CATL has moved the head of its battery swap business to the forefront of the passenger vehicle market.
Sources familiar with the matter said on October 16 that Yang Jun, head of CATL's battery swap business, will concurrently serve as co-president of the market system, overseeing the passenger vehicle segment. The sources said the adjustment is intended to further expand and strengthen the battery swap business.
Automakers are intensifying their competition over energy replenishment. BYD is expanding its flash charging network and opening it to other brands, while Geely plans to inject its battery swap assets and additional capital into NIO Power to jointly promote battery swap models aimed at consumers. Energy replenishment is becoming a key battleground for new vehicle competition, and battery swap has entered the product plans of more automakers.
Over the past year, CATL's station network has expanded rapidly, and new cooperative vehicle models have entered volume deliveries. What it brings to automakers now includes not just batteries but also a battery swap network that is already operational. By jointly developing vehicle models and then continuously providing energy replenishment services for the vehicles sold, battery swap is expected to become a binding link between CATL and more automakers. Yang Jun's concurrent oversight of passenger vehicles is precisely aimed at bringing this business to a broader customer base.
Battery swap reaches a critical juncture
This adjustment involves multiple managers in CATL's passenger vehicle business.
CATL's former co-president of the market system, Han Wei, will return to the commercial vehicle business. The business overseen by Wang Hui, vice president of domestic passenger vehicle business, will be taken over by Gao Huan, CTO of passenger vehicles, and Wang Hui will also return to the commercial vehicle business. Han Wei previously spent a long time in charge of commercial vehicle power battery business before shifting to the passenger vehicle market in 2023.
As Yang Jun takes over, automakers are redefining the division of labor with battery suppliers. In September, Li Auto made clear that battery packs will be developed and manufactured in-house, with cells independently researched and developed by the company and then handed to specialized manufacturers for production. Li Auto president Ma Donghui said the company does not believe self-developed batteries will be cheaper than externally sourced ones, but it hopes to connect R&D, manufacturing, usage, and after-sales data to gain full control over the product from design to issue tracing.
Li Auto is pulling R&D leadership back in-house while still entrusting manufacturing to specialized manufacturers. For CATL to continue serving such customers, it needs to adapt to automakers' requirements for product definition and data. It is also seeking businesses beyond battery supply that automakers are willing to further delegate to partners.
Energy replenishment has been written into its new round of agreements with major customers. On October 10, CATL signed a long-term strategic cooperation agreement with Seres, under which AITO will continue to equip its entire lineup with CATL batteries over the long term, while both parties will incorporate ultra-fast charging networks and battery services into their cooperation.
Sources close to Seres also said the AIVA brand will adopt the battery swap model in the future and take on the primary role in overseas market expansion, with CATL participating in the coordination of battery swap and overseas business.
CATL Chairman Zeng Yuqun has high hopes for battery swap. In December 2024, he proposed that by 2030, battery swap, home charging, and public charging will "each account for one-third" of the market, and promised that CATL's future new battery technologies will all be applied to Chocolate battery swap models.
For a considerable period previously, CATL's cooperation with many automakers remained at the stage of agreements and vehicle model planning. Few models were actually brought to market, and early products did not gain traction in the consumer market.
The Arcfox Beta S3, launched in May this year, brought a turning point. Data from the China Passenger Car Association shows that since its launch in May 2026, deliveries of the Arcfox Beta S3 have consistently remained above 5,000 units. In September 2026, the vehicle's sales reached 6,985 units. A person close to BAIC Arcfox said that in the early stages after launch, over 60% of orders chose the battery swap version.
A person close to BAIC said that at the project's inception, the battery swap version was not intended to be the primary offering, but the final market feedback exceeded initial expectations. A person close to the management of Times Electric Service also stated bluntly that the advancement of consumer-facing business this year has been faster than originally expected.
