CATL's Choco Swap reveals plan: Over 3,000 battery swap stations nationwide by end of 2026

Recently, CATL's Choco Swap battery swap service disclosed its relevant expansion plans. By the end of 2026, Choco Swap is expected to operate over 3,000 battery swap stations nationwide, covering nearly 216 cities. In 2027, it aims to deploy approximately 1,000 swap stations along expressways, forming a national expressway battery swap backbone network structured as “11 north-south corridors and 9 east-west corridors.” Its long-term target is to establish a network of 30,000 stations. In 2026, the first phase of Choco Swap’s expressway network will be rolled out across seven provinces, with additional provincial stations progressively entering operation thereafter. Ongoing projects are being deployed along multiple national trunk expressways, covering key regions including the Yangtze River Delta, the Pearl River Delta, and the Sichuan-Chongqing area. This deployment leverages partnerships with provincial transportation groups and expressway platforms, integrating battery swap infrastructure into both provincial and national transportation infrastructure planning, and advancing through bulk agreements for hundreds of stations and large-scale implementation. A single Choco Swap station can handle up to 600 battery swaps per day. Most stations will be equipped with Shenxing ultra-fast charging piles, upgrading them into integrated ultra-fast charge-and-swap stations. Maintaining the current 99-second battery swap efficiency, these integrated stations can deliver three times the service capacity per parking space compared to standalone charging stations under identical land and power capacity conditions. Additionally, swap stations can function as distributed energy storage units, participating in grid frequency regulation, peak shaving, and renewable energy integration.