CATL-Didi JV targets EVs with battery swap

The electric vehicle market is experiencing a shift with the separation of vehicles and batteries becoming more prevalent. This took a major step forward with the establishment of a battery swap joint venture between battery giant CATL and domestic ride-hailing leader Didi last week.

The joint venture, with a registered capital of 330 million yuan ($45.38 million), sees CATL holding a 69.7 percent stake and Didi the remaining share. It will focus on selling battery swapping facilities, operating EV charging infrastructure, leasing batteries, providing energy storage services, and selling batteries and components.

CATL, which supplies one-third of the world's EV batteries, ventured into battery swapping three years ago with the launch of its EVOGO battery-swapping services. However, the development was hindered by nonstandardized EV batteries.