Swaptopus: Octopus and CATL back battery-swapping for trucks

Octopus Energy and the Chinese battery manufacturer CATL announced a joint venture at Octopus's Energy Tech Summit in London. Its name is Swaptopus, and it tackles the slowest part of electric freight: charging time.

How battery-swapping works

Rather than waiting hours for a heavy lorry battery to charge, a truck drives into a hub and has its depleted pack swapped for a fully charged one in minutes. The battery stays owned by the network and is recharged off-peak, when power is cheaper and cleaner, then reused.

The scale being claimed

The venture says it is built to support more than 300,000 electric trucks and to unlock over £30 billion of private investment. The first UK hubs are due to open in 2027, scaling to more than 30 European mega-hubs by 2035.

Why a home-energy reader should care

Heavy goods vehicles are a stubborn slice of transport emissions because big batteries and long charging times are hard to fit around delivery schedules. Swapping moves the charging off the road and onto the grid at quiet times, which is the same logic behind off-peak home EV and battery tariffs. It is also a sign of how far Octopus is pushing beyond household supply. The company's wider record is on its supplier profile.