New models continue to follow. On September 10, the JMC Yichi 05 Chocolate Edition, equipped with CATL's No. 25 battery pack, began volume deliveries. During the same period, the Chocolate battery swap network expanded from 1,020 stations in 45 cities at the end of 2025 to over 2,500 stations in 200 cities by the end of September this year. On September 4, the battery swap station at the Laohekou service area in Hubei was officially put into operation, marking the beginning of filling in gaps in highway energy replenishment.
With a station network in place and vehicle models that private users are willing to order, battery swap now has the conditions to be promoted to more automakers. Yang Jun's responsibilities expanding from battery swap to passenger vehicle customers is precisely about pushing this business's breakthrough on a small number of models toward CATL's larger base of vehicle manufacturer clients.
Energy replenishment becomes a bargaining chip
CATL's latest push comes as automakers are entering an unprecedented battle over energy replenishment.
BYD's network of 10,000 flash charging stations is already serving owners of other brands. On August 28, its 10,000th flash charging station was completed, covering 332 cities. By that point, users of other brands accounted for nearly one-third of the flash charging network's users.
Geely already has its own charging and battery swap assets, yet at the end of September it still chose to deepen cooperation with NIO. Under the agreement, Geely plans to invest all equity of Yiyi Battery Swap and 640 million yuan in cash into NIO Power, with both parties jointly developing battery swap technology and standards for private users, Geely developing vehicle models, and NIO Power providing services.
Automakers now have more choices than before. Continuing to develop charging models allows them to leverage open networks from companies like BYD; choosing battery swap requires additional resources for product development. The cooperation terms CATL offers must make automakers feel the investment is worthwhile. In a market with fierce price competition, battery-vehicle separation can lower the initial purchase threshold, and already-operating stations mean new vehicles do not have to wait for an energy replenishment network to be built from scratch.
In the past, whether a new model could sell well and whether the supporting network could be built on schedule were often two layers of uncertainty that automakers had to bear simultaneously. Now, in cities with existing coverage, the first batch of vehicles can use battery swap services upon delivery. The network investment that CATL and its operating partners have taken on upfront is becoming a condition that customers can use when developing new vehicles. Initial feedback from the consumer market also gives automakers a basis for judging demand.
In the sales plan for the Arcfox Beta S3, consumers can choose to purchase the vehicle outright or lease the battery. This allows the purchase threshold for a family car to be further lowered.
For automakers, after choosing battery swap, swap-enabled models can reduce the "stacking" of battery capacity, with Times Electric Service making the network denser, thereby channeling saved costs into styling, interior, and other areas.
CATL is also filling out its product lineup for next-generation vehicles. The No. 26 swap block released in April this year adopts an 800V architecture, with the first batch being a 75 kWh version aimed at B- to C-segment vehicles. The ultra-charge-and-swap integrated solution proposed during the same period combines ultra-fast charging piles with battery swap stations. This solution allows high-voltage fast charging and battery swap to simultaneously enter automakers' new platforms, and the range of vehicle models the Chocolate battery swap system can target has expanded accordingly.
In the same month, the agreement between Chery, CATL, and Times Electric Service already combined the joint development of multiple battery swap-exclusive vehicle models with continuous battery iteration, supply, and quality and capacity guarantees. The two parties will simultaneously arrange battery supply and energy replenishment services around a batch of new vehicles.
A person close to senior management at Times Electric Service said discussions with automakers have entered next-generation product planning, and he prefers developing from new platforms rather than retrofitting battery swap onto existing models.
This means the battery pack layout, disassembly structure, and interfaces need to be determined during vehicle development and validated together with the station side. It must, at the product planning stage, let customers see the supporting services they can obtain after adopting battery swap, and align supply and station construction investment with the pace of new vehicle launches.
With Yang Jun now also overseeing passenger vehicles, CATL can apply its years of accumulated customer relationships to this batch of projects. Battery supply relationships have given it the opportunity to seek cooperation, but which battery swap solution an automaker adopts for its next vehicle is still a deal that must be negotiated anew.
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