CATL announces battery swap network details for China
After CATL presented its Evogo battery swap solution in 2022 and began setting up the first locations, the company is now setting specific targets for the expansion of its battery swapping network in China. CATL is now aiming for a total of 10,000 battery-swapping stations, as battery maker’s Chief Technology Officer (CTO) Gao Huan said at the 2024 World Power Battery Conference in Yibin, China.
The target is not static, however, and has yearly milestones to reach: The initial target is to build 500 new battery swapping stations across 50 cities by 2025, with 1,500 up and operational in 70 cities by 2026 and by 2027, CATL aims to have grown its network by 3,000 swapping stations.
CATL currently has around 2,500 battery swapping active in China, and when it launched the brand in 2022, CATL stated that it wanted to “open to offering the service to all car companies and aims to build the world’s largest service network in two to three years.” In the meantime, CATL has launched the service in several cities, including Xiamen, Fuzhou, Guiyang and Hefei. However, the largest amount of swapping stations stands in Xiamen, with only 12 swapping stations in the city of 5 million, according to a Weibo post by EVOGO.
While battery-swapping technology has been popular in Asia for some time, with Gogoro expanding its scooter-battery-swapping business into China in 2022, and Nio moving to integrate its swapping stations in China with the national grid in the same year. The same year saw things slowly taking off in Europe, with the second battery-swapping station in Norway opened by Nio. Now, the technology is in far more widespread demand, with a test for a Fuso eCanter with swappable batteries launching in Kyoto last month, and Kaufland Romania building swapping stations, announced just a few days ago. The African electric motorcycle manufacturer Spiro is also setting up battery-swapping stations in Nigeria.
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