Gasgoo Munich-Just days ago, BAIC Group and CATL signed a comprehensive agreement to deepen battery-swapping cooperation, pushing multiple brands to join the Choco-Swap ecosystem.
This is no isolated incident.
Earlier, CATL unveiled the "Tianxing II" electric-electric range extension solution for heavy trucks, securing initial orders for 13,000 units.
Before that, it inked a strategic partnership with Yinwang and Contemporary Amperex Energy Service (CAES) focused on smart replenishment ecosystems, and invested 2.556 billion yuan to become the controlling shareholder of Qiyuan Core Power, China's largest heavy-duty truck swapping operator.
In under three months, CATL has made four consecutive moves in battery swapping.
Why is a battery maker pouring resources so heavily into swapping? It has never been an easy business: capital intensive, long cycle, and complex. Even Robin Zeng, CATL’s chairman, admits as much.
Yet CATL is doubling down.
The company even made a rare executive shuffle: Yang Jun, head of the swapping business, was promoted to acting vice president and co-president of the market system, reporting directly to Zeng.
Battery swapping is taking on new strategic importance at CATL. The question is why?
A Rush to 1,000 Stations: What Game Is CATL Playing?
First, consider the full scope of CATL’s swapping ambitions.
For passenger cars, the Choco-Swap network is the primary engine. Launched in 2022, it uses standardized packs and a shared network to offer unified replenishment services across different automakers.
By the end of 2025, Chocolate stations had just surpassed 1,000. By June 30, 2026, that figure doubled to 2,000. By September 29, it reached 2,520, spanning 31 provinces and 200 cities — a roughly 150% increase in just nine months.
The plan calls for exceeding 3,000 stations by the end of 2026 and building 1,000 highway stations by 2027 to create an "11 vertical, 9 horizontal" highway network. The long-term target: 30,000 stations.
Image source: CATL
Product development is accelerating in parallel. In April, CATL launched the Chocolate No. 26 swapping battery, based on an 800V high-voltage architecture. The first 75 kWh version extends compatibility from A0- and A-segment cars up to B- and C-segment vehicles. Supporting this is the "Super Swap Integrated Station," which comes standard with Shenxing supercharging piles. These stations support both swapping and charging, reducing comprehensive power loss by over 13 percentage points compared to storage-backed charging stations. They offer three times the service capacity per parking space, while the fixed asset costs for the supercharging component are just one-fifth of the traditional model.
For commercial vehicles, the "Qiji" swapping system serves as a second, even more aggressive engine. On August 18, CATL announced it would acquire a 24.87% stake in Qiyuan Core Power from China Power for 2.556 billion yuan, making it the largest shareholder in China’s top heavy-truck swapping operator.
Qiyuan Core Power operates roughly 1,700 charging and swapping stations nationwide, holding a market share of over 70% in heavy-truck station construction. It supports 731 swapping-ready heavy truck models from 105 OEMs. Industry observers say the deal marks a shift from a "multi-player scramble" to a phase of "dominator integration."
Supporting products are evolving, too. The "Electric-Electric Range Extension" scheme released on October 20 creates an "A+B" dual-pack setup for heavy trucks: Pack A is a bottom-mounted swappable battery owned by a battery bank and leased to the user; Pack B is an on-board range-extender battery owned outright by the driver and staying with the vehicle.
Calculations suggest that for a daily transport distance of 400 kilometers, the annual replenishment cost per vehicle is about 130,000 yuan less than for a diesel truck. Over a three-year total cost of ownership (TCO) cycle, it saves 70,000 yuan compared to an electric truck with a purchased battery, and over 460,000 yuan compared to a diesel heavy truck.
On the ecosystem front, CATL is casting a wide net. The "Super Swap Shared Network" initially includes automakers like Changan, Chery, GAC, Seres, SAIC-GM-Wuling, and BAIC. The goal is to build over 100,000 shared replenishment facilities by the end of 2028.
