.
The two companies recently signed a five-year comprehensive strategic cooperation agreement in Hefei, Anhui province. CATL founder, chairman, and CEO Robin Zeng, and Nio founder, chairman, and CEO William Li, witnessed the signing.
The two parties will deepen cooperation across technology, ecosystem, and market expansion to jointly advance technological progress and business model innovation in the new energy vehicle (NEV) industry, supporting Hefei in building a world-class NEV industrial cluster, CATL said in an announcement today.
Specifically, CATL outlined the following collaborations:
- Technologically, they will focus on joint development of long-life batteries and battery swap compatibility technology, promoting multi-technology route collaboration and prioritizing new technology implementation.
- In ecosystem development, they will jointly advance battery swap technical standardization and network resource sharing. Both parties will deepen synergies in business models like BaaS (Battery as a Service), collaborating to build an open, shared battery swap industry ecosystem.
- In market expansion, they will strengthen joint brand promotion domestically and internationally, jointly enhancing global market influence and share to achieve mutual success from technology to branding.
The strategic partnership marks a new phase of comprehensive ecosystem synergy between Nio and CATL, the battery giant said.
Through a systematic, long-term cooperative framework, both parties will jointly navigate industry transformation to deliver safer, more efficient, and sustainable electric mobility experiences for users, CATL said.
This signifies a deepening relationship between the two companies, occurring as Nio is reported to be increasingly reliant on CATL for battery supply.
On December 27, local media outlet 36Kr reported that Nio had suspended battery supply cooperation with BYD (HKG: 1211, OTCMKTS: BYDDY)'s FinDreams Battery for its Onvo L60 midsize SUV (sport utility vehicle), as orders were insufficient to sustain multiple battery suppliers.
Additionally, the report indicated that some of the 100-kWh batteries previously supplied to the Nio main brand by CALB (HKG: 3931) have now switched to CATL.
Throughout its 11-year history, Nio relied on CATL as its sole battery supplier for many initial years, though it began introducing alternative suppliers in recent years.
The two companies signed agreements in March 2024 to jointly develop long-life batteries and in March 2025 to build the world's largest battery swap network.
Nio celebrated the rollout of its 1-millionth mass-produced vehicle at its F2 factory in Hefei earlier today.
