Chery buys 10% of NIO research unit Weiju in $10.8M deal
What's the deal? CheryDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom → Automobile has acquired a 10% stake in Weiju Technology (Anhui), a NIO-controlled unit focused on emerging energy technologies and new materials. CheryDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom → subscribed 72.5 million yuan, or about $10.8 million (just over €9 million). NIO HoldingDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom →, which previously owned the company outright, keeps a majority stake.
Why now? The investment is part of a capital increase that lifted Weiju from 373.15 million to 725 million yuan. The new shareholding was formally registered on August 13, 2026, though the subscriptions date to March 15.
Who else is in? Chery is not the only new backer. Anhui Wenergy Capital InvestmentDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom →, tied to the province's public energy group, and Hefei Metalforming Intelligent ManufacturingDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom →, a listed maker of presses and industrial machinery, both joined. Three funds backed by Hefei's municipal government took a combined stake, giving the deal a strong public-capital and manufacturing footprint.
What's the endgame? The Chery–NIO relationship predates this investment. In January 2024, the two signed a strategic agreement to cooperate on battery standards, swap-compatible vehicles, battery-swap technologies, and network expansion.
That pact was part of NIO's push to open its infrastructure to other carmakers, alongside deals with ChanganDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom →, GeelyDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom →, JAC, GAC, FAW, and LotusDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom →. NIO has repeatedly framed battery standardisation and shared stations as steps to turn battery swapping from a proprietary service into broader industrial infrastructure.
What's changed on the ground? The collaboration produced tests on models from Chery's premium Exeed brand. But as of August 2026, no commercial Chery model compatible with NIO's network had reached the market — the same held true for the other alliance partners.
Context: Weiju is not NIO Power, which operates at a far larger scale. In March 2025, NIO and CATL said the battery maker would invest up to 2.5 billion yuan in the swapping division — roughly 34 times Chery's Weiju subscription.
The tie deepened in January 2026, when NIO, Chery, and JAC MotorsDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom → signed a framework agreement to jointly build an automotive innovation platform, marking the millionth NIO vehicle at Hefei's Factory Two.
The signal: The Weiju stake adds a capital link to a relationship that has so far been mainly technological. It does not equal new shared models or the automatic opening of NIO's network to Chery vehicles. But it creates a corporate structure through which to finance and share future projects in batteries, energy, and advanced industrial technologies.
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