Geely Auto, the mother company of Volvo and Polestar, has taken a 30% stake in Nio Power, the battery-swapping and charging unit of its Chinese rival. The interest seems bizarre. Barely a week earlier, Geely unveiled a fast-charging technology that makes swapping redundant.
Only a few days ago, Geely unveiled a 2.2 Megawatt charger, topping up a battery from 10 to 70 percent in under five minutes. That is roughly the promise battery swapping was invented to deliver.
Several horses
So why is Geely now pumping 84 million euros into a network its own innovative technology could render obsolete? Because Geely, like most of the Chinese industry, no longer knows which refueling model is winning. It is safer to bet on several horses, while main rival BYD is missing out on this particular technology.
Nio, for its part, has spent a decade and mountains of burnt cash to build roughly 4,000 swap stations in China. This year, at least 1,000 more are planned, and the ambition targets 10,000 by 2030.
The economics are brutal: these stations are capital-intensive, and they only pay off when enough cars drive through them. For Geely, the solution isn’t new. Its own swapping venture, Yiyi, struggled to grow for exactly that reason. And when you can buy an existing one, building a rival network makes no sense.
European expansion on hold
Geely plans passenger cars and commercial vehicles with swappable packs that dock at Nio’s stations. The two manufacturers are in talks to formally adopt Nio’s swapping technology. Whether we will see Volvos with this solution will probably be a decision for its new CEO, Klaus Zellmer.
In Europe the station network has currently a certain presence in the Scandinavian countries, but hardly a convincing one. It also has stations in the Netherlands and Germany (there’s only one in Belgium, for Nio customers on travel).
However, sales of supporting car models are disastrous. In the first half of 2026, the brand sold only 45 cars in all of Europe. Mostly Fireflys.
That sales base is too thin to justify the investment in swapping. Geely joining the brigade could alter that prospect. Expansion plans for Europe have been put on hold.
Joined by CATL
In China, Nio sales surged 58% to 262,893 vehicles in the first eight months of the year, but the company swung back into losses after a single profitable quarter late last year. In its domestic market, Nio also faces competition from CATL, which is rolling out its own Choco-Swap network with Changan and Sinopec.
Geely’s interest could reignite a few things, but the company remains somewhat cautious. If certain milestones aren’t met, Geely could reduce its stake in Nio Power from 30% to 20%.
