Recently, Contemporary Amperex Technology Co., Limited (CATL, 宁德时代) and NIO Inc. (蔚来) signed a five-year comprehensive and deepened strategic cooperation agreement in Hefei, Anhui Province.
The agreement was signed by Zeng Shuxiang (曾澍湘), Senior Vice President of NIO, and Han Wei (韩伟), Co-President of CATL’s Marketing System, on behalf of the two companies. The signing ceremony was attended and witnessed by Fei Gaoyun (费高云), Secretary of the Hefei Municipal Party Committee, Luo Yunfeng (罗云峰), Mayor of Hefei, Robin Zeng (曾毓群), Chairman and CEO of CATL, and Li Bin (李斌), Founder, Chairman, and CEO of NIO.
Both parties stated that they will deepen cooperation across three key areas—technology, ecosystem, and market—jointly promoting technological advancement and business model innovation in the new energy vehicle (NEV) industry, and supporting Hefei’s goal of building a world-class NEV industrial cluster.
On the technology front, the two companies will focus on joint development programs centered on long-life batteries and battery-swap compatibility technologies. They will advance collaboration across multiple technical pathways and prioritize the deployment of new technologies, enhancing overall product competitiveness.
On the ecosystem front, the two sides will jointly promote the formulation of battery-swap technical standards and the sharing of battery-swap network resources. They will deepen collaboration under business models such as Battery-as-a-Service (BaaS), working together to build an open and shared battery-swap industry ecosystem.
On the market front, the two companies will strengthen joint brand promotion in both domestic and international markets, aiming to enhance global market influence and share.
CATL is NIO’s battery supplier. The two companies previously signed a framework agreement on long-life battery research and development in March 2024. In March 2025, they reached a comprehensive strategic cooperation agreement on battery swapping, under which CATL plans to invest up to RMB 2.5 billion in NIO Power (蔚来能源). New models under NIO’s Firefly brand will adopt CATL’s “Chocolate” battery-swap standard, and the two sides will jointly promote the formulation of national battery-swap standards to facilitate cross-brand battery compatibility.