(Yicai) June 3 -- The electric vehicle charging and battery swap subsidiary of Chinese new energy vehicle startup Nio has secured its first-ever external investment.

Nio Energy Investment bagged CNY1.5 billion (USD2017.1 million) from Wuhan-based state-owned enterprise Optics Valley Industrial Investment and other investment institutions, Shanghai-based Nio announced on May 31.

The proceeds will be used on technology research and development, manufacturing, operation, and maintenance of charging, battery swapping, energy storage, and battery services, and to expand the company’s EV charging and battery swapping infrastructure layout, Nio noted.

Nio is China’s largest EV battery swap station operator, with 2,427 battery swap stations and 22,595 charging piles nationwide. The firm plans to add 1,000 battery swap stations this year.

Nio has been offering battery swap services since its first model ES8 was launched in 2017, while Nio Power was founded the same year. Chinese EVs are quite homogeneous, so offering additional battery swap services is an important advantage, Nio’s President Qin Lihong previously told Yicai.

But given the high operating costs of battery swap stations, Nio has been recently looking for cooperation with other automotive companies since the second half of last year. So far, seven carmakers, including Changan Automobile and Geely Holding Group, have joined Nio’s battery swap network.

Battery swapping can solve EVs’ low charging efficiency issues and bring advantages in terms of battery maintenance, energy storage, and car prices.

China is expected to have 22,100 battery swap stations by 2025 and 88,300 ones by 2030, with respective market sizes of CNY38.3 billion (USD5.3 billion) and CNY109.1 billion (USD15 billion), according to a forecast by Guotai Junan Securities.

Editors: Dou Shicong, Futura Costaglione