CATL will promote battery swapping solution in taxi and ride-hailing service scenarios first through an all-electric model o Bestune, an automotive brand of FAW Group.

Bestune NAT using CATL's EVOGO battery swap service

The battery maker launched on Jan. 18 the battery swapping service brand “EVOGO”, under which the Bestune NAT will be the first model to use CATL's module battery swap solution.

The Bestune NAT is an all-electric model the automaker specially designs for taxi and ride-hailing services. It has served mobility fleets in quite a few cities including Shenzhen, Guangzhou, Suzhou, Wuxi, Hefei, Tianjin, Changchun, Lanzhou, and Liaoyuan.

As for the roles the duo will play in the cooperation, Bestune said it will take charge of the development, testing, and production of the NAT’s module battery swap version, while CATL will offer power batteries and work on the construction of battery swapping stations. The two parties will join hands to find partners for vehicle sales and operation of battery swapping stations, wishing to rapidly deploy CATL's module battery swap solution across China.

FAW Group and CATL signed a framework agreement in July 2020 for the strategic cooperation in areas of the research of automotive power battery core technologies, the product development, and the battery swap model for mobility service.

In May 2021, FAW Bestune struck a deal to deliver 2,000 battery swappable Bestune NATs in Liaoyuan city, Jilin province within two years. The first batch of 500 units was delivered in last Sept., when both parties announced the launch of the cooperative project.