Under the agreement with BAIC, the automaker will adapt multiple brands to the Chocolate ecosystem and open its dealer network for precise station placement. The BAIC Arcfox S3 Chocolate swapping version already achieves a 99-second rapid swap.
Then there is the partnership with Yinwang: Qiankun intelligent driving will integrate deeply with the Chocolate network, allowing vehicles to autonomously locate stations, align themselves, and complete a fully automated swap in 99 seconds. The first batch of five swapping-ready models is slated for a 2027 launch.
This expansion isn't limited to land. CATL's first-half 2026 report confirmed it has validated the replicability of its swapping model for inland cargo shipping. Overseas, it announced a joint venture with UK-based Octopus Energy to build a heavy-truck swapping network in Europe.
Passenger cars, heavy trucks, and ships — three swapping networks rolling out simultaneously. This is the full scope of CATL’s strategy, forming a central pillar of mobile energy replacement within its "Zero Carbon New Infrastructure" blueprint.
Swapping Isn’t the Goal: What Does CATL Really Want?
Focusing solely on station counts and specs makes it easy to mistake CATL’s move as a play for "service fees." But looking at the longer timeline reveals the company’s true calculus has never been about the stations themselves.
Calculation one: Swapping is a pipeline for battery shipments.
CATL’s core interest isn't in service fees, but in using the network to drive battery sales. In the swapping model, batteries are no longer tied to a single vehicle for life. Instead, they become standardized assets managed centrally by operators and put into circulation. This means every new swapping model represents another standardized battery supplied by CATL — one that keeps circulating and generating revenue.
Vehicle-battery separation also enables "battery banks": consumers buy the car but lease the battery monthly, handing over ownership, management, and recycling rights to the operator.
For CATL, this effectively turns batteries from "one-off sales" into "perpetual assets," directly amplifying the commercial value of its long-cycle battery technology. The longer the battery lasts, the greater the profit margin from asset operations.
This logic is already embedded in product design. CATL’s Chocolate batteries include built-in battery management systems (BMS) that support valuation and second-hand trading, potentially boosting total lifecycle value by about 40%. Combined with a "rent-on-demand" model, users can rent one pack for daily commutes and two or three for long trips, avoiding paying for capacity they don't need.
For a battery maker, the same production capacity can serve more models, while utilization rates, circulation frequency, and eventual recycling value are all systematically elevated. That is the deepest commercial significance of separating vehicle and battery.
Image source: CATL
Calculation two: Swapping is a play for standards and network positioning.
Swapping is a classic network-effect business: the denser the station network, the more willing automakers are to adapt their chassis. The more models involved, the higher the utilization and the thinner the costs per station. Whoever builds a dense enough network first and controls the standards controls the underlying architecture of the green transportation energy system.
CATL clearly understands this. On the passenger side, it’s using the "Super Swap Shared Network" to bring multiple automakers under a single standard. On the commercial side, it acquired Qiyuan Core Power to secure the largest existing network and dominant technology route. Both lines serve the same purpose:
To make the "CATL standard" the industry's de facto standard. This is also its defensive play against BYD’s megawatt charging and against automakers developing their own batteries: if the battery specs for swapping models come from CATL, automakers lose the freedom to switch suppliers.
Calculation three: Swapping is the narrative for a second growth curve.
A more immediate motive is that the traditional battery business has peaked. In 2024, CATL posted revenue of 362 billion yuan and net profit of 50.7 billion, but annual revenue fell for the first time since its IPO. While the third quarter of 2026 saw a return to high growth with 165.22 billion yuan in revenue and 21.25 billion yuan in profit, domestic market share is already saturated. With the existing landscape fixed, CATL must find new sources of growth.
Swapping is the perfect vessel to house three distinct businesses simultaneously: battery sales (the pipeline), battery asset management (the bank), and replenishment services with energy trading (the network).
Robin Zeng predicts that by 2030, swapping, home charging, and public charging will split the market three ways. Controlling the swapping networks for passenger cars, heavy trucks, and ships is exactly how CATL is drawing its own second curve.
