Gasgoo Munich- Just recently, Yinwang Intelligent Technology, CATL, and Amperex Technology Service signed a strategic cooperation agreement on an intelligent replenishment ecosystem in Ningde, Fujian. Robin Zeng, chairman of CATL, and Jin Yuzhi, Huawei senior vice president and CEO of Yinwang, both attended the signing.
The market sees this as a watershed moment marking the Huawei camp's official entry into the battery swapping race.
For years, NIO single-handedly carried the battery swapping torch.
But in 2026, the landscape began to shift. Geely partnered with NIO, CATL accelerated its station network rollout, and the Huawei camp made its debut. On October 22, BAIC Group also signed a comprehensive agreement with CATL to deepen their battery swapping cooperation.
With multiple players entering the fray, battery swapping has emerged as one of the most closely watched sectors in the energy replenishment space this year.
The "2026 Moment" for Battery Swapping
First, a look at the latest developments.
On September 28 this year, Geely Holding Group and NIO struck a strategic partnership:
Geely acquired a 30% stake in NIO Power by contributing 100% of its E-E-Link equity plus 640 million yuan in cash, valuing NIO Power at roughly 16 billion yuan post-investment. In exchange, NIO bought a 10% stake in Geely's Haohan Energy with cash. The two parties will now collaborate extensively on charging and swapping technology, standards, and service networks.
Image source: Geely Holding
The logic behind the deal is straightforward: Geely's E-E-Link primarily serves commercial vehicles like taxis and ride-hailing cars, while NIO focuses on private passenger vehicles. Their networks are naturally complementary.
At the 2026 World Intelligent Connected Vehicles Conference, Geely Holding Chairman Li Shufu put it bluntly: the development of intelligent electrification depends on building and investing in replenishment infrastructure. The core of Geely and NIO's September partnership is open sharing, unified standards, and resource coordination to give users more options. "But we can't have duplicate construction. It makes no sense for Geely to build one system and NIO another, so we merged," he said.
NIO's swapping network continues to expand.
In February 2026, NIO announced cumulative swapping services had surpassed 100 million. By August, the 4,000th station was completed, and the fifth-generation station officially went into operation, capable of serving NIO, Onvo, and Firefly simultaneously.
NIO says it has poured more than 20 billion yuan into charging and swapping, creating a network density and replenishment experience that competitors will struggle to replicate in the short term.
CATL is also accelerating its dual-track strategy with "Chocolate Swap" for passenger vehicles and "Qiji Swap" for heavy trucks:
On the passenger vehicle front, over 2,500 Chocolate Swap stations have been built across 31 provinces and 200-plus cities, supporting more than 30 models. The plan calls for 4,000 integrated super-swap stations by the end of 2026, covering nearly 190 cities and a highway network spanning 12 vertical and 11 horizontal corridors. By the end of 2028, the goal is to have over 100,000 facilities in place.
On the product side, CATL launched the Chocolate No. 26 battery, compatible with 800V high-voltage architectures, extending coverage from A0- to C-segment vehicles. On the network side, it introduced the "Super Swap Shared Network," with initial partners including Changan, Chery, GAC, Seres, and SAIC-GM-Wuling, aiming to push open sharing through an alliance model.
For commercial vehicles, CATL plans to build 900 heavy-truck swap stations by the end of this year, 2,000 next year, with an ultimate target of 10,000. Just on October 20, its new "electric-electric range extension" swapping solution secured its first batch of orders for 13,000 units.
CATL views the heavy-truck market as a "second growth curve" for swapping. Beyond building its own network, it has partnered with major commercial players like FAW Jiefang, Dongfeng Commercial Vehicle, and Sinotruk to promote standardized battery blocks and flexible leasing policies. Several swapping corridors have already been incorporated into the national zero-carbon freight corridor. Estimates suggest that for a daily transport distance of 400 kilometers, a swapping heavy truck saves about 130,000 yuan annually in replenishment costs compared to a diesel truck—a key reason why commercial vehicle adoption is outpacing passenger vehicles.
