The JV will cater to the ride-hailing market and provide battery swap services for NEVs, CATL said.

(Image credit: CATL)

CATL, the world's largest maker of batteries for electric vehicles (EVs), has upped its bet in the battery swap space with a joint venture with ride-hailing giant Didi.

Didi and CATL announced the formal establishment of a joint venture to engage in the battery swap business on January 26 in Ningde, Fujian, where the latter is headquartered, according to an announcement by the battery maker today.

Didi chairman and CEO Cheng Wei and CATL chairman and general manager Robin Zeng witnessed the signing ceremony between the two companies.

The joint venture will provide battery swap services for new energy vehicles (NEVs) for the ride-hailing market, leveraging the technical advantages and operational capabilities of both companies, CATL said.

The two companies will lead service and technology standards to improve resource utilization and social operation efficiency, CATL said.

The public mobility market, with its large user base and high energy replenishment frequency, is one of the most valuable application scenarios for battery swap services, the battery maker said.

CATL said it and Didi will rapidly roll out battery swap stations at scale, promote battery swap-enabled vehicles and improve the operational efficiency of the public energy replenishment market.

CATL's statement did not mention the name of the joint venture or when it was formed.

This is the latest bet by the EV battery giant in the battery swap space, which launched its battery swap brand EVOGO on January 18, 2022, and was welcomed by Nio at that time.

EVOGO offers Choco-SEB (swapping electric block), where vehicles can use one or more battery blocks to match different mileage requirements.

The service has yet to be adopted on a large scale, however, and EVOGO has announced only a few cities where its battery swap stations are available over the past 2 years, including Xiamen, Fuzhou, Guiyang, and Hefei.

In addition to setting up this joint venture, CATL has also formed a strategic partnership with Didi's energy service provider Orange Energy to collaborate in the areas of energy storage and charging.

As of the end of December 2023, Orange Energy's charging services have covered more than 190 cities and provided over 680 million charging services, according to CATL's announcement.

CATL is the world's largest power battery maker, with a share of 37.4 percent in the January-November period, the only one that exceeded 30 percent, according to South Korean market researcher SNE Research.

Nio welcomes CATL's launch of battery swap service