Chinese electric vehicle (EV) battery giant CATL and ride-hailing powerhouse Didi have formed a joint venture (JV) focusing on battery-swapping technology, as they seek to leverage their strengths to make headway in China’s EV charging infrastructure market, reports the South China Morning Post. The tie-up will see the companies work closely to “swiftly build out battery-swapping stations and promote vehicles’ support for swapping technology,” according to a statement CATL published to its official WeChat account on Sunday.
The new venture will improve efficiency of public EV charging and make the transport sector greener, CATL said. It will also leverage the firms’ technological and operational advantages by serving Didi’s EV fleet from the offset.
“The public transport market is characterised by a large user pool [and] high charging frequency … making it a valuable business scenario for battery-swapping services,” CATL said in the statement.