CATL and Didi said on Jan. 28 that they have signed a partnership to build battery swap stations for commercial fleets to recharge their electric vehicles, in a sign of China’s urgent need to set up a gold standard for EV infrastructure. Xin Guobin, a vice minister of industry and information technology, in June said Beijing will back businesses’ efforts to jointly set standards for battery specifications and swap techniques. The two companies will also promote the adoption of EVs with swappable batteries while exploring collaboration on other areas such as storage-integrated EV charging facilities, the statement said. Context: NIO is for now the dominant player in the field, operating more than 2,300 battery swap stations in China as of December. China reported a significant 81% annual increase for its battery swap infrastructure network with a total of 3,567 swap stations as of December, according to data compiled by the Electric Vehicle Charging Infrastructure Promotion Alliance (EVCIPA).