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Octopus and CATL bring battery-swapping to UK fleets

Swap stations enter the UK charging mix, plus 13 more on cost, compliance, RVs. · 15 stories · 01 Jul 2026

THRIVE is independent fleet intelligence, direct to your inbox. Each Tuesday we read the UK fleet market at the source and send you the developments that actually change a fleet decision - every claim linked to where it came from. A short read.

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Octopus Energy and CATL have formed a joint venture, called Swaptopus, to build battery-swapping hubs for electric HGVs across the UK and Europe. The pitch: a depleted truck battery swapped out for a charged one in minutes, no plug, no waiting around a depot yard for a megawatt charger to do its job.

The first UK "mega hubs" are pencilled in for 2027, with around 30 sites planned by 2035. Each is designed to handle thousands of trucks a day, and the partners reckon the full network could eventually support 300,000 electric trucks. They're also talking up more than £30 billion of private investment the scheme could unlock — a figure that will need testing against actual planning consents and grid connections before anyone banks it. Octopus Energy has the detail.

The technical logic isn't new so much as imported. CATL already runs swap stations at scale in China; Octopus brings the energy-supply and grid-relationship side. Between them they're also exploring scaling Vehicle-to-Grid tech across CATL's global network of automotive partners — which, if it lands, turns a fleet of parked HGV batteries into a genuine grid asset rather than a stranded cost.

Why it matters: heavy goods operators have had precisely no good answer to the charging-time problem on long-haul routes — a 40-tonne artic can't sit on a rapid charger for an hour without wrecking the economics of the job. Swapping turns that dead time into minutes, which is the difference between electrification being a compliance headache and being an operational upgrade. It also sidesteps, at least partially, the grid-capacity constraints that have stalled depot charging schemes across the country.

The catch is timing and scale. 2027 for the first hubs means this solves nothing for anyone decarbonising a fleet this year or next, and 30 hubs by 2035 is a modest footprint against the scale of UK long-haul freight. Standardised battery formats across truck manufacturers will also need sorting before swap-in-minutes becomes swap-anywhere — CATL's China experience doesn't automatically transfer to a market with a more fragmented OEM base.

None of that makes it noise. William Rowe, Swaptopus's CEO, and CATL's Dr Robin Zeng are putting real capital behind an infrastructure model that, if the numbers hold, changes the residual calculus on electric HGVs by removing the biggest objection to them. Fleets planning HGV transition timelines beyond 2027 should treat Swaptopus as a live variable, not a footnote — and start asking now whether truck orders can be spec'd for swap compatibility before hardware decisions lock them out.

(Source: Octopus Energy)

Maximum ATF charge for HGV annual tests rises from £55 to £70 from 6 July

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The maximum service charge an authorised testing facility (ATF) can add to DVSA's fee for an HGV's annual test rises from £55 to £70 from Monday 6 July 2026, according to DVSA's consultation outcome. The cap for trailers rises from £40 to £50, and for buses and coaches from £70 to £90. The charge is for using the ATF's premises for the test, and the caps had not changed since 2010. Not every ATF will charge the full amount, but every heavy truck, trailer, bus and coach needs its annual test, so build the higher cap into next year's whole-life cost forecasts rather than discovering it at the next MOT. Our HGV MOT cost page compares the fees at ATFs and DVSA test centres, and SMMT has set out the industry view.

Cupra Raval hits £23,785 to crack salary sacrifice sweet spot

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Cupra's Raval opens below the £25,000 mark that matters most for salary sacrifice uptake, with entry pricing from £23,785 for the 37kWh Origin (around 186 miles WLTP) and up to 277 miles of WLTP range from the 52kWh pack, which starts at £28,495 after the grant, per The Electric Car Scheme. At 4% BiK for 2026/27, that combination of low list price and low tax band is exactly the sweet spot scheme providers chase, and The Electric Car Scheme says the £1,500 Electric Car Grant applies to most trims. Pre-orders are open now for deliveries later in 2026, so plan to add it to scheme car-choice lists once schemes can quote it.

CCC warns against further ZEV mandate easing

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The Climate Change Committee has told ministers, in terms, to leave the ZEV mandate alone: it is "essential that this year's review of the mandate does not lead to further concessions," warns the CCC's progress report, or the UK risks missing its 2030 climate target and deepening reliance on imported oil. ChargeUK, unsurprisingly, agrees — chief executive Vicky Read's argument is that further watering-down spooks the investors funding public chargepoints, which is exactly the infrastructure fleets going electric are counting on. The report also flags VAT and standing charges for review, so public charging costs could shift. The CCC advises rather than decides, so the outcome of the review is still the government's call, but procurement timelines built around further easing now run against the advice of the government's own climate advisers.

Worst ISA system tested scores 74% on speed-limit changes, Thatcham finds

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ISA has been mandatory on new UK and EU vehicles since July 2024, but Thatcham's real-world testing exposes a measurement gap: approval rules score accuracy across distance driven, not at the moment a speed limit actually changes, which flatters the numbers considerably. Even the best of the three vehicles tested managed 98.4% on the distance measure but only 90.3% event-by-event; the worst dropped from 91.3% to 74.3%, meaning roughly one in four speed-limit readings was wrong, with some systems inventing limits of 5mph or 100mph that don't exist on UK roads. Any duty-of-care or driver-coaching policy leaning on ISA accuracy should treat the headline compliance figures as optimistic, not operational (Thatcham Research).

