Electric car battery giant CATL teams up with Didi to share swapping tech for ride-hailing fleet in new joint venture
- The companies will work together to build out battery-swapping stations, which have been growing more rapidly than fixed charging in China
- The Chinese government is supporting the adoption of battery swapping, and EV giant Nio is promoting standardisation of the tech
Chinese electric vehicle (EV) battery giant CATL and ride-hailing powerhouse Didi have formed a joint venture (JV) focusing on battery-swapping technology, as they seek to leverage their strengths to make headway in China’s EV charging infrastructure market.
The tie-up will see the companies work closely to “swiftly build out battery-swapping stations and promote vehicles’ support for swapping technology”, according to a statement CATL published to its official WeChat account on Sunday.
The new venture will improve efficiency of public EV charging and make the transport sector greener, CATL said. It will also leverage the firms’ technological and operational advantages by serving Didi’s EV fleet from the offset.
“The public transport market is characterised by a large user pool [and] high charging frequency … making it a valuable business scenario for battery-swapping services,” CATL said in the statement.
The JV announcement comes on the heels of a statement from China’s Ministry of Industry and Information Technology at a conference held in late December that reiterated its support for battery-swapping tech, with pilot projects set to begin for public transport this year.
