It was meant to be, and it was just a matter of time before it happened.

Nio, the world’s leading battery swapping operator which made battery swapping a viable business model, and CATL, the world’s largest EV battery supplier which is also expanding its own battery swapping station network, are coming together to create a powerful alliance to build the world’s largest battery swapping network.

The strategic partnership agreement signed between the two on March 17 in Ningde, Fujian Province, where CATL is headquartered, is massive in many ways.

Not only are they building the world’s largest and most advanced battery-swapping service network for passenger vehicles, leveraging their respective strengths in technology, management, platforms and brand influence, but they will also be working together to drive the formulation and adoption of national standards for battery swapping in China to further enhance battery compatibility across various brands and models.

To start, Nio and CATL will strengthen the sharing of their battery-swapping networks and accelerate the adoption and advancement of battery-swapping services. CATL will support Nio in developing the battery-swapping network, while its Choco-Swap technical standards and network will be introduced to the subsequent newly developed models of Firefly, Nio’s new brand.

Both parties’ networks will operate in parallel, offering EV users a more seamless and efficient swapping experience and making BEV travel more convenient.

CATL will also invest up to 2.5 billion yuan (346 million USD) in Nio Power, further cementing this strategic partnership. CATL already has about an 11% stake in Wuhan Weineng Battery Asset Co., Ltd., a financing entity established in 2020 to run Nio’s battery leasing business, or battery as a service (BaaS).

Ultimately, Nio and CATL plan to establish a complete lifecycle loop that encompasses battery R&D, swapping services, asset management, reutilization, and material recycling. This will help reduce costs and improve efficiency across the entire value chain of NEVs while ensuring safety.

The strategic partnership is crucial for Nio and CATL, as both are ramping up their battery-swapping networks.

Nio already owns the most chargers and battery swapping stations in China, having built nearly 3,200 Power Swap Stations in the country in addition to the dozens it has built in Europe, the Middle East, and Africa (MENA). Its expressway Power Swap network connects 18 backbone expressways and 14 city clusters, featuring nearly 1,000 Power Swap Stations along expressways and covering over 700 cities.

By June 30, Nio’s power swap network will cover over 1,200 county-level divisions in 14 provincial-level administrative regions in China, including Beijing, Shanghai, and Guangdong. By the end of this year, more than 2,300 county-level divisions in 27 provincial-level administrative regions will be covered.

CATL, on the other hand, announced its own battery swap station roll-out strategy exactly four months ago: its goal then was to build 1,000 Choco-Swap stations by 2025, 10,000 stations mid-term, and 30,000 stations in the future across China.

Nio has formed battery-swapping strategic partnerships with automakers including Chang’an, Geely, Chery, JAC Group, GAC Group, FAW Group, and Lotus, while CATL has established collaboration with nearly 100 partners in its battery swap ecosystem including automakers Chang’an, GAC Group, BAIC Group, Wuling and FAW Group involving 10 initial battery swappable models with more to come to the market.

These initiatives give you an idea of how large the combined network could be and the breadth of partnerships involved. The only questions that remain are how fast Nio and CATL can expand this network, how many compatible battery-swappable models will be available, and how many of the stations would be compatible both within their individual swap partner ecosystems and across the ecosystems.

The strategic partnership and the 2.5 billion yuan investment by CATL are also huge morale boosters for Nio, given that its namesake brand and ONVO have not met expectations so far this year in terms of deliveries. CEO William Li has announced a sweeping cost cut initiative as Nio tries to achieve break even in Q4 this year and full-year 2026. The CATL investment couldn’t have come at a better time.

The timing of the signing of the strategic partnership was quite interesting: it happened just as BYD Chairman Wang Chuanfu was introducing “megawatt flash charging as fast as filling up gas” in Shenzhen for the launch of BYD’s Super e-Platform with out-of-this-world charging specs (see How do you spell BYD? Bu Yong Deng (no need to wait)).

It was almost as if the signing was an indirect shot across the bow at BYD, a statement and response to those who pondered after watching BYD’s event: is battery swapping irrelevant now that you can charge an EV for 5 minutes and get over 400 km of range, as fast as battery swapping?

Not so fast, maybe.

But given that Xpeng and Volkswagen Group China announced earlier this year that they plan to work together to provide more than 20,000 superfast charging points operated by both companies in 420 cities in China (including 13,000 already available in 213 cities in China through CAMS), given that Li Auto plans to expand its supercharger network from the current over 1,900 to 4,000 by the end of the year, given that ZEEKR has already built around 1,500 supercharging stations, not to mention Tesla’s Supercharger network, charging has become a habit and ubiquitous among the majority of the Chinese NEV owners in China.

CATL Founder, Chairman & CEO Robin Zeng predicted that by 2030, battery swapping, home charging piles, and public charging piles will account for a third of the market. I personally believe charging will remain the “main road” while battery swapping is the “side road” in China’s EV industry.

Regardless, the Nio CATL battery swap collab and BYD’s megawatt flash charging announcements have far-reaching implications for the industry regarding charging infrastructure and how Chinese consumers use their EVs. We may have just witnessed two of the top 10 industry events in 2025 happening on the same day.

Game on. It’s a dogfight between battery swapping and charging.