Gridserve doubles rapid-charge bays at A303 Solstice Park hub

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Gridserve has doubled ultra-rapid capacity at its Solstice Park hub near Amesbury from eight to 16 bays, adding four 180kW-capable chargers alongside the existing 350kW units, per Gridserve. The site sits on the A303, the main pinch-point route linking London to Devon and Cornwall, so bay capacity there is a genuine constraint on EV fleet journeys west — not just a driver-experience nicety. The 350kW hardware can add up to 100 miles in around ten minutes, and Gridserve says the extra provision is designed to help reduce waiting times; doubling the bays should ease queues on peak travel days, though whether it holds up through summer bank holidays remains to be seen.

cap hpi updates July used car residual forecasts

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Cap hpi's latest used car outlook runs forecasts across the full 12-to-60-month spread, and it's the breadth that matters here as much as the numbers: fleets cycling cars early get a different residual story to those holding for five years, and this update is built to show both. The overview also tracks how its own past forecasts have held up against actual market moves — useful cover if you're defending a depreciation assumption to finance. Worth pulling before you lock in the next replacement cycle's residual assumptions. (cap hpi)

Older hybrids top Dealer Auction's May AFV margin chart

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Dealers turned to older stock in May: hybrids took 90% of the top 10 spots for margin, CAP Clean performance and sales volume on Dealer Auction's platform in May, with the Volvo XC60 leading trade profits despite the average vehicle now sitting at 5.5 years old, the oldest since the report launched, and average mileage up 6,000 to 41,017, which was not a record. Retail margins on AFVs overall fell £500 month-on-month to £3,130, still well above January's £2,412, but hybrid's growing share of the mix suggests buyers trust proven mid-life powertrains over younger EVs. Worth weighting disposal timing and part-ex expectations accordingly.

InstaVolt to pass 1,000 UK sites with GeniePoint deal

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InstaVolt has agreed to buy 228 GeniePoint sites and their 260-plus chargers from Equans, a deal it says will take its network past 1,000 locations on completion, a first for a UK charge point operator, and further consolidation in a market where fleets already juggle too many apps and RFID cards for comfort (InstaVolt). The catch: rebranding and upgrades, including battery storage and BYD ultra-rapid hardware, roll out over the next 12 months, so expect some site downtime during the transition. Fleets routing drivers through former GeniePoint car parks and motorway services should check current tariffs hold and flag any outages before they hit route planning.

93% of new rapid charge points built outside London in two years

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The rapid-charging build-out has quietly stopped being a London story: 7,044 of the 7,598 new rapid and ultra-rapid points added in the two years to April 2026 — 93 per cent — went in outside the capital, with the East of England up 95 per cent and the North West up 83 per cent (ChargeUK). For fleets running EVs on regional routes, that's the infrastructure gap closing faster than route-planning assumptions may have kept up with. Worth re-running your charging-corridor maps rather than trusting last year's dead spots.

DVSA warns tachograph centres over smart 2 fitment

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DVSA's new special notice 01-26 reminds approved tachograph centres across England, Scotland and Wales of the rules, covering smart tachograph 2 fitment, software upgrades and calibration procedure. The detail on when a vehicle needs smart tachograph 2, and when a software upgrade needs a calibration, is exactly the sort of thing a busy workshop can miss and an examiner won't. Push your tachograph provider to confirm they've read it and updated their process — a compliant fleet is only as good as the calibration centre behind it.

Company car or car allowance: which leaves more take-home pay?

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Cash allowance versus company car remains the wrong binary for EV-minded fleets, according to Loveelectric: salary sacrifice still strips out Income Tax and National Insurance in a way a taxed cash lump sum never can. Loveelectric says the Chancellor's changes, chiefly to employer National Insurance, have not altered the tax treatment of EV salary sacrifice, and that no change removing its advantages has been confirmed for 2029. That is a reason not to default drivers into allowances out of caution. Anyone benchmarking take-home pay across the two routes should factor BIK rates and grant eligibility into the comparison, not just gross cost.

Polestar 4 on salary sacrifice: 4% BiK, from £56,750, up to 385 miles

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At 4% benefit-in-kind for 2026/27, the Polestar 4 lands squarely in the sweet spot that's making salary sacrifice schemes so hard to argue against right now, per The Electric Car Scheme. The Long Range Single Motor's 385-mile WLTP figure, from a list price of £56,750 according to Polestar UK, gives drivers Model Y-rivalling range, though the Tesla is cheaper to buy and charges faster. The Electric Car Scheme says salary sacrifice takes 20-50% off a personal lease, depending on the driver's tax band. For fleets still weighing SUV-coupé novelty against practicality, the tax maths alone should get this onto the shortlist — the low BIK does most of the persuading before range or charging speed even enter the conversation.

UK pump prices: petrol 151.0p, diesel 167.1p per litre

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167.1p a litre — that's where diesel closed the week, down 5.3p, with petrol off 2.2p to 151.0p, according to DESNZ. A drop that size in a single week is the kind of move that makes last quarter's Advisory Fuel Rate look stale fast. Any fleet still reimbursing diesel drivers at the old rate is now overpaying per mile — worth a quick recheck before it becomes a habit rather than a blip.

Zero-emission cars were 23% of new UK car registrations in 2025, up from 19% in 2024 — the clearest read on how fast the parc is electrifying, and on the used-EV supply that lands in fleets two to three years out. (DfT)

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