CATL & Sinopec to build battery swapping network

CATL is joining forces with the Chinese oil company Sinopec to set up at least 500 battery exchange stations for electric vehicles this year. In the long term, this figure is set to rise to 10,000.

The two companies have signed a cooperation framework agreement in Beijing to establish a battery-swapping network for passenger cars and heavy-duty trucks. Together, the partners will set up 500 battery-swapping stations this year, with a “long-term” goal of building a network of 10,000 stations.

Under the newly signed deal, CATL will contribute its ‘choco-swap’ battery swapping and Qiji truck chassis battery-swapping solution, which will be installed at Sinopec’s fuel station locations, expanding their long-term strategic partnership, which kicked off in late 2022.

This is not the first such cooperation for Sinopec, which signed a similar agreement with Nio in 2021. By 2023, the partners had established a total of 251 facilities, including 102 battery swap stations, 121 supercharging stations, and 28 destination charging stations.

For its part, CATL has a series of battery-swapping cooperations ongoing in China, most recently having signed a deal with Baidu in the areas of battery swapping and autonomous driving cooperation. Just a few days before that, Nio subsidiary Firefly announced that it would start using CATL’s battery-swapping technology. Even VW is looking to establish a partnership with the Chinese battery giant and has signed an MoU to that effect.

cnevpost.com