Chinese Automaker Wuling Joins CATL Battery Swapping Alliance

On November 18th, Chinese automaker Wuling and CATL jointly announced their battery swapping strategy, revealing that multiple models under Wuling will utilize CATL’s “Chocolate” battery swapping technology.

CATL’s Chocolate battery swapping integrated solution, compatible with both passenger and commercial vehicles, will be first applied in logistics scenarios, fundamentally addressing the rigid demand for rapid energy replenishment in commercial vehicles, significantly improving vehicle attendance rates, operational efficiency, and economic benefits.

Prior to this, CATL’s Chief Technology Officer Gao Huan disclosed their plans for battery swapping stations, with a long-term goal of constructing 10,000 stations. In the short term, he mentioned that CATL’s goal for 2027 is 3,000 stations. By 2025, CATL aims to cover over 30 cities with more than 500 stations; by 2026, they plan to cover over 70 cities with over 1,500 stations.

Gao Huan introduced that the “Chocolate battery swapping block” can complete a rapid exchange within 1.5 minutes and supports a charging rate of 1.6C, meaning electric vehicles can be fully charged within 20-30 minutes.

In the Chinese market, the battery swapping sector has gradually formed two major alliances, NIO and CATL. This year, apart from Wuling, GAC Aion, BAIC have also joined CATL’s battery swapping alliance, while Didi has jointly established a battery swapping company with CATL. The NIO battery swapping alliance already has 8 member companies. The purpose of these alliances is twofold: to unify battery swapping standards to reduce development and operational costs, and to achieve a sufficient scale to support the sustainable development of the battery swapping ecosystem.

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