Contemporary Amperex Technology Co., Limited (CATL) is accelerating the rollout of its battery swap network this year. By late April, the company disclosed that its Chocolate battery swap stations had just surpassed 1,470 units; by the end of June, that number had grown to 2,000 stations spanning 180 cities. Now, a new plan has emerged for 100 stations in a single city: Kunming.

On August 26, it was learned from CATL's subsidiary, Times EV Service, that the unit has signed a cooperation agreement with Kun Development New Energy, a company under Kunming's state-owned assets system, to jointly build 100 Chocolate battery swap stations in the city. Under the agreement, Kun Development New Energy will handle asset investment, provide sites, vehicle replacement resources, and local coordination, while Times EV Service will supply the swap standards, operating systems, and digital platform. The two parties also plan to standardize battery configurations, pricing, and services.

The heavy asset investment in the stations sits on the local platform's side, with CATL entering through technology and operations. Kun Development New Energy is contributing more than just capital; it must also secure locations and vehicle resources. The battery swap business has always hit a bottleneck here. Too few stations means automakers and users have little incentive to participate; expanding too quickly without sufficient vehicle adoption risks creating a glut of idle assets. Concentrated construction within a single city can shorten the distance to find a station, but it also concentrates utilization pressure in one market. The 100 stations in Kunming will ultimately rely on locally introduced swap-enabled vehicles to absorb the capacity.

CATL is also speeding up efforts with partners this year to fill the vehicle side of the equation. In April 2026, the Chocolate swap initiative announced collaborations with 25 vehicle models across 18 passenger car brands from 11 automakers. BAIC has launched the Arcfox S3 swap edition, while Chery plans to develop exclusive models alongside CATL. However, dedicated swap-designed vehicles remain scarce at present; many products are retrofitted from existing charging models, with exclusive models likely arriving by late 2026 or early 2027. While the station network buildout has accelerated, vehicle development and terminal sales still need time to catch up.

Kun Development New Energy has written vehicle replacement resources into the agreement to ensure stations and vehicles come online together as much as possible. With local state capital funding and vehicle coordination, Times EV Service can speed up station deployment while retaining battery standards and operating systems. For Kun Development New Energy, slower vehicle adoption would extend the payback period on its investment.

It was also learned that following Kunming, Times EV Service will sequentially announce several more single-city "100-station" projects. Kunming is just one of them. As multiple projects move into construction, Times EV Service will face the challenge of parallel delivery across multiple cities.