EL7.AI
StocksMedium•24 October 2026•
4 min read

CATL shares jump 7.8% on deal targeting battery swaps for 1 million vehicles

Key Facts

1CATL shares in Shenzhen rose 7.8% on October 23, 2026, from the previous session’s close.
2The battery-swapping system CATL and BAIC are developing targets 1 million vehicles, with no timeline announced.
3CATL’s third-quarter net profit rose 14.5% year on year to 21.2 billion yuan, below the 41.2% profit-growth estimate.
4CATL accounted for 39.4% of global electric-vehicle battery usage in the first eight months of 2026, compared with 37.7% a year earlier.
5CATL’s share of China’s power-battery installation market fell to 40.9% in September from 49.8% in January.

CATL shares in Shenzhen rose 7.8% on October 23 from the previous session’s close, alongside an agreement with BAIC Group to develop a battery-swapping system targeting 1 million vehicles. Bloomberg reported, as did The Business Times, that the two sides did not announce a timeline for achieving that goal. The agreement puts expansion of the swapping network at the center of cooperation between the companies, but sets a future target rather than a count of vehicles already in service. The move follows quarterly results showing slower profit growth at CATL, as the sector faces intense competition and a slowdown in the pace of auto sales growth in China. An earlier EL7 story reported that the company’s Hong Kong shares fell 9.4% on October 21 after quarterly results missed analysts’ expectations.

According to Bloomberg, BAIC will add compatible models from multiple brands to CATL’s Choco-Swap network and make its dealer network available to support the rollout of battery-swapping stations. The cooperation covers vehicle, battery and infrastructure development, as well as battery management and new business models. CATL described the areas of cooperation by saying the partners would work to “develop battery-swappable vehicle models, build integrated infrastructure for supercharging and battery swapping, and manage batteries throughout their life cycle.” The scope reflects a shift from adding compatible models to coordinating multiple parts of the usage ecosystem. BAIC sold about 390,000 new-energy vehicles in 2025, providing a reference for the vehicle base on which the partnership is built.

CATL data show that the Choco-Swap network had more than 1,470 stations in 99 cities as of April 2026. The company said it expects the network to exceed 3,000 stations by the end of 2026, with coverage expanding to about 190 cities. It also announced a plan to build 4,000 integrated charging and swapping stations by year-end, including a highway network spanning 12 north-south and 11 east-west routes. The Arcfox S3 Choco-Swap version was the first BAIC model to use CATL’s technology, according to the company, which said a battery swap takes 99 seconds. These figures place the announced expansion in the context of an existing network and stated operating plans, while the target of serving 1 million vehicles still has no set timeline.

But expanding the battery-swapping network faces the cost of investing in stations and spare batteries, as well as reluctance among some automakers to standardize vehicle designs to accommodate swapping, Bloomberg reported. CATL also said its early partners, including BAIC, are targeting the construction of more than 100,000 joint energy-supply facilities by the end of 2028. The company said its integrated stations could reduce energy losses by more than 13 percentage points compared with conventional storage-equipped charging stations, and raise equipment utilization to more than 85%. It added that service capacity per parking bay could be equivalent to three times that of comparable stations, while the fixed investment cost for the supercharging component is one-fifth that of similar systems. These are estimates CATL announced in April, while station and spare-battery costs remain among the obstacles cited by Bloomberg.

CATL’s net profit rose 14.5% year on year in the third quarter to 21.2 billion yuan, below analysts’ estimate for growth of 41.2%. Profit growth was 36.5% in the second quarter, making the third-quarter increase the slowest in about two years. Revenue rose 58.6% to 165.2 billion yuan, but fell short of expectations for 60.2% growth, after a 56.9% increase in the previous quarter. Reuters attributed the slowdown in profit growth to intense competition in the electric-vehicle battery market and slower growth in car sales in China. Despite domestic pressures, CATL’s share of global electric-vehicle battery usage reached 39.4% in the first eight months of 2026, up from 37.7% a year earlier, while BYD’s share fell to 15.1% from 17.1%.

In the Chinese market, CATL’s share of power-battery installations fell to 40.9% in September from 49.8% in January, according to Reuters. BYD’s share, meanwhile, rose to 21.1% from 17.4% over the same period. This shows the widening gap between CATL’s global position and its standing in the domestic market during the months covered by the data. The next announced step in the network plans is CATL’s expectation that Choco-Swap will exceed 3,000 stations and reach about 190 cities by the end of 2026, alongside its plan for 4,000 integrated stations by the same deadline. The partners, including BAIC, are targeting more than 100,000 joint energy-supply facilities by the end of 2028, while they have set no date for the goal of serving 1 million vehicles.