Swapped in 5 minutes. Who will decide what your truck looks like?
By Maarten Alta ยท 7 November 2026
Translated from a LinkedIn post in Dutch.
Octopus Energy and CATL are launching Swaptopus: a European network of battery swap stations for electric trucks. Drive in, empty battery out, full one in. A few minutes instead of half an hour or more at the charger.
The first large stations will open in the United Kingdom in 2027. By 2035 there should be more than 30 across Europe. The Netherlands is not mentioned yet. DHL signed a letter of intent in September.
The concept is aimed at transport where standing still costs money straight away: hub-to-hub, port shuttles and retail distribution.
The question is who sets the standard.
- CATL holds 39.2% of the global market for vehicle batteries.
- China already has more than 300 swap stations for trucks, serving over 30 truck models.
- No European manufacturer yet builds a heavy truck suitable for battery swapping.
Whoever decides the battery pack also decides the chassis. But it is not settled yet. Since April 2026 there is a German standard, DIN SPEC 91533, backed by DAF, Daimler, Iveco and Traton. And European manufacturers, through Milence, are mainly betting on megawatt charging. Which standard Swaptopus will use is not yet known.
For planners, charging time largely disappears. A new constraint takes its place: where is the swap station on the route?
What does this mean for your planning? Taking charging, swapping and grid limits into account in route planning is what you learn in the E-Fleet Planner programme.
Sources: Octopus Energy (22 June 2026); CleanTechnica; Trans.info; The Electric Viking; Power Progress; Automotive World / Reuters. Analysis and wording with Claude AI.
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