New $A22,000 EV takes 88 seconds to have a fully charged battery

In November, GAC, an Australian-bound automotive giant from China, unveiled an electric hatchback called the Aion UT. Then in September this year, a pink Aion UT was spotted testing on Australian roads, hinting at the potential of that car making it into our market in the near future.

Now, a new variant of the Aion UT has been shown to be able to swap an empty pack for a charged one in just 88 seconds, quicker than its advertised speed of just 99 seconds.

The Aion UT Super is expected to be priced from under $A22,000 and comes equipped with the latest battery-swapping tech from the world’s biggest battery maker, CATL, called the Choco swap.

In a video shared by Thinkercar on X, the new Aion UT is seen driving into CATL’s new battery swap station and gets its battery swapped automatically, in just 88 seconds.

A fully charged battery pack can deliver up to 500 km of NEDC range, which is likely to be closer to 400 km on the WLTP cycle used in Australia.

CATL’s new Choco battery swap stations also appear to be faster than the global leader in battery swap stations, Nio, which recently completed 90 million battery swaps for EVs. 

The battery for the Aion UT Super is a CATL-produced, Choco 54 kWh Lithium-Iron-Phosphate (LFP) pack.

According to Chinese EV industry expert and analyst, Lei Xing, CATL has already rolled out 777 Choco battery swap stations, with the plan to rolling out 1,000 sites by the end of 2025.

These sites will be across 45 cities and are expected to be ramped up to 120 cities in 2026, thanks to a network of 2,500 expected open sites.

Long term, the company aims to roll out over 30,000 stations across China and could even have implications for international markets.

CATL’s Choco battery-swapping tech is expected to be available in future models, making battery swapping a bigger part of electrifying transport.

The Aion UT is competing with the popular MG4 and BYD Dolphin in the hatchback segment. It was launched at the 2024 Guangzhou Auto Show. 

The Aion UT has been delivered in China since Q1 2025, with international markets like Thailand seeing entry in Q2. This sets the path for what is to come in Australia in the coming months.

This new GAC Aion UT Super variant with CATL’s Choco battery swap tech could be the first of many models to feature this in months to come, helping battery swapping play a bigger role in the EV transition.