Gasgoo Munich- Benxi Passenger Transport Group, Changzhou Bus Group, Guiyang Bus Group, and Lanzhou Bus Group have each completed strategic partnerships with CATL recently, according to an announcement from the battery giant.
The collaboration goes beyond a single deal. According to CATL, the partnership will encompass power battery supply and replacement, aftermarket services, city-level battery-swapping networks, recycling, and vehicle-to-grid (V2G) interactions.
Guiyang’s agreement is particularly specific. The local transit operator and CATL aim to integrate station and route resources with battery industry capabilities, coordinating charging and swapping infrastructure, energy storage, and V2G. The objective is to build a "green energy demonstration model" rather than simply procuring batteries.
Image source: CATL
Adding to previous collaborations with cities such as Nanjing, Wuhan, Xiamen, Suzhou, and Guangzhou, CATL has now established strategic ties with public transport groups in over 20 cities.
In May, the general offices of the Ministry of Transport and the National Development and Reform Commission issued detailed rules for subsidies on new-energy city buses and power battery updates through 2026. The policy explicitly supports the replacement of city buses registered before December 31, 2018, and the swapping of batteries in new-energy buses that are out of warranty or fail to meet safety standards by December 31, 2026.
In other words, batteries in the batch of electric buses deployed between 2015 and 2018 are hitting a critical replacement window. The business focus is shifting from "selling new vehicles" to "replacing old batteries."
The mix of these four cities is worth noting. Benxi is a resource-based hub in the northeast, while Changzhou is a manufacturing powerhouse in the Yangtze River Delta. Guiyang and Lanzhou serve as provincial capitals in the southwest and northwest, respectively. Climates range from freezing to dry and humid, with marked differences in fiscal capacity and depot conditions.
Successfully rolling out the same cooperation model across these four regions demonstrates the "replicable path" CATL has touted. Notably, CATL signed a strategic framework agreement for a zero-carbon city with the Lanzhou municipal government as early as May 2025.
Public transit offers unique value for battery companies: fixed routes, centralized depots, and concentrated nighttime parking make it naturally suited for orderly charging and V2G. With more than 20 cities now signed, the key metric to watch is no longer the number of agreements, but the actual scale of swapping networks and battery replacements hitting the ground.
