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Yutong Group and CATL signed a global strategic memorandum on May 12 to deepen an existing 15-year battery partnership and jointly build standards and operations for battery-swappable heavy trucks. Executives including Yutong chair Tang Yuxiang and CATL chair & CEO Zeng Yuqun witnessed the signing; supply-chain and bus-business leaders signed on behalf of each firm. The pact focuses on four pillars: coordinated overseas expansion with integrated vehicle-and-battery exports, end-to-end electrific
CATL and Yutong deepening a 15-year partnership to set battery-swap standards for heavy trucks affects vehicle manufacturers, fleet operators, and battery-supply chains as swap systems change product and service models.
Dossier last updated: 2026-05-22 13:18:10
BAIC's Arcfox (Beiqi) launched the Beta S3 electric sedan on May 22, offering a charging version from ¥79,800 and a battery-swap version with battery rental priced from ¥59,800. Trim levels for the charging models range from 460 PLUS to 660 Ultra+, with estimated ranges of 460 km, 560 km and 660 km; the swap models list a 535 km range and use CATL "Chocolate" swap batteries. The car features a 15.6-inch floating center screen, 8.8-inch instrument cluster, support for CarPlay, Carlink and HUAWEI HiCar, and the top 660 Ultra+ lidar-equipped driving package (192-line lidar) aimed for Q4 delivery with urban and highway NOA. Specs include a 159 kW motor (swap version), sub-11 kWh/100 km consumption, and modern exterior details.
Yutong Group and CATL signed a global strategic memorandum on May 12 to deepen an existing 15-year battery partnership and jointly build standards and operations for battery-swappable heavy trucks. Executives including Yutong chair Tang Yuxiang and CATL chair & CEO Zeng Yuqun witnessed the signing; supply-chain and bus-business leaders signed on behalf of each firm. The pact focuses on four pillars: coordinated overseas expansion with integrated vehicle-and-battery exports, end-to-end electrification for commercial vehicle scenarios (mobility, logistics, worksite), development of swap-station standards and an operational ecosystem for heavy trucks enabling vehicle-battery separation and rapid replenishment, and joint brand-building. The agreement formalizes Yutong’s long-standing exclusive use of CATL cells and aims to accelerate green commercial-vehicle deployment globally.
Chery Jaguar Land Rover’s new FREELANDER brand teased the exterior of its first model, the Freelander 8, a luxury ‘all-terrain’ SUV set to debut later this year after appearing in Chinese regulatory filings. The boxy, flagship 8-series emphasizes a yacht-style waistline, wide tailgate badged FREELANDER, panoramic dome roof and a third-row dedicated ‘‘sky corridor.’’ The vehicle integrates lidar on the nose and will ship with Huawei’s QianKun ADS V4.1 driving system across the range. Built on the iMax platform, dimensions are ~5118–5185/2050/1898mm with 3,040mm wheelbase; powertrains include BEV, range-extender and PHEV, with China getting an 800V range-extender platform, CATL batteries and Qualcomm Snapdragon 8397 compute.
NIO's ES9 completed a 10,000 km endurance challenge in 94 hours, 19 minutes and 11 seconds, arriving in Dunhuang on May 10 and breaking the previous EV continuous-journey record of 98 hours 6 minutes 42 seconds set by Ledao L60 in 2025. The run, branded “Wanli Yue Xiongguan,” is the first 10,000 km challenge for a full-size BEV in China and traversed more than a dozen provinces using NIO’s “swap people, swap batteries, not cars” model, relying on its battery swap stations from Leshan to the soon-to-open Dunhuang exchange site. NIO launched the ES9 in April as a flagship SUV with over 40 industry-first technologies and tiered pricing that includes battery-rental options.