CATL is building more than 200 battery swap stations every month

https://electrek.co/2026/07/04/catl-is-building-more-than-200-battery-swap-stations-every-month/

by breve • 18 days ago

10 7 18 days ago

BYD's second-gen flash charging is probably the biggest threat to battery swapping.

For example, the newly launched Seal 08, about $30k, 435 hp, 905 km CLTC range, can charge from 10% to 70% in 5 minutes.

And BYD is pushing very fast on both sides: building flash-charging stations, and bringing this tech down to more models.

Right now the cheapest car with this tech is the Linghui e7 550, only about $16.2k.

pestatije• 18 days ago

to my little mind, it looks way easier to swap batteries... especially if you want to onboard trucks

linzhangrun3• 17 days ago

BYD also makes trucks. In southern China, electric trucks are everywhere on the road. As far as I know, they are basically all charged by plugs, not battery swapping.

maxglute2• 17 days ago

If swapping saves ~10m vs fast charge, swapping probably makes economic sense for light commercial like delivery vans where routes are well known and infra deployment can be optimized.

linzhangrun3• 17 days ago

The problem is that battery swapping is no longer faster than charging, while the vehicle structure still has to sacrifice for a replaceable battery pack.

The biggest advantage of battery swapping is still that slow charging protects the battery.

BYD's flash charging will inevitably hurt the battery. Maybe by this time next year it will no longer be able to charge this fast, just like how they limited the power of older models.

suprjami• 18 days ago

Finally a believable headline about CATL.

Next week we'll be back to CATL increasing energy density by 1 million percent with a battery that charges in 3 nanoseconds.

CATL is building more than 200 battery swap stations every month

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