Photo/Shetuwang

June 13 (NBD) -- Chinese mobility service company Hello Chuxing has partnered with Jack Ma's Ant Financial and China's leading battery manufacturer Contemporary Amperex Technology Co. Limited (CATL) to set up a joint venture (JV) with total investment of 1 billion yuan (145.1 million U.S. dollars).

The three parties' respective stakes in the JV have not been disclosed. Hello Chuxing founder and CEO Yang Lei will head the new firm.

The JV will set up "Hello" stations where users can replaces batteries of their electric two-wheelers with new ones provided by Hello Chuxing.

Ideally, it takes a mere 3-5 minutes for the users of electric two-wheelers in main cities to find a "Hello" station. This means one station every 500-1,000 meters. Package and food delivery workers who get used to riding two-wheelers could be the major customers for Hello Chuxing in the future, according to Yang.

CATL will be the supplier of all the batteries for Hello Chuxing.

National Business Daily (NBD) noticed that this is not Hello Chuxing's first tie-up with Ant Financial and CATL.

The bike-sharing company received investment from Ant Financial through several financing rounds and it is able to access the massive user base of the popular online payment app Alipay via launching bike-sharing service on the platform.

Besides, CATL has forged collaboration with Hello Chuxing in production of some parts of the latter's electric two-wheelers.

Hello Chuxing's new move is aimed to deepen deployment in the electric two-wheeler sector. NBD noticed that the mobility company launched a new platform early this year to offer electric two-wheeled vehicles for rent and sales, eyeing the considerable potential of the market.

Statistics from the China Bicycle Association shows that the number of two-wheeled electric vehicles in the country reached 250 million in 2017 and the yearly output of two-wheeled electric vehicles exceeded 30 million last year.

According to Hello Chuxing, the daily demands of electric two-wheelers rides reach 700 million times, more than three times that of bikes. The firm expected that it can provide 500,000 times of battery-swapping service every day for over 2 million users.

With establishment of the battery stations, the company is seeking to build the electric two-wheeler ecosystem. "The shared Hello vehicles, along with infrastructure for electric two-wheelers including the battery-swapping service, will help Hello Chuxing develop one-stop smart mobility service," remarked Yang.

Email: gaohan@nbd.com.cn