The automotive industry is the jewel in the crown of manufacturing and an important yardstick for measuring a nation's industrial strength.

As the waves of electrification and intelligentization continue to advance, China is accelerating its drive from a "major auto country" toward an "auto powerhouse."

In this historic process, the focus of competition among automakers is no longer confined to sales scale but is gradually extending into the "deep waters" of ecosystem services.

On September 28, Geely Holding Group and NIO Inc. (NIO) reached a comprehensive strategic cooperation in the field of battery charging and swapping, with NIO Inc. (NIO) formally joining the Geely Smart Charging Network and becoming the first automaker brand to access the Geely Smart Charging Network.

From an industry perspective, the energy replenishment network is public infrastructure serving society as a whole, and multi-party co-construction and sharing to achieve interconnection can truly reduce total social costs and improve resource utilization efficiency.

Open sharing and industrial collaboration are becoming the core direction of the future automotive energy ecosystem, and this partnership between Geely Auto (00175) and NIO Inc. (NIO) can be seen as an early response by both parties to this trend.

A Geely Model of Partnering with NIO to Build an Energy Ecosystem

Two years after proposing the "Taizhou Declaration," Geely Auto (00175) entered a new stage of development, with strategic focus and resource synergy becoming the core themes of its subsequent growth.

This deepened strategic cooperation with NIO Inc. (NIO) can be seen as a key step for Geely Auto (00175) under the "One Geely" strategy to comprehensively build a full-scenario, all-user, all-domain energy replenishment ecosystem.

In the past, automakers mostly chose to build their own stations, but megawatt-level ultra-fast charging stations and large battery swap stations are typical heavy-asset projects, not only involving high per-unit investment, long approval cycles, and rigid operations and maintenance costs, but also facing high uncertainty regarding economic sustainability and charger utilization rates.

In response, Geely Auto (00175)'s solution is a series of combined measures to address pain points and open up growth space in the energy ecosystem beyond vehicles.

Judging from the details of this cooperation, Geely Auto (00175) and NIO Inc. (NIO) will form a deep capital and business bond through cross-shareholding.

In the charging sector, NIO Inc. (NIO) will take a stake in Haohan Energy under Geely Holding Group, holding 10% after the transaction is completed.

The addition of NIO Inc. (NIO) will further accelerate the rollout of the Geely Smart Charging Network, with approximately 10,000 independent charging guns from NIO Inc. (NIO) to be connected to the Geely Smart Charging Network, substantially enhancing the network's coverage density and service capacity.

It is worth noting that just five days before this cooperation was announced, Geely Auto (00175) had just launched "Geely Smart Charging," applying AI to the energy replenishment field for the first time and building an integrated replenishment system encompassing "people, vehicles, chargers, cloud, network, and storage," achieving all-round breakthroughs in safety, speed, intelligence, and convenience.

The launch of Geely Smart Charging provides a mature technological foundation for the open sharing of the replenishment network, while NIO Inc. (NIO), as the first automaker brand to access the Geely Smart Charging Network, is a strong validation of the system's leadership, practicality, and sustainability.

In the battery swapping sector, Geely Holding Group will take a stake in NIO Inc. (NIO) Energy with 100% equity of its subsidiary Yiyi Interconnection and 640 million yuan in cash, holding 30% after the transaction is completed.

Geely Holding Group's battery swap business for commercial vehicles will be merged into NIO Inc. (NIO) Energy, and the two parties will jointly promote the coordinated development of the battery swap network.

Relying on the large-scale commercial fleet of its Cao Cao Mobility, Geely Auto (00175) already has deep accumulation in commercial vehicle battery swap scenarios, which complements NIO Inc. (NIO)'s technology and operational experience in passenger vehicle battery swapping. After integrating resources, the two parties will build a multi-tiered battery swap service system covering B-end commercial vehicles and C-end passenger vehicles.

From Scale and Technology Leadership to Inclusive Ecosystem

Under the "One Geely" development approach, Geely Auto (00175) is accelerating its growth into an automaker with global influence.

Over the past two years, Geely Auto (00175)'s evolution has not been limited to the vehicle sector; it has also achieved remarkable results in the energy ecosystem layout.

In terms of network scale, Geely Auto (00175)'s Haohan Energy has deployed more than 2,500 charging stations and more than 12,000 charging guns across 232 cities nationwide, firmly ranking in the industry's first tier.

According to the plan, by the end of 2027, Geely Auto (00175) will have built more than 22,000 charging stations and more than 100,000 charging guns, including more than 15,000 Geely Smart Charging stations, taking the lead in achieving comprehensive coverage across county-level cities nationwide and building a "3-kilometer smart charging circle."

This vast infrastructure network gives Geely Auto (00175) the capacity to accommodate large-scale access by external brands. NIO Inc. (NIO) being the first to join the network is essentially a confirmation of this capacity.

On the technology front, the Geely Smart Charging system achieves ultra-fast charging with a full-link five-terminal liquid cooling solution, with a single-gun peak charging power of 2.2 megawatts, setting a new industry ceiling for charging power.

In terms of charging safety and battery health, through AI temperature control and liquid cooling, the maximum battery temperature can be kept below 65 degrees Celsius; lithium-ion pulse repair technology can extend battery cycle life by more than 20%.

The significance of these technological capabilities goes beyond optimizing a single charging experience.

From the perspective of network operations, higher single-gun power means improved per-charger service efficiency, and lower battery degradation means reduced full-lifecycle costs for commercial vehicles. Together, they point directly to the most core proposition of the replenishment industry: charger utilization and economic sustainability.

In my view, Geely Auto (00175) expanding its energy replenishment "circle of friends" is a proactive choice made under its "One Geely" strategy.

As new energy penetration continues to rise, competition in the replenishment network has shifted from the early contest over station numbers to a comprehensive competition of network density, service efficiency, and operational economics.

The model of a single automaker building and operating its own network makes it difficult to amortize heavy-asset investment and to support a service network of sufficient density.

Geely Auto (00175) has chosen to open its accumulated scale and technological capabilities to the industry, binding partner interests through cross-shareholding, lowering access barriers through technology sharing, and amortizing per-station costs through scale effects. In essence, it is exploring a path of replenishment network construction led by a leading enterprise and co-built and shared by multiple parties.

The significance of this path lies in returning the replenishment network from an automaker's private domain to its nature as public infrastructure — when more brands and more resources flow on the same network, the operational efficiency and economic sustainability of the entire system can truly improve. This is precisely the role that leading enterprises should play in this round of industrial consolidation.

Driving from a "major auto country" to an "auto powerhouse" requires exactly such a replenishment transformation — from closed to open, from single-point breakthroughs to ecosystem collaboration.

NIO Inc. (NIO), as the first automaker brand to join Geely Auto (00175)'s energy replenishment ecosystem, powerfully validates the system's leadership, practicality, and sustainability.

This partnership between Geely Auto (00175) and NIO Inc. (NIO) provides the industry with a clear path: in the heavy-asset, long-cycle field of energy replenishment, open collaboration is more viable than going it alone and better aligns with the inherent requirements of high-quality industrial development.