CATL has announced an EV battery swapping solution that completes battery swapping in one minute and offers a sizable degree of rental flexibility. Will it drastically transform the EV territory?
Leading global EV battery supplier CATL announced the new EVOGO battery swapping service in January that constructs a pristine EV ecology through brand new designs in batteries, battery swapping stations, and App.
The key of EVOGO lies on the distinctive Choco battery module that is adopted with the CTP (Cell-to-Pack) high-efficiency composition technology, which sits at more than 160 Wh/kg in gravimetric energy density and more than 325 Wh/L in volumetric energy density. A single battery provides roughly 200km of driving range, and is applicable on most EVs developed by BEV platforms, where the selling point of the battery goes to its flexible formation from one to three units according to the specific requirements, and offers levels of driving range in accordance with vehicle models.
Another core technology of the battery lies on the battery management system (BMS). CATL has adopted wireless BMS on the Choco battery module for the first time, where the exterior of the entire battery has only high voltage anode and cathode terminals without other excessive ports, which facilitates plug and play, as well as rapid battery swapping.
▲The Choco battery concept is similar to that of Gogoro’s smart battery where flexibility in plugging is attained through simplified designs.
The battery swapping station of CATL is quite similar to that of NIO, which occupies approximately three parking spots, and stores 48 batteries, with single battery swapping taking roughly one minute. In other words, a replenishment of 600km driving range would merely take three minutes at the fastest.
CATL established the new brand EVOGO for this particular battery swapping service, and hopes that EVs of different models under various brands ranging from Class A to C, as well as commercial and logistics vehicles, can utilize EVOGO battery swapping stations, as long as they are adopted with Choco batteries.
EVOGO believes that most EV owners are merely using 10-20% of their driving range, which is why users of EVOGO can rent electricity according to their needs, where owners are able to just rent a single battery unit for daily commuting, and rent two or three batteries during long distance trips. Freedom in electricity consumption is thus achieved.
▲EVOGO is the first service in the EV industry to provide battery swapping for cross-brand and cross-model vehicles.
More than half of Taiwanese owners became familiar with battery swapping through Gogoro, and now EVOGO has further refined on the implementation by not only allowing battery swapping, but owners are also able to charge right at the comfort of their homes, or utilize fast charging stations. The freedom between charging and swapping makes it the most flexible replenishment solution right now.
The first model that supports battery charging and swapping from EVOGO is the battery swapping ver. FAW Bestune NAT, and subsequent models will be successively unveiled. There will be 10 cities with battery swapping stations for the first batch, which is followed by continuous expansion.
With that being said, CATL did not announce the most important aspect that is the tariff, nor did the company provide detailed information pertaining to the date of activation and establishment. However, such achievement remains significant as no four-wheel vehicle manufacturers have yet to execute a battery swapping service that facilitates cross-brand accesses. CATL, currently ranked at first place in market share, may perhaps be the best candidate for this orientation.
(Photo source: CATL)