The Huawei camp is accelerating its layout too. Yinwang's partnership with CATL and Amperex Technology Service focuses on an "intelligent swapping ecosystem."
Image source: CATL
Qiankun Intelligent Driving integrates deeply with the Chocolate Swap network, connecting the vehicle, station, and cloud at the system level. Vehicles can autonomously locate stations and align themselves, completing a fully automated swap in 99 seconds. The first batch of five swappable models is slated to launch in 2027.
At the same event, Huawei Senior Vice President and Yinwang CEO Jin Yuzhi explained the logic behind the move: Qiankun Intelligent Driving had already connected to 1 million charging piles nationwide, and now it is adding swapping capabilities. "We believe this kind of ecosystem is more beneficial for automakers," he said, adding that it also enhances the user experience across different scenarios.
An industry report predicts that the battery swapping market will surpass 90 billion yuan in 2026, a year-on-year increase of about 22%, with roughly 45,000 new stations added throughout the year.
Battery swapping is shifting from "one man's persistence" to a "hot sector with multiple players."
Why Now: Three Variables Align at Once
Battery swapping isn't new; NIO built its first station back in 2018. So why is the sudden explosion happening in 2026? Three variables have aligned simultaneously.
First, technology has pushed swapping efficiency to the limit.
In the early days, a 5-minute swap was considered fast. Today, NIO's fifth-generation stations can complete a swap in as little as 2 minutes and 24 seconds, with 23 battery slots and a daily capacity of up to 480 services. Following its partnership with Yinwang, CATL has set its sights directly on "99-second fully automated swapping."
As swap times shrink from "several minutes" to "two minutes or even the hundred-second range," the experience gap with supercharging is narrowing rapidly. Especially in the era of autonomous driving, where vehicles enter stations, align, and swap automatically without the driver ever leaving the car, "seamless replenishment" is becoming a reality.
Image source: NIO
Second, the commercial vehicle scenario has truly opened up.
The previous constraints on swapping—expensive vehicles, expensive stations, and low utilization rates—are being upended by heavy-truck and commercial vehicle applications.
Electric heavy-truck penetration was just 5.2% in 2022, rising to 28.9% in 2025, and breaking past 50% in a single month by September 2026. CATL estimates that for a daily transport distance of 400 kilometers, an electric heavy truck saves about 130,000 yuan annually in replenishment costs compared to a diesel truck. Over a three-year cycle, the total cost of ownership (TCO) is roughly 70,000 yuan less than buying an electric truck outright and over 460,000 yuan less than a diesel heavy truck.
Long-haul trucking involves long distances, fixed routes, and high replenishment frequency—conditions that naturally suit battery swapping far better than charging, which can take hours. This is the confidence behind CATL's bold target of 10,000 heavy-truck swapping stations.
Third, the "ecological value" of swapping is being re-priced.
Swapping was often criticized in the past as "asset-heavy and unprofitable," but in 2026, the industry has discovered its real value lies not in charging service fees, but in the ecosystem.
First is battery asset management. Once the vehicle and battery are separated, the operator owns the battery, enabling unified management, cascaded utilization, and centralized recycling. The "Interim Measures on the Recovery and Comprehensive Utilization of Waste Power Batteries for New Energy Vehicles," which took effect on April 1, clarified requirements for battery swapping service providers, paving the policy road for full lifecycle battery management.
Second is the potential for energy trading. Swapping stations can act as virtual power plants and carriers for green electricity trading—a direction the industry widely sees as key to medium- and long-term profitability.
Third is the accelerated implementation of industry standards. GB/T 40032.2-2025, "Safety Requirements for Electric Vehicle Battery Swapping Part 2: Commercial Vehicles," took effect on November 1, 2025, moving swapping from "every man for himself" to a "standards-based" approach.
When a technological route enjoys the triple backing of efficiency, use-case scenarios, and policy, the entry of capital and giants is a natural next step.
