CATL looking at taking control over NIO’s swapping network

CATL, the world’s biggest battery maker for the last decade, is looking to take a controlling stake in NIO Power, the battery swapping and fast-charging business of Chinese premium EV maker NIO. CATL will not comment, but Reuters quotes four anonymous sources to back up the story.

Last month, news broke that NIO, known for its pioneering role in battery swapping, is joining forces with CATL, its major supplier, to set up a worldwide car-swapping network. Reuters says CATL proposed a further take-over after announcing a maximum investment of 2.5 billion yuan ($342 million) in Nio Power in March.

Asked by Reuters, NIO evaded the question but stated, “Nio and CATL will deepen collaboration on capital and business and further consolidate the strategic partnership to jointly build the largest battery swapping network globally.”

Choco-SEB

NIO is adopting CATL’s new battery swap standard, Choco-SEB, for newly developed models of its affordable Firefly brand. Today, Firefly is incompatible with NIO’s swapping standards for its premium-brand EVs, which currently have 3,172 battery swap stations available.

Both networks should coexist in parallel while both partners work to promote the development and adoption of national standards for battery swap technology in China. “We will continue to promote the standardization of battery swapping, and the most important thing is the standardization of battery size,” Robin Zheng, founder and CEO of CATL, declared earlier.

Since the brand’s launch, NIO has developed its own battery-swapping standard. Currently, there are 3,172 battery-swap stations, 59 in Europe where its cars are sold, and one in Belgium. This network is said to have already offered users over 67 million power swaps.

In addition, NIO claims it has completed 4,395 charging stations, 25,599 chargers, and connections to 2,630,000+ third-party chargers.

CATL started swapping in 2022

That new partnership builds on an earlier agreement signed in March 2024, in which the two companies vowed to co-develop battery technology.

CATL entered the battery swapping business in 2022 with its battery swap brand EVOGO. On December 18th, 2024, during its Battery Swap Ecosystem Conference in Xiamen, it introduced its Choco-SEB (Swapping Electric Blocks) battery packs. These 20# and 25# ‘choco batteries’ are designed for smaller EVs, supporting LFP and NMC chemistries with up to 600 km range.

According to Reuters, CATL chairman Robin Zeng aims to reinvent his 25-year-old enterprise, moving beyond battery manufacturing to become a green energy provider.

CATL says it will replace a third of gas stations in China. Last week, it announced a partnership with state-owned oil company Sinopec to build 10,000 battery swap stations. At least 500 of them will be built this year.

The ultimate goal is to build 30,000 swap stations in China. Each station will have 14 to 30 large batteries that can be swapped in under two minutes (100 seconds, CATL claims). The service will be a subscription service at 0.1 yuan/km (0,01 euro per km).