AkzoNobel coating and NIO power EV battery with superior longevity
AkzoNobel’s Powder Coatings business and Chinese electric car-maker NIO co-developed a new coating product which will help NIO achieve its 15-year EV battery longevity ambition. The innovation was awarded one of the automotive industry’s most coveted innovation prizes – the 2025 Altair Enlighten Award.
The specially formulated Interpon product co-developed with NIO will triple the life of their battery shielding coatings compared with existing solutions.
Designed to protect electric battery bottom plates, the specially formulated product within the Interpon A1000 range will triple the life of the battery shielding coatings compared with existing solutions, making AkzoNobel the first coatings company to win the honor in the Sustainable Product category.
Co-developed with NIO, AkzoNobel’s Interpon brand created a dedicated coating which was specially engineered for superior durability. As well as extending the service life of the underbody coating from five to 15 years, it also reduces coating thickness by 70% and cuts vehicle weight by 2.2 kg.
Instead of traditional charging, NIO enables drivers to quickly exchange a depleted EV battery for a newly charged one at its automated Power Swap stations. However, repeated battery swaps may expose the bottom plate to abrasion, corrosion and mechanical wear.
Beyond its superior protective properties, the new coating also enhances production efficiency. By replacing traditional PVC materials, it saves more than 2,000 tons of material annually, while the resulting weight reduction cuts vehicle electricity consumption by more than 2 GWh.
With zero VOC emissions and a 95% powder recycling rate, the technology forms a sustainable closed-loop system covering the entire product lifecycle.
In mass production since November 2024, the patented Interpon A1000 technology has already been used on around 80,000 NIO EVs, across multiple models. It was developed at AkzoNobel's Shanghai Technology Center and is manufactured at the company’s Changzhou plant.
Since partnering in 2020, the cooperation between AkzoNobel and NIO has expanded into core components such as wheels, chassis, calipers and battery packs, encompassing the entire NIO vehicle line-up.
