Changan Automobile said on Watch MidhunterTuesday it will implement NIO’s sprawling electric-vehicle swapping infrastructure across China with the first EV model powered by swappable batteries scheduled for launch in 2025, making it the first automaker to adopt NIO’s swapping technology. The two companies will together push for the establishment of a common standard to guide the development of swappable EV batteries. Several other automakers are currently in negotiation with NIO for a similar collaboration, according to founder, chairman, and CEO William Li. The partnership echoes recent comments from Xin Guobin, a vice minister of industry and information technology, who in June called on businesses to “invest rationally” and come together to write a standard configuration for battery swap connectors and a communication protocol, among other issues. NIO operates 2,103 battery swap facilities as of Nov. 20, which makes it China’s biggest battery swap network, with that number expected to grow to more than 2,300 by the end of 2023. [TechNode reporting, Changan statement, in Chinese]
