At JD's "Double 11" Open Day, JD Auto announced a partnership with Times Electric Service, a subsidiary of CATL, and GAC Group to jointly launch a "national good car." It was revealed that "JD mainly provides user consumption insights and exclusive sales, and is not directly involved in the manufacturing process."
In fact, what JD is describing is a brand-new model: GAC is responsible for manufacturing, CATL provides battery-swapping technology, and JD mainly contributes user data and sales channels. JD has previously been involved in some automotive-related businesses, such as its 1,700 JD Car Care stores, 40,000 partner outlets, and more than 40 million logistics orders per day, through which it has accumulated some new energy vehicle data.
It aims to create a one-stop automotive consumption model by integrating JD's resources in user insights and car buying and maintenance, as well as GAC's vehicle manufacturing capabilities and CATL's battery technology and battery-swapping ecosystem.
The car will be officially released during JD's "Double 11" period and will be sold exclusively on JD.
It is understood that Times Electric Service, as a wholly owned subsidiary of CATL, focuses on battery-swapping business and has previously launched the Chocolate Battery Swap full solution. Its official WeChat account published an article in April this year disclosing cooperation with GAC. The article stated at the time that "GAC Group's AION UT, AION RT, AION V霸王龙, and an upcoming A-class SUV will fully launch Chocolate battery-swap models," and revealed that GAC Group, as the first automaker to cooperate with the full Chocolate battery-swap ecosystem, will introduce the Chocolate standard in more of its models.
JD, GAC, and CATL are each getting what they need. JD has cooperative alliances. JD has data and channels. GAC, meanwhile, is currently in a state of severe cash shortage—its net profit plunged 72% in 2024, and its own-brand segment has been losing money for six years. CATL has top-tier battery technology, but it is under competitive pressure from BYD's blade battery, so it also needs to expand the application scenarios of its battery-swapping business in order to form a closed loop.
