{"text":[[{"start":10.05,"text":"CATL plans to launch more than 30 battery-swapping stations for electric lorries in Europe by 2035 as the world’s largest battery maker bets on a technology that will make them cheaper to run than diesel trucks."}],[{"start":23.6,"text":"The Chinese group will partner with Octopus Energy, the UK’s largest household energy supplier, to build a network of battery-swapping hubs that the two companies said could serve more than 300,000 electric trucks and generate private investment of more than £30bn in the region."}],[{"start":41.45,"text":"Using battery swapping, electric lorries will be able to replace depleted cells with fully charged ones in minutes, whereas fast charging takes just under an hour. The technology also lowers the upfront cost of buying an electric truck, as batteries do not need to be owned, while cells can also be used for longer."}],[{"start":61.300000000000004,"text":"“With battery swapping now, we will be cheaper than diesel is today,” Greg Jackson, founder of Octopus Energy, said in an interview on Monday. “Diesel costs are inflated by the war in Iran, but as diesel falls, we’ll be roughly cost comparable, but unlike diesel, we’ll get cheaper every year.”"}],[{"start":79,"text":"The first battery-swapping stations are expected to be rolled out in the UK next year."}],[{"start":84.5,"text":"Oscar Luo, CATL’s head of overseas investment, told the FT that compared with ultrafast charging, battery swapping offered lower costs for electric lorries and supported battery durability. Battery swapping also made recycling easier, he said. "}],[{"start":100.55,"text":"“Our battery swap system can change the whole battery with more than 500 kilowatt-hour power in five minutes. That’s shorter than filling diesel into the tank,” Luo said at an Octopus event in London where the two companies announced the 50-50 joint venture."}],[{"start":116.45,"text":"Battery swapping, a technology pioneered by Chinese electric vehicle maker Nio, is becoming widespread in China, but it has been slower to expand elsewhere due to the high cost of building the service stations required. "}],[{"start":129.7,"text":"Interest in electric lorries has increased amid the rise in diesel prices caused by the Middle East conflict, which has made the total cost of operating electric versions comparatively much cheaper."}],[{"start":141.39999999999998,"text":"Despite regulatory pressure, the transition has been much slower for heavy goods vehicles than passenger cars, with the electric share for trucks at only 0.9 per cent in the UK and 4.4 per cent in Europe during the first three months of 2026."}],[{"start":155.74999999999997,"text":"In China, CATL plans to install 900 battery-swapping stations for trucking this year, up from about 305 last year. By 2030, the company has said that 80 per cent of the country’s key logistics trunk roads will be covered by its battery-swapping network."}],[{"start":172.44999999999996,"text":"The Chinese government is supporting the electrification efforts with plans to have 1.6mn battery-powered trucks on China’s roads by 2030. This will mean that a 40 per cent share of new truck sales will be electric compared with about 25 per cent last year. "}],[{"start":187.74999999999997,"text":"Robin Zeng, CATL’s billionaire founder, expects half of China’s market to be electric-powered by 2028."}],[{"start":202.04999999999998,"text":""}]],"url":"https://audio.ftcn.net.cn/album/a_1782125436_8300.mp3"}