China's battery company CATL (Contemporary Amperex Technology) is teaming up with Octopus Energy, the United Kingdom's largest energy company, to build Europe's first large-scale battery exchange (swap) system for electric trucks. This is CATL's first case of exporting its exchangeable battery model, which it operates in China, overseas, seen as an attempt to expand its business beyond battery production into the charging and exchange infrastructure market.
CATL said on the 22nd that it will establish a joint venture with Octopus Energy to build battery exchange stations for heavy trucks in the United Kingdom. According to the disclosure, the two companies will install the first pilot exchange station in the United Kingdom by 2027 and expand installations along highways and major logistics ports. By 2035, they aim to build more than 30 exchange stations and create a network that covers all of England as well as Scotland and Wales.
Battery exchange is a method of replacing a depleted battery with a fully charged one in its entirety, allowing vehicles to resume operations within minutes without waiting tens of minutes to charge, making it a technology drawing attention in commercial vehicles that travel long distances. CATL pushed the related business in 2022 and is now working with 11 automakers, 18 brands, and 25 models. It has built more than 1,470 exchange stations in a total of 99 cities. For truck-dedicated stations, 305 exchange stations had been built as of the end of last year. CATL plans to expand this to 900 by the end of this year.
The move also aligns with the U.K. government's policy to phase out internal-combustion trucks. According to Chinese financial media Caixin, the United Kingdom will ban sales of internal-combustion trucks of 26 tons or less starting in 2035 and expand the restriction to vehicles over 26 tons in 2040 for environmental protection.
Sales of zero-emission (electric and hydrogen) trucks remain low. According to the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT), a total of 587 zero-emission trucks were sold in the United Kingdom last year, only 1.4% of the total. However, this is an increase of more than 170% from the previous year, and sales are expected to rise quickly as charging infrastructure expands.
In March, the U.K. government said it would support corporations in adopting zero-emission (electric, hydrogen, etc.) trucks with £1 billion (about 2 trillion won) for purchase expense and £170 million (about 344.7 billion won) for charging facility installation expense. This amounts to up to 40% of the purchase expense per truck and up to 70% of the charging facility installation expense.
At its "Super Tech Day" held in Beijing in April, CATL projected that the electric vehicle charging market will evolve into a form where standard charging, ultra-fast charging, and battery exchange each account for one-third. The still-unfamiliar battery exchange, it said, will become as common a charging method as standard charging in the future.
CATL also unveiled a plan to use batteries as "energy assets." It argued that batteries stored at exchange stations can serve not only for truck operation but also as energy storage systems (ESS). Through this, it plans to use batteries for grid stabilization and power transactions. Caixin said, "CATL's expansion into the United Kingdom is a signal of its intention to begin exporting new solutions (beyond automotive batteries) to the European market," adding, "CATL expects to leverage Octopus Energy's technology and power sales network to expand into various derivative businesses going forward."