China-based battery giant CATL officially launched its EVOGO battery swap services (earlier post) in Xiamen, southeast China’s Fujian Province, making it the world’s first EVOGO city. The first four fast battery swap stations that have started operation are located in Siming District, Huli District and Haicang District of Xiamen.

The number of fast battery swap stations in Xiamen is expected to increase to 30 by the end of this year, when drivers at any place on Xiamen Island can find one such station within a radius of 3 kilometers.

Designed to look like a bar of chocolate, “Choco-SEB (swapping electric block)” is a mass-produced battery specially developed for EV battery-sharing. It offers high-energy density with small size, flexible combination and minimalist design. With the support of the latest CTP (cell-to-pack) technology, it can achieve a gravimetric energy density of more than 160 Wh/kg and a volumetric energy density of 325 Wh/L, enabling a single block to provide a driving range of 200 km.

At present, the special offer for renting one Choco-SEB block is RMB 399 (US$62) per month, which will be dynamically adjusted according to different level of power consumption by users.

For each battery swap service at the swap station, the charge is almost the same as that of the fast charging service, and it is subject to dynamic adjustment according to different station locations and time slots.

Contemporary Amperex Energy Service Technology Ltd. (CAES), a wholly-owned subsidiary of CATL, has achieved comprehensive win-win cooperation with multiple partners by implementing its city partner plan. All parties involved have joined forces to cooperate in technology, resources and services to facilitate the construction of battery swap network and promote EVOGO vehicle models in Xiamen.

In the future, CATL will add more partners to release more EVOGO vehicle models and deliver EVOGO services in more cities.

Nio closing in on 900 swap stations. Separately, China-based electric automaker Nio announced in its update for Q1 2022 that it has deployed 884 Power Swap stations, 727 Power Charger stations and 3,832 destination chargers in China.

NIO’s second-generation battery swap station allows the vehicle to park automatically in station, where users can experience a three-minute battery swap while staying inside the vehicle. As of 10 December 2021, NIO had provided more than 5.3 million swaps to users in China. Battery swapping has become one of the favorite power solutions among NIO users, the company said.