(Yicai) March 15 -- Chinese new energy vehicle startup Nio and Chinese power battery giant Contemporary Amperex Technology have partnered to jointly research and develop electric vehicle batteries with longer lifespans for battery swapping.

Nio proposed at yesterday's signing ceremony to strive to extend power batteries' life to 15 years, with their battery health being at least 85 percent at the moment of retirement. The Shanghai-based firm's battery management system now ensures its EV batteries can retire after 12 years, with a battery health at retirement of 80 percent.

CATL will plan and develop a battery system with a longer lifespan for Nio to apply in its newest NEV models, the two companies announced in separate statements late yesterday. The pair will also work to accelerate the construction of a battery-swap network.

Prolonging EV batteries' lifespan can help customers ease troubles related to the accelerating depreciation of used vehicles after the eight-year insurance service for batteries ends and reduce battery replacement costs, the firms noted.

Nio and CATL are active proponents of battery-swap technologies, as they have already built their own battery-swap networks in China.

Nio operates the world's largest smart EV battery-swap network, with 2,382 battery-swap stations in operation in China and over 40 million battery-swap services completed as of March 13.

Editor: Futura Costaglione