Yang Xi, a veteran in the replenishment industry, stated explicitly in a previous interview with Gasgoo that battery swapping carries inherent, strong exclusive barriers and offers greater revenue certainty.
He emphasized that the technical barriers of swapping create a closed loop. Its ecosystem and user community operations are all built on top of that barrier. That's why players are willing to enter—because of the certainty that once inside, they will secure a share of the market.
Is Swapping Really "Sweet"?
For all the buzz, three questions remain unanswered.
Question one: When will the inflection point for profitability arrive?
Battery swapping is a classic capital-intensive business. NIO has already poured more than 20 billion yuan into charging and swapping.
The current industry consensus is that the profitability inflection point has not yet been reached; the sector is still in a phase of "trading scale for time."
Facing doubts over "heavy assets," NIO is actively adjusting its strategy:
On one hand, it is bringing in external capital, such as Geely's investment in NIO Power, to ease the burden of self-funding, shifting the network from "NIO footing the bill alone" to "multi-party joint investment." On the other hand, it is exploring lighter operational models, such as co-building stations with social capital and local resources in cities like Wuhan.
In other words, the first phase of swapping was a race to see who could build the fastest. The second phase is a contest to see who can keep those assets turning.
Image source: CATL
Question two: Will supercharging squeeze swapping out of the market?
In March 2026, BYD unveiled its second-generation Blade Battery and Megawatt Charging: charging from 10% to 70% takes just 5 minutes, 10% to 97% takes 9 minutes, and a full charge in -30°C temperatures takes only 12 minutes.
As charging also enters the "single-digit minute" era, swapping's relative advantage of speed is being eroded, while supercharging's strengths in openness and lower cost become more pronounced. BYD has also announced plans to build 90,000 charging stations over the next two years.
However, the mainstream view within the industry favors "coexistence" over "mutual destruction."
Yang Xi points out that swapping and supercharging will coexist for the long haul. Swapping has already achieved scale and established a fixed user base, while supercharging is the product of gradual technological iteration—neither can replace the other. Moreover, swapping naturally possesses strong exclusive barriers, which supercharging lacks.
He offered a more specific observation: swapping and supercharging are more likely to move toward "integration" rather than "opposition." For instance, if swappable vehicles also offer charging ports, allowing owners to choose freely between swapping and supercharging networks, the synergy between the two could actually dilute their respective operating costs.
CATL's view of the endgame echoes this: by 2030, the domestic replenishment market will settle into a "three-way split" among swapping, home charging, and public charging, with no single route dominating.
Question three: Standardization and openness are the biggest variables for swapping.
For battery swapping to scale, the prerequisites are standardized batteries and open networks. Currently, battery pack specifications and swapping standards still differ, with NIO and CATL each operating their own separate networks.
The Geely-NIO partnership and CATL's "Super Swap Shared Network" are essentially efforts to drive openness through alliances.
Whoever can unify standards and open their network is the one most likely to truly reap the dividends of battery swapping.
Li Shufu's assessment is worth revisiting here: "Small and weak leads to chaos and poor quality; only big and strong can lead the industry to better development."
The standardization and openness of battery swapping is essentially the industry's transition from "small and chaotic" to "big and strong." Whoever is willing to drop their proprietary standards first and enlarge the pie will be the one to secure a seat at the table in the final landscape.
Returning to the opening question: Is battery swapping finally getting sweet?
The answer is: It is certainly getting livelier, but whether it's "sweet" depends on three things: whether the existing volume of swappable vehicles can support scale, whether value-added services can unlock profitability, and whether standardization and openness can truly take root.
At least one thing has changed: Battery swapping is no longer "NIO's obsession," but a direction the entire supply chain is betting on.
When a sector simultaneously captures the attention of automakers, battery giants, intelligent driving leaders, and policymakers, it at least deserves to be taken seriously.
As for whether it ultimately proves "truly sweet" or just "hype," time will tell.
