NIO has agreed to sell a 30% stake in its battery swapping and charging unit, NIO Power, to a subsidiary of Geely Holding Group at a post-money valuation of approximately 16bn yuan ($2.38bn).

The unnamed Geely subsidiary will subscribe for newly issued NIO Power shares. It will pay with its 100% holding in Yiyi Internet Technology (Chongqing), a provider of battery swapping services to the commercial mobility market, plus 640m yuan in cash.

The transaction remains subject to regulatory approvals and customary closing conditions. NIO disclosed no timeline for completion.

Once the deal closes, NIO Holding (NIO China) will retain a controlling 63.6% of NIO Power. Existing investor Wuhan Guangchuang Emerging Technology Phase I Venture Capital Fund Partnership (Limited Partnership) will hold the remaining 6.4%.

The structure carries performance risk for Geely. The subsidiary's holding will be adjusted after closing against operational milestones, and if NIO Power underperforms, the stake could fall to a minimum of 20%.

The Geely unit also holds an option to invest a further 640m yuan in cash, exercisable within two years of closing or by the time NIO Power signs binding agreements for a new financing round, whichever comes first. Excluding any post-closing adjustment, exercising the option would lift the Geely stake to 34% and reduce NIO China's share to 60%.

A reciprocal transaction runs alongside the equity deal. NIO China will subscribe for newly issued equity in Haohan Energy, a Geely Holding Group subsidiary that operates a battery charging business. Haohan Energy will use the cash to buy certain charging assets from NIO. NIO China will hold 10% of Haohan Energy on completion.

NIO and Geely Holding Group have also drawn up preliminary plans to adopt battery swapping technology and related services across consumer vehicle models and commercial mobility businesses of Geely Holding Group's related entities. Finalisation and implementation depend on further discussions between the two sides — an intention, not a confirmed rollout.

NIO framed the transactions as evidence of industry recognition of its battery swapping technologies, network and operational capabilities. It added that working with industry players should help spread adoption of battery swapping, improve user experience, speed up EV penetration and release the long-term value of the technology.

For Geely, the deal extends a multi-brand strategy that already spans battery swap compatibility agreements with NIO across several of its marques. The injection of Yiyi gives NIO Power a direct route into commercial mobility swapping, a segment where NIO's own passenger-car network has limited reach.

The valuation anchors a hard number to a business NIO has long declined to spin off at any price. At 16bn yuan post-money, the deal prices NIO Power's swap network and charging infrastructure against a backdrop of heavy capital costs that have weighed on NIO's margins.

What to watch next: regulatory approval of the equity transaction, the closing that fixes Geely's initial 30% holding, and whether the preliminary plans to deploy NIO's swap technology across Geely's consumer and commercial fleets turn into binding agreements. The exercise window on Geely's additional 640m yuan option — two years or the next financing round — sets the clock on the follow-on investment.