CATL: Expanding Battery-Swap Network Will Accelerate Sodium-Ion Battery Adoption

• CATL chairman said sodium-ion batteries offer sufficient range for daily urban travel, while more swap stations can ease concerns about longer trips.
• The company's swap stations now cover about 200 Chinese cities, with a target of more than 3,000 passenger car stations by year-end.

CATL (HKEX: 3750) said its rapidly expanding battery-swapping network in China will help accelerate sodium-ion battery adoption by easing consumer concerns about driving range.

The battery maker's chairman Robin Zeng made the remarks at a Benchmark Mineral Intelligence event in Shanghai, Bloomberg reported on Tuesday.

Sodium-ion batteries offer sufficient range for daily urban travel, while an expanding swap network can ease concerns among drivers looking to make longer trips on weekends, Zeng said.

"We are building battery-swapping stations on our own, leasing batteries to the consumers," Zeng said. "We need to build more swapping stations on the highways and in the cities."

About 200 Chinese cities already have CATL swap stations, he said. The company aims to have more than 3,000 passenger car swap stations across China by the end of this year.

Battery swapping allows drivers to replace depleted packs with fully charged ones within minutes, offering an alternative to conventional charging.

CATL is promoting sodium-ion batteries as an alternative to traditional lithium-ion batteries in vehicles. The technology offers advantages in cold weather and is seen as potentially improving safety and reducing costs.

However, energy density remains a key concern for sodium-ion battery adoption.

CATL previously said it expects 10,000 to 20,000 electric vehicles to use its sodium-ion batteries this year. The company also views the technology as a risk management strategy to reduce its exposure to sharp swings in lithium prices.

The company launched its Naxtra sodium-ion battery brand in April 2025 and jointly unveiled a passenger vehicle equipped with the battery with Changan Automobile in February this year.

CATL said at the time that the vehicle's cells have an energy density of up to 175 Wh/kg and enable a driving range of more than 400 kilometers (249 miles), demonstrating the technology's ability to meet daily travel needs.

Cold-weather performance is another key selling point. According to information CATL released in February, the battery retains more than 90% of its capacity at minus 40 degrees Celsius (minus 40 degrees Fahrenheit).

The swap network provides supporting infrastructure for broader sodium-ion battery adoption. CATL announced in December 2025 that it had built 1,020 Choco-Swap stations across 45 cities.

Its subsidiary Contemporary Amperex Energy Service Technology (CAES) said at the time that it planned to deploy sodium-ion batteries based on Naxtra technology at scale across its swap network starting in 2026.