Chinese-style EV battery swap stations are coming to Europe
Octopus Energy, the UK's largest energy provider, has teamed up with CATL, the world's biggest EV battery maker, to bring Chinese-style battery swap stations to
Octopus Energy, the UK's largest energy provider, has teamed up with CATL, the world's biggest EV battery maker, to bring Chinese-style battery swap stations to Europe. The pair claim they want to roll out a network of facilities across the continent, targeted at keeping electric trucks on the road for longer. Each hub would be capable of servicing thousands of trucks a day, replacing depleted cells with fresh ones in "minutes." Such a system may even be faster than filling a conventional truck with diesel, and it's certainly a lot cheaper. We've all heard EV boosters talk up battery swapping as the inevitable solution to range anxiety, especially without having to rinse your equipment with fast charging. In theory, you could just rock up at a station, dump your drained cells and put freshly-charged ones in, all in the time it takes you to visit the bathroom.
Of course, the truth was never as simple: The high price of batteries and the engineering required meant it never quite worked as well as they had hoped, and even Tesla abandoned the idea a decade ago. But the system has plenty of uptake in Asia, with trucks able to dump off and pick up new batteries in a matter of minutes. In 2025, CATL partnered with Asian oil company Sinopec to roll out a massive battery-swap network across China. There are even consumer-facing battery swap facilities, including those run by car maker Nio and Taiwanese scooter company Gogoro, which has installed a vast network of swap stations. Octopus and CATL, however, think that it's probably far more viable for trucking, and I'm tempted to agree. After all, if there's one part of the global transport ecosystem in which EVs don't yet make sense, it's heavy industry.
Big trucks and ships carrying equally hefty loads require a lot more energy to move around, and batteries add even more weight to the picture. It's the rocket equation: The heavier your load, the more energy you need, and in EVs that means more batteries, increasing your weight even further. It's why this sector is more likely to be won over by hydrogen fuel cells, given the energy densities and refuel times. But if trucks use smaller batteries, and drivers are confident that they can get a fully-charged replacement at every stage of their journey, then the equation starts to shift. William Rowe, CEO of the Octopus / CATL joint venture, named Swaptopus, says that the battery stations can charge their cells "when the grid needs it." In fact, having a large volume of batteries potentially sitting idle would also enable each hub to act as a small power plant.
The BriefWire