Biggest battery swap station network to address EV charging speeds and resale value

As BYD announced a 1MW EV architecture that aims to make charging an electric car as fast as fueling a gas vehicle, the world's largest battery maker CATL is addressing the problem differently.

It is now betting on EV battery swap stations that take less than 5 minutes to change into a fresh pack. CATL will help build out the world's biggest swap station network in partnership with battery swap pioneer NIO Power, where it will be investing $346 million.

Back in December, CATL announced its #20 and #25 power packs, whose naming is styled after the octane number of fuel at gas stations, as that's how fast they can be changed. Standardized for battery swap stations, the #20 packs come in 42 kWh LFP and 52 kWh nickel chemistry versions, while the #25 battery offers a 56 kWh LFP and 70 kWh nickel battery capacity models.

NIO cars, on the other hand, can now drive themselves to a station, have their pack changed with a fully charged one in about 3 minutes, and continue their journey. CATL is the main supplier of packs for its stations, and it is working with NIO on offering a 15-year battery warranty for electric vehicles, up from the current 12 years it gives for its swap station packs.

Such a long EV battery warranty could be a game changer for the industry and a boon for the second-hand EV market. The current industry standard of an 8-year battery warranty doesn't really cut it, as there will be millions of EVs coming out of warranty in the next few years, which could essentially decimate the used electric cars market, or their resale value.

The two companies are not just working on a 15-year EV battery warranty standard, but they'll also mandate 85% remaining capacity after that period, contrary to the 70% that Tesla now gives after its 8-year battery warranty expires.

Thus, the CATL-NIO partnership over the world's largest battery swap station network aims to soothe the two main worries of the potential EV buyer - resale value and charging speeds - and will work on setting battery swap standards that will spearhead the network's expansion.

NIO already operates thousands of swap stations in China and abroad, and CATL will ensure interoperability with its own network that will run in parallel.

The biggest global EV battery swap network "will establish a complete lifecycle loop that encompasses battery R&D, swapping services, asset management, reutilization, and material recycling, helping reduce costs and improve efficiency across the entire value chain," says CATL.

When announcing its swappable #20 and #25 battery packs, it also mentioned that the goal is to ultimately have a network of 30,000 battery swap stations. The partnership with a pioneer like NIO will help in "leveraging their respective strengths in technology, management, platforms, and brand influence," tips the world's biggest battery maker.

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