CATL reaches milestone of 700 battery replacement stations
At the end of July, CATL announced that the first 500 locations had been set up – 400 for electric cars in China and around 100 battery replacement stations for heavy goods vehicles. On 21 October, the 700th station went into operation in Jinan in the eastern Chinese province of Shandong. However, the current distribution between passenger car and truck stations is not mentioned in the reports.
What is clear, however, is that CATL sees itself continuing on track to reach its own goal of 1,000 stations in China by the end of the year. To achieve this, however, the actual pace of expansion would have to increase somewhat: almost twelve weeks have passed since the 500-station mark was exceeded. With the fourth quarter already underway, there are only about ten weeks left until the end of the year to put 300 locations into operation.
The company has also set itself a new target: by the end of 2026, CATL aims to have over 2,500 battery replacement stations in operation in more than 120 Chinese cities. These are likely to include the first stations built by partners: CATL had announced that the first 1,000 stations would be built by its subsidiary Contemporary Amperex Energy Service Technology (CAES), and stations 1,001 to 10,000 together with partners. In the long term, 30,000 locations are to be created when the business is expanded to Europe.
According to CATL, eleven of the 39 cities where CAES exchange stations are located have already defined special battery exchange zones. In these areas, it should be possible to reach a battery exchange station within a ten-minute drive and then exchange the battery in less than 100 seconds. The current locations are primarily in the east of the country, with only a few central Chinese provinces covered. In western China, on the other hand, there are no CATL battery exchange stations yet – but this roughly corresponds to the distribution of the population.
There are around 121 stations in the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei metropolitan area and 116 locations in the Greater Bay Area. And in the Yangtze River Delta, which includes major cities such as Shanghai, Hangzhou, Wuxi, Suzhou and Hefei, 179 locations have already been established. Depending on the exchange station, 14 to 30 batteries are in stock, divided between types #20 and #25 at passenger car stations, with LFP and NMC cell chemistry.
In December last year, CATL introduced two standardised battery packs as part of its Choco SEB system. They are available in two fixed sizes: the 20# pack is designed for small electric vehicles with a wheelbase between 2.2 and 2.3 metres, while the 25# pack is designed for vehicles with a wheelbase of up to 2.9 metres.
There is also a battery pack called 75# for electric trucks. Exact details about the 75# have not yet been released, but according to earlier information, it is said to be a 171 kWh block with LFP cells – however, this has not been confirmed. Incidentally, SEB stands for ‘Swapping Electric Blocks’ and the name ‘Choco’ is intended to evoke the appearance of a chocolate bar with its individual blocks.
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