Swaptopus aims to deploy over 30 heavy-duty battery-swapping hubs across the UK, supporting 300,000 electric trucks while unlocking £30 billion in private investment and accelerating transport electrification.
A major new alliance between China’s battery champion CATL and UK-based energy technology company Octopus Energy is set to reshape the economics of heavy-duty transport electrification in Europe. Announced at Octopus Energy’s annual Energy Tech Summit in London on June 22, the two companies will establish a joint venture, named Swaptopus, to deploy a nationwide battery-swapping network for electric trucks across the UK.
The partners plan to open the first large-scale demonstration hubs in 2027 and build more than 30 battery-swapping stations by 2035, creating a network covering the UK’s key freight corridors. Each hub is expected to service thousands of trucks per day. Once fully deployed, the network could support more than 300,000 electric heavy goods vehicles (HGVs), unlock over £30 billion in private-sector investment, and reduce Europe’s dependence on imported oil by substituting domestically generated renewable electricity.
The announcement represents one of the most significant attempts yet to commercialize battery swapping for heavy-duty transport outside China, where the model has already achieved meaningful scale.
Bringing China’s battery-swapping model to Europe
At the heart of the partnership is CATL’s Qiji battery-swapping platform, a technology ecosystem developed specifically for heavy-duty commercial vehicles. CATL contributes battery technology, standardized battery-pack architecture, and operational experience gained through large-scale deployment across China. Octopus Energy will provide energy supply capabilities, electricity trading expertise, flexibility services, customer operations, and access to its growing European energy ecosystem.
The joint venture effectively combines two complementary capabilities across the value chain. CATL supplies battery platform, while Octopus manages the energy infrastructure and electricity-market integration required to operate swapping stations economically.
Lowering the total cost of ownership
The business model behind Swaptopus may prove as important as the technology itself. Under the proposed structure, fleet operators would purchase trucks without owning the battery pack, the most expensive component of an electric vehicle. Instead, batteries would remain under the ownership and management of the network operator, with customers paying based on mileage or energy consumption.
This “battery-as-a-service” model significantly reduces upfront vehicle costs while shifting battery lifecycle management, maintenance, and performance risks to the infrastructure provider.
For fleet operators, the key metric is total cost of ownership (TCO), which includes vehicle acquisition, fuel or electricity expenses, maintenance, and operational downtime. By removing battery ownership costs and reducing charging-related delays, battery swapping could materially improve the economic case for electric trucking.
The model also enables more efficient battery utilization. Centralized battery pools can optimize charging schedules, battery health management, and energy procurement, generating operational efficiencies that would be difficult for individual fleet operators to achieve on their own.
A Strategic Response to Europe’s Electrification Challenge
The venture arrives at a critical moment for Europe’s commercial vehicle sector.
China has emerged as the global leader in electric heavy-duty vehicles. Electric truck penetration in China exceeded 25% last year and continues to rise, supported by industrial policy, battery manufacturing scale, and rapidly expanding charging and swapping infrastructure. The policy momentum remains strong. On June 12, Chinese authorities unveiled an implementation plan to accelerate the large-scale adoption of heavy-duty electric trucks, with a target of building 3,000 charging and battery-swapping stations for heavy-duty vehicles nationwide by 2030.
Europe, by contrast, remains at an earlier stage of adoption. Electric trucks account for less than 5% of the European heavy-duty vehicle market, while the figure in the UK is estimated at around 1%.
This disparity reflects several structural challenges. Heavy-duty vehicles require large battery packs, extensive charging infrastructure, and high fleet utilization rates. Long charging times can reduce operational efficiency, making fleet operators hesitant to switch from diesel.
Swaptopus aims to address these barriers simultaneously by creating a dedicated infrastructure layer for commercial transport electrification. If successful, the network could become a template for broader deployment across Europe.
The scale envisioned by the partners is substantial. Supporting more than 300,000 electric trucks would represent a significant share of the future UK freight fleet and would create one of the world’s largest battery-swapping ecosystems outside China.
Beyond transport: integrating vehicles into the power system
The collaboration could also extend beyond trucking infrastructure.
Octopus Energy disclosed that the two companies are exploring opportunities to deploy vehicle-to-grid (V2G) technology across CATL’s global automotive partner network. V2G systems enable electric vehicles to discharge electricity back into the grid during periods of high demand and recharge when renewable generation is abundant.
If implemented at scale, the concept could transform millions of electric vehicles into a distributed virtual power plant.
For Octopus, which has built much of its growth strategy around energy flexibility and smart-grid services, integrating transportation assets into electricity markets represents a natural extension of its business model. For CATL, V2G capability could enhance the value proposition of its battery ecosystem while creating recurring service revenues beyond battery sales.
Expanding UK-China clean energy cooperation
The announcement marks Octopus Energy’s second major joint venture with a Chinese partner in 2026. Earlier this year, during UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s visit to China, Octopus partnered with PCG Power in a venture focused on participating in Guangdong’s electricity trading market.
The two ventures target different geographies and strategic objectives. The Guangdong initiative is aimed at China’s power markets, while Swaptopus is focused on deploying Chinese clean-energy technology into Europe’s transport sector.
The latest partnership highlights an emerging trend in the energy transition: cross-border collaboration between Chinese hardware leaders and Western energy-service companies. As electrification accelerates, competitive advantage increasingly depends not only on manufacturing batteries and vehicles but also on orchestrating the infrastructure, software, financing, and energy-market capabilities that surround them.
For Europe’s trucking sector, the success of Swaptopus could determine whether battery swapping becomes a niche alternative or a mainstream pathway toward decarbonizing heavy freight. If the economics prove compelling, the project may offer a blueprint for accelerating electric truck adoption across a continent still searching for scalable solutions to one of transport’s most difficult decarbonization challenges.