CATL which is the world's largest battery supplier for EVs has launched a new brand called EVOGO which is run by its subsidiary CAES. CAES and EVOGO will be launching battery swap stations across China and while doing so will be launching modular battery blocks that have been inspired by chocolate bars. It was also reported that CATL may be entering the battery swap market in China in partnership with Nio which is the leader in the space, however, it seems like that is not happening.
The CATL owned battery swapping business will support 80 percent of EVs on the market
Its new Choco-SEBs or swappable electric blocks have been designed to look like chocolate bars and are modular in nature. They can achieve a weight density of over 160 wh/kg and a volume energy density of 325 wh/L. CAES has also claimed that these batteries can provide a range of 200 km per block. The most critical part of this strategy is the fact that they are compatible with 80 percent of the global EVs including class A, class B, and class C passenger cars and logistics vehicles.
These batteries also have support for plug-in charging in case the vehicles aren't in the vicinity of a CATL EVOGO station. Each station, interestingly, will be able to store up to 48 Choco-SEBs in a footprint that's the equivalent of three parking spaces and the battery swap will only take one minute.
