CATL announces standardized battery packs for swapping, monthly pricing

Today CATL has announced two new standardized "chocolate" battery packs, called 20# and 25#. These are built with CATL's upcoming battery swapping network in mind, and thus come in standard swap-friendly sizes.

The officially named Choco-SEB (SEB stands for Swapping Electric Blocks) packs will support both lithium iron phosphate (LFP) and lithium manganese cobalt (NMC) chemistries. 20# will offer up to 311 miles of CLTC range, while 25# will take that up to 373 miles.

20# is intended for small city cars or subcompact hatchbacks, while 25# is meant for cars such as the BYD Dolphin and Seal. These will be launching inside 10 EVs next year from GAC, BAIC, Wuling, and FAW.

You will basically buy the car without the battery and then rent the battery picking one of two plans. 20# on the Travel plan will have 52 kWh capacity and NMC chemistry and will set you back CNY 469 ($65) each month with unlimited mileage, while on the Family plan you'll get LFP chemistry and 42 kWh capacity for CNY 369 ($50) per month with a 3,000 km monthly limit.

25# comes in NMC chemistry with 70 kWh capacity in the Travel plan with unlimited mileage for CNY 599 ($82) per month, and LFP chemistry with 56 kWh capacity in the Family plan for CNY 499 ($69) per month with a 3,000 km monthly limit.

CATL plans to build 1,000 battery swap stations across China next year, and aims to get up to 30,000 eventually. The first 1,000 will be built by CATL itself, while the next 10,000 will be built together with partners. CATL CEO Robin Zheng thinks that by 2030, battery swapping will meet one-third of the energy replenishment needs for EVs.

Via