# Chinese EV Makers Race to Expand Charging and Battery-Swap Networks BYD, Geely, Nio, Sunwoda and CATL announced expanded charging and battery-swap plans in September, while CATL reported 2,520 chocolate battery-swap stations built and China's August new energy passenger vehicle retail sales fell 10\.1% year on year to 1\.005 million units\. By China EV Signal Published: 2026-10-09T14:12:52.973Z Updated: 2026-10-09T14:12:52.975Z Canonical article: https://chinaevsignal.com/news/chinese-ev-makers-race-charging-battery-swap-networks ## Key takeaways - BYD announced plans to expand its charging network to 90,000 stations over the next two-plus years, after building 11,586 flash-charging stations as of September 24\. - Geely will inject its Yiyi Interconnect battery-swap business into Nio Energy and add 640 million yuan in cash for a 30% stake, while Nio will subscribe to 10% of Geely's Haohan Energy\. - CATL said its chocolate battery-swap network has built 2,520 stations covering 200 cities across 31 provincial-level regions, and plans 1,000 highway battery-swap stations in 2026-2027\. ## BYD Expands Flash-Charging Network BYD announced on September 23 that it plans to expand its charging network to 90,000 stations over the next two-plus years, with 20,000 stations targeted by the end of 2026 and 30,000 and 40,000 added in 2027 and 2028 respectively\. As of September 24, BYD had built 11,586 flash-charging stations covering 341 cities, including 2,000 highway flash-charging stations, according to First Financial\. When BYD's 10,000th flash-charging station opened on August 28, the company said cumulative flash-charging users exceeded 1\.83 million, with users of other brands accounting for nearly one-third\. In March, BYD introduced its second-generation Blade Battery and megawatt flash-charging solution, claiming a fastest charge from 10% to 70% in 5 minutes at room temperature and 9 minutes to 97%\. At the end of September, BYD's power battery base in Xi'an Xixian New Area, planned with an annual capacity of 16GWh, was completed and put into production\. ## Geely Launches 2250kW Charging Technology On September 23, Geely launched its 12C Shen Dun Golden Brick battery and 2250kW intelligent charging technology, claiming the Lynk 10 equipped with the battery averages 4 minutes 30 seconds to charge from 10% to 70%\. Geely plans to build more than 22,000 charging stations with 100,000 charging guns by the end of 2027\. In June, BYD and China Petrochemical Corporation signed a strategic cooperation framework agreement to advance the construction and operation of flash-charging stations using existing fuel station networks, and to cooperate in membership systems, automotive aftermarket services, and optical storage, charging and inspection\. ## Geely Takes 30% Stake in Nio Energy Under a formal agreement announced by Nio on September 27, Geely will inject its Yiyi Interconnect battery-swap business, which mainly serves operating vehicles, into Nio Energy, and add 640 million yuan in cash for a 30% stake\. Nio will continue to hold a 63\.6% controlling stake in Nio Energy and will subscribe to 10% of Geely's Haohan Energy with cash\. Nio Energy's post-investment valuation is about 16 billion yuan, and Geely's 30% stake corresponds to about 4\.8 billion yuan in value, of which cash accounts for only 640 million yuan\. If business performance falls short of agreed targets, Geely's stake may drop to 20%; Geely also has an option to invest an additional 640 million yuan to raise its stake to 34%\. The two companies plan to jointly develop a battery-swap standard for private users, with Geely developing compatible models and Nio Energy providing battery-swap services\. The transaction still requires regulatory approval and satisfaction of closing conditions\. As of September 27, Nio had built 4,126 battery-swap stations\. Founder William Li previously said Nio's average daily battery swaps exceeded 100,000, or about 27 per station\. Nio has estimated that 60 to 70 daily swaps per station could reach break-even, and about 20% of its stations nationwide are close to or have reached that level\. Nio plans to build 10,000 battery-swap stations by 2030\. ## CATL Boosts Battery-Swap Network On September 29, CATL announced its chocolate battery-swap network had built 2,520 stations covering 200 cities across 31 provincial-level regions, with nearly 20,000 new batteries placed into storage\. CATL plans to build 1,000 highway battery-swap stations in 2026-2027 and continue advancing multi-brand vehicle access\. In April, CATL launched an integrated battery-swap and ultra-fast charging solution, planning to integrate battery swapping, ultra-fast charging and battery asset management into one network\. In April, CATL and Chery signed an ultra-fast charging and battery-swap cooperation agreement specifying that CATL and its subsidiary Times Electric Service would handle the development, iteration and supply of battery-swap batteries\. In January, CATL and Nio signed a five-year strategic cooperation agreement covering long-life batteries, battery-swap technology, network sharing and battery leasing\. CATL has also established charging network partnerships with China Petrochemical Corporation, State Grid, China Southern Power Grid and local transportation investment groups\. ## Sunwoda and Other Players Target Charging Growth On September 17, Sunwoda launched an optical storage and flash-charging open ecosystem platform and set a target of building 10,000 megawatt flash-charging stations by the end of 2027\. Li Auto raised its next-generation ultra-fast charging battery target to 15C this year, with related products entering the B-sample and real-vehicle testing stage\. ## Charging Operators Report Mixed Results As of the first half of 2026, Teld operated about 960,000 public charging terminals and delivered about 12\.6 billion kWh of charging in the half-year, up 47% year on year\. TGOOD's electric vehicle charging network business reported first-half revenue of 1\.826 billion yuan, down 0\.83% year on year, with net profit attributable to shareholders of about 30 million yuan, according to its 2026 semi-annual report\. National Energy Administration data show that as of the end of August, China had 5\.16 million public charging guns with a total rated power of 262 million kW, and average rated power per gun of about 50\.69 kW\. ## New Energy Vehicle Retail Sales Fall in August China's domestic new energy passenger vehicle retail sales reached 1\.005 million units in August 2026, down 10\.1% year on year, while cumulative retail sales in the first eight months fell 12\.1% year on year, according to the China Passenger Car Association\. The new energy vehicle retail penetration rate hit a record 65\.2% in August\. ## Company coverage - [BYD news](https://chinaevsignal.com/manufacturers/byd) - [Geely news](https://chinaevsignal.com/manufacturers/geely) - [NIO news](https://chinaevsignal.com/manufacturers/nio) - [Li Auto news](https://chinaevsignal.com/manufacturers/li-auto) - [CATL news](https://chinaevsignal.com/manufacturers/catl) - [Chery news](https://chinaevsignal.com/manufacturers/chery) ## Original publisher 高工锂电. Published: 2026-10-09T11:33:00.000Z