Can battery swapping solve EV charging in Tokyo?

The automotive industry has yet to conclusively answer a perennial question concerning electric vehicles (EVs): what is the best recharging solution? Battery swapping, a departure from the traditional gas station forecourt paradigm, is increasingly gathering momentum in advanced e-mobility markets like China. Many companies claim that replacing a depleted battery with a fully charged unit can be performed in five minutes or less, far quicker than even the best of current generation DC fast chargers.

CATL aims to build 30,000 swap stations nationwide, believing they could account for one-third of China’s EV charging by 2030. Significant capacity is already in place, and its utilisation rate is growing. Nio reportedly averaged 100,000 battery swaps per day during February 2025, a record for the company. The following month, Guangzhou Automobile Corporation Chairman Feng Xingya pointedly called on the government to offer the battery swap business model greater policy support.

John de Souza, Co-founder and President of San Francisco-based battery swap company Ample, tells Automotive World there has been “massive adoption” in China. “It’s demonstrating that EV adoption at scale and battery swapping go hand-in-hand.” However, he notes that acceptance is also growing in other major automotive markets with governments targeting aggressive decarbonisation goals.