ChinaYinwang Intelligent Technology, the Huawei-controlled smart-car company that also uses the name Newcool, has signed a strategic cooperation framework agreement with CATL and Contemporary Amperex Energy Service Technology (CAES), the CATL unit that runs its battery-swap business. CATL announced the agreement on 19 October 2026. It covers both swappable batteries and the network of swap stations.
What the agreement covers
Yinwang joins CATL’s Choco swap ecosystem and will make cars that use Huawei’s Qiankun driver-assistance and vehicle systems compatible with Choco stations. The three companies plan to connect data across cars, stations and the cloud, using battery status and travel patterns to schedule a swap before the driver runs low. In the system they describe, the car decides when it needs energy, finds a station, drives in, lines itself up for an automated 99-second battery swap and leaves. Nio already offers a version of this at some of its stations, where cars drive in and complete a swap while using navigation-assisted driving.
The announcement did not name any car models, a start date or the first areas to be covered.
The network and the shareholders
CATL had built 2,520 Choco stations across 200 Chinese cities by 29 September, and its long-term target is 30,000. It has also announced 1,000 highway swap stations to be built in 2026 and 2027, taking the network from cities onto long-distance routes. For a sense of the volumes swapping already handles, Nio’s network completed 183,664 swaps in a single day over the Golden Week holiday.
Yinwang grew out of Huawei’s car business unit and became a separate company in January 2024. Huawei holds 80%, and Seres and Changan’s Avatr hold 10% each.
Reports of the first models
A day after the signing, LatePost reported that the partners have set an initial line-up of five swap models for 2027, and Cailian reported that the first will come from Epicland, the brand Dongfeng develops with Huawei, according to CnEVPost. Yinwang declined to comment on the model count or launch plans, so neither has been confirmed.
