Chinese battery giant CATL has officially launched China’s first standardized light truck battery swap ecosystem, marking a major step in the country’s push to electrify urban logistics and reduce transport operating costs.
The company partnered with logistics operator DST to deploy the first batch of standardized battery swap light trucks into urban logistics operations, according to a statement released Monday.
The rollout introduces CATL’s “Choco-swap” system, which can complete a battery replacement in just 120 seconds.
The move underlines CATL’s broader strategy to expand battery-swapping infrastructure across China for both commercial and passenger electric vehicles.
CATL said its Choco-swap technology significantly reduces downtime for logistics fleets compared to traditional refueling or charging methods.
According to the company, over an eight-year vehicle life cycle, the system can save more than 2,000 hours of refueling time. CATL also said the energy replenishment cost is approximately half that of a conventional fuel-powered light truck.
The modular swap stations are designed to support both passenger vehicles and commercial trucks with wheelbases ranging from 2.7 meters to 3.75 meters.
The stations are compatible with CATL’s 25# and 35# battery packs, allowing battery interoperability between different vehicle categories.
The company has already established 31 battery swap stations for light trucks across the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area. CATL plans to increase that number to 140 by the end of this year, focusing primarily on high-speed logistics corridors and urban distribution hubs.
CATL, its subsidiary Contemporary Amperex Energy Service Technology (CAES), and DST plan to deploy 5,000 standardized battery swap light trucks across the Greater Bay Area by the end of 2026.
The company said the project will become China’s largest standardized urban distribution battery swap operation cluster and is expected to serve as a model for nationwide expansion.
The latest initiative aligns with CATL’s long-term ambitions in the battery swap sector. The company said it plans to build more than 3,000 passenger vehicle and light truck swap stations during 2026 alone, while its long-term target stands at 30,000 stations.
Battery swapping is increasingly being viewed as an alternative to long charging times, especially for commercial fleets that require high vehicle utilization and rapid turnaround.
CATL is also accelerating battery swapping in the heavy-duty truck segment.
Last month, the company announced a trunk logistics electrification partnership with Chinese delivery firm STO Express to support heavy truck fleet electrification.
Using the 400-kilometer freight route between Shanghai and Ningbo as an example, CATL said electric heavy trucks achieved energy efficiency savings of 0.8 yuan ($0.12) per kilometer compared to traditional fuel-powered trucks.
The company’s Qiji Energy division plans to build 900 heavy truck battery swap stations in 2026.
In addition, the Chinese firm recently signed a taxi battery swap network planning agreement with Guangzhou Public Transport Group.
The move signals the company’s intentions to expand battery swapping across multiple transport sectors as China continues accelerating its EV infrastructure development.
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Atharva is a full-time content writer with a post-graduate degree in media & amp; entertainment and a graduate degree in electronics & telecommunications. He has written in the sports and technology domains respectively. In his leisure time, Atharva loves learning about digital marketing and watching soccer matches. His main goal behind joining Interesting Engineering is to learn more about how the recent technological advancements are helping human beings on both societal and individual levels in their daily lives.
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