CATL Puts First Battery-Swapping Service on the Chinese Market

CATL’s connectivity of rapid battery swap stations on the island and in the surroundings is expected to expand to 30 by the end of this year when drivers in Xiamen will be able to easily find an EVOGO battery swap station within just a 1.8 miles/3 km radius

The battery manufacturer will put in place swap stations in ten cities across China, and customers will be able to access the system service through an app, according to Chen Weifeng, general manager of CATL’s subsidiary CAES, during a live online event.

According to Chen, the platform allows car owners to swap out diminished battery blocks for newly charged ones at its exchange stations. The provider will be compliant with the Chinese automaker FAW Group’s Bestune NAT multi-purpose vehicle, he said, contributing that more features would be added in the future.

He said EVOGO aimed to address “the challenge of range anxiety, inconvenience of recharging and high purchasing and driving costs” for owners.

The launch of EVOGO comes at a time when businesses in the electric-vehicle market are having to compete to cut costs and “range apprehension” in order to boost product appeal, particularly in China, where EV sales have taken off.

The More Will Come

Since 2000, Chinese EV manufacturer NIO has established a network of 700 battery swapping stations all over China, allowing NIO car owners to exchange a rechargeable battery in three minutes. Geely also stated in September that it intends to establish 5,000 battery swapping stations for electric vehicles worldwide by 2025.

Tesla’s supercharging technology is a game-changer. It usually takes 15 minutes for a supercharger to fully charge up to 200 miles of range. In the past, the American automaker experimented with, but then abandoned, a program that offers customers battery swapping.

Honda Motor has collaborated with Yamaha Motor and scooter manufacturer Piaggio to advance replaceable batteries for light electric vehicles even outside China. Ample, a San Francisco-based startup, has formed a partnership with Uber to provide battery swapping facilities to Uber drivers in California.