A 13-year industry veteran confirmed this logic in an interview with Gasgoo. Swapping, he noted, carries strong exclusionary barriers and offers higher revenue certainty. "The technical barriers of swapping draw a circle. Its ecosystem and user community operations are all built on that barrier. That’s why people are willing to enter — because of the certainty. Once you're in, you're guaranteed a piece of the action."
With charging offering little room for differentiation, swapping is one of the few directions where a moat can still be built using assets and standards. CATL, with its battery assets and financial muscle, is uniquely positioned to build that network to the limit.
These three calculations point to a single conclusion: CATL isn't just building swapping stations; it is rewriting its identity from "battery manufacturer" to "replenishment infrastructure operator."
There is one more layer of calculation rarely reported: recycling.
Swapping allows for centralized battery management and retirement, creating a natural closed-loop for recycling. CATL’s recycling system already achieves recovery rates of 99.6% for nickel, cobalt, and manganese, and 96.5% for lithium, with processing capacity expanding to 270,000 tons annually. For a battery maker, swapping locks in not just new battery shipments, but the recycling of old batteries — capturing both ends of the business.
The Plan Looks Sound, But What Will It Take to Win?
However sound the strategy, the risks are real. Robin Zeng has publicly acknowledged that swapping is capital intensive, requires heavy investment, and has long cycles with complex stakeholder chains. At least three questions will determine whether this gamble pays off.
Risk one: Can the heavy asset load be sustained?
A single station costs over 1 million yuan to build. Based on this year's targets, investment in station infrastructure alone will exceed 1 billion yuan, excluding batteries, construction, and rent. While acquiring Qiyuan Core Power secured a network, it also brought on debt — as of the end of 2025, Qiyuan Core Power’s total liabilities stood at about 20.2 billion yuan, with a debt-to-asset ratio exceeding 80%.
Fortunately, CATL’s cash reserves are deep. By the end of the third quarter of 2026, cash and tradable financial assets totaled over 430 billion yuan — plenty of ammunition. But "having money" and "being worth it" are different matters. The return cycle for capital-intensive businesses is measured in decades, requiring immense strategic patience.
Risk two: If stations are built first, when will the cars arrive?
This is the most realistic contradiction of the swapping model. Stations are built ahead of schedule according to plan, but automakers must be won over one by one.
Swapping relies on network effects. If stations aren’t dense enough, automakers won’t adapt their chassis. If they are too sparse, utilization rates remain low and costs never get amortized.
Industry calculations suggest the Chocolate swapping model requires about 70 to 80 swaps per day per station to achieve a reasonable return. CATL’s current strategy — building first and connecting later, weaving the net before attracting the cars — concentrates the risk on the "connection" phase. Whether the automakers can deliver the volume is beyond CATL’s unilateral control.
Risk three: The tension between openness and proprietary standards.
Qiyuan Core Power previously achieved compatibility with over 100 OEMs by maintaining a neutral stance of "connecting anyone." Now under the CATL umbrella, being too closed would undermine the platform's value; yet being too open makes it impossible to enforce CATL’s own battery standards.
The same tension exists with Chocolate swapping: it needs to bring in more automakers to dilute costs, yet it also wants to be the sole standard provider.
Industry voices are already warning that automakers are moving toward greater autonomy in battery sourcing. Facing a CATL that acts as supplier, network operator, and standard-setter all at once, automakers are bound to put up their defenses.
Image source: CATL
Returning to the initial question: Why is CATL going all-in on swapping?
The answer is becoming clear: It isn't betting on how much money the stations themselves can make. It is betting on a closed loop: using the swapping network to lock in battery shipments, using asset management to amplify profits from long-life batteries, using standard-setting to cement industry status, and using the second-growth narrative to hedge against the ceiling of its core business.
This isn't just an expansion of its replenishment business; it is a redefinition of what CATL is.
Whether this game can be won depends on three things: whether automakers connect, whether stations turn a profit, and whether standards remain open.
If current actions are any indication, CATL has already pushed every available chip onto the table.
