Hong Kong gets RHD taxis with CATL's 99-second battery swap technology

The biggest challenge facing electric cars is not the speed of the vehicle - they have plenty of that. The speed of their recharging is an entirely different ball game. Drivers of traditional gas-powered vehicles refill their tanks in minutes, but EV owners have to wait for their battery to recharge. This time difference is especially a problem for high-usage commercial fleets, like taxis, where every minute spent charging is money lost. But it's all about to change as a major development in Hong Kong promises to erase that wait time entirely.

The change centers on the world's first right-hand-drive new energy taxi built to support battery swapping. This vehicle is the FAW Hongqi E-QM5, recently unveiled by partners led by battery giant CATL. This specialized model comes with a 56 kWh Choco-SEB battery pack supplied directly by CATL, which gives the taxi an impressive CLTC range of 311 miles on a single charge. For a driver covering city streets all day, that amount of range provides plenty of freedom.

The real headline, however, is CATL's proprietary Choco-SEB technology. This clever system allows a taxi driver to simply pull into a station and exchange a depleted battery for a fresh, fully charged one. The speed of this swap is the truly impressive part: a full battery change takes only 99 seconds - instead of plugging in and waiting for a better part of an hour, a driver pulls in, waits less than two minutes, and then gets back to work. That's how you fix range anxiety for a fleet of electric cars.

CATL officially entered the battery swap business in early 2022, launching its EVOGO brand, operated by its subsidiary Contemporary Amperex Energy Service Technology (CAES). To make the system work for many different types of EVs, CATL has been working on standardization. Late last year, the company made a big update to its swapping setup by introducing two standard Choco-SEB battery packs, known as #20 and #25. This focus on standardization is key because it means many different car types can one day use the same swap stations.

To bring this network to life in Hong Kong, CATL built a powerful team. The company's subsidiary CAES, along with Dragon Rise New Energy, FAW's import-export unit, and CATL's joint venture with Didi, signed a strategic cooperation agreement in the city on November 24. This partnership is what allowed the companies to debut the battery-swappable FAW Hongqi E-QM5 at the opening ceremony of Dragon Rise's battery swap ecosystem showroom.

The ambitious plans for battery swap stations are already underway. Construction started on Hong Kong's first Choco-SEB station on Ping Che Road in Fanling, New Territories, earlier this year, on January 13. This first station is set to open very soon, giving drivers of the FAW Hongqi E-QM5 their first chance at the 99-second swap. From there, the expansion ramps up fast. CATL plans to have six total stations operating across the city by the end of 2026, with a total of 14 battery swap stations in Hong Kong by 2027, covering all key areas.

This local push is part of a much larger blueprint. The goal is to build a new energy mobility network that reaches far beyond Hong Kong's borders. CATL plans to use the success of the Choco-SEB battery swap model to establish this network across the entire ASEAN region. Seeing this right-hand-drive taxi driving around Hong Kong is just the first step in this regional vision. By proving that EVs can be refueled faster than gasoline cars, CATL and its partners are speeding up the move toward a fully electric future for commercial transport.

Via