This Week in Charging — 20-26 June 2026. A weekly round-up of the stories shaping the global EV charging industry.
The global view
The week's marquee story has a name straight out of a B-movie: Swaptopus. CATL and Octopus Energy's 50-50 joint venture plans to carpet Europe with battery-swapping hubs for electric trucks, starting with the UK in 2027 and scaling to 30+ sites by 2035. It's the most aggressive play yet to export China's proven swap model westward — and it reframes the entire heavy-duty charging debate around minutes, not megawatts.
Speaking of megawatts, Alpitronic unveiled a 1 MW CCS dispenser that briefly touched 1,041 kW in testing, while the US quietly crossed 250,000 public charging ports. Volkswagen, meanwhile, is exiting charger hardware entirely — handing Flexpole production to a Chinese partner and pivoting Elli toward V2G software and energy trading. The message is clear: the money is in electrons and algorithms, not sheet metal.
Across developing markets, surging oil prices from the Iran conflict are turbocharging Chinese EV exports — $9.4 billion in April alone — but charging infrastructure can't keep pace. From Ethiopia's dozen stations to Thailand's 4,600 chargers serving 424,000 EVs, the gap between adoption and access is the defining tension of 2026.
Europe
CATL and Octopus Energy launched Swaptopus, a joint venture targeting 30+ battery-swapping mega-hubs across Europe by 2035. The first UK site opens in 2027, with each hub servicing thousands of electric trucks per day using CATL's five-minute swap technology — already proven across 305 stations in China. The venture could support 300,000 electric HGVs and unlock £30 billion in investment. If it works, the phrase "charging time" becomes irrelevant for long-haul freight.
Hampshire County Council approved the largest LEVI contract to date, partnering with CPO Believ to deploy 17,180 public EV chargers backed by £90 million in private investment and £6.6 million in public funds. The network targets residents without off-street parking — the demographic that decides whether mass EV adoption actually happens in the UK or stays a suburban luxury.
Volkswagen's Elli subsidiary launched an integrated V2G product package in Germany, combining a bidirectional charger, dynamic electricity tariff, and app for owners of its ~1 million MEB-platform vehicles. The plug-in bonus can hit €720 in year one. With The Mobility House's FlexEngine handling energy market aggregation, VW is betting that its cars can earn money while parked.
In a plot twist nobody saw coming (everyone saw it coming), Volkswagen is exiting charging hardware entirely. Elli will cease production of its Flexpole fast-charging stations at the Hanover plant by year-end, handing the business to Chinese partner ZhongDe Energy. Nearly 1,000 Flexpoles sold across 14 countries, but VW's future is in software and energy trading — not bending metal into enclosures.
North America
Terawatt Infrastructure secured a $300 million credit facility led by RBC Capital Markets to expand its network of purpose-built EV and autonomous vehicle charging depots. The company owns 50+ properties with 200 MW of power capacity across a dozen US states, leasing primarily to ride-hail fleets including Waymo. When banks start writing nine-figure cheques for robot-taxi charging depots, you know the autonomous fleet era is no longer theoretical.
Alpitronic broke the megawatt barrier for passenger EVs, unveiling a High Performance Dispenser for its HYC1000 system that delivers over 1,000A and up to 1,000 kW via a single liquid-cooled CCS connector. Prototype testing at Italy's Nardò circuit briefly touched 1,041 kW. European availability comes first, with North America following in 2027. The hardware is ready — now we wait for cars that can actually accept it.
The US crossed 250,000 public EV charging ports across 82,309 locations — a 15% year-over-year increase. DC fast-charging ports exceeded 73,000, growing at roughly 30% annually and on track to hit 80,000 before year-end. The NACS transition is well underway, and 400-500 kW chargers are becoming the new baseline for new deployments.
China
China's charging infrastructure reached 22.5 million connectors by end of May 2026, up 44.9% year-on-year. Private connectors surged 51.4% to 17.5 million units, while public connectors grew 25.9% to 4.95 million with a combined rated power of 242 GW. Average power per connector climbed 8.9% to 48.89 kW. These are numbers that make every other country's charging stats look like rounding errors.
Beijing released its 15th Five-Year Plan for a New Energy System, targeting 30% of power generation from renewables by 2030. The charging-specific targets are staggering: infrastructure is to double to 40 million units, with 50 GW of vehicle-grid interaction capacity. China isn't just building chargers — it's building a bidirectional energy system with EVs as grid assets at a scale no other country has attempted.
CATL's Swaptopus venture (covered above under Europe) is perhaps the most telling Chinese export of the week — not hardware, but an operational model. With 305 truck swap stations already running domestically via subsidiary Qiji Energy, CATL has something no European competitor can match: field data at scale.
India
Delhi's Municipal Corporation is planning "super stations" with 25+ charging points each near metro stations, major markets, and commercial complexes. Two public sector undertakings have already submitted proposals for hubs with 27-30 charging points plus battery-swapping facilities. With Delhi currently at just 470 stations, the ambition-to-infrastructure ratio remains impressively lopsided.
That gap is precisely what an analysis of Delhi's Draft EV Policy 2026 highlights. The policy proposes banning new ICE two-wheelers from April 2028 and mandating electric three-wheelers from January 2027 — but largely sidesteps the grid reality. Delhi could face 1,500-5,000 MW of additional peak demand, thousands of transformers need upgrading, and land scarcity constrains public charging deployment. Bold targets, quiet footnotes.
EV charging startup Statiq is negotiating a $15-18 million Series B, down from an earlier $50 million target, with a flat ~$100 million valuation. Revenue fell 40% in FY24 while losses tripled. The Indian CPO market is discovering what its Western counterparts already know: utilisation rates matter more than pin counts on a map.
Rest of Asia
DEFA, Toyota Industries, and Sweden's RISE achieved the first independent third-party validation of bidirectional AC charging interoperability under ISO 15118-20. The timing matters: AFIR will mandate ISO 15118-20 support in European charging infrastructure from January 2027. Open-standard V2G just cleared its biggest credibility hurdle.
South Korea is considering redirecting hydrogen vehicle subsidies to BEVs after battery-electric sales surged 125.3% year-on-year. The EV subsidy budget risks running out by August, and the government is eyeing ~€330 million in hydrogen car subsidies and ~€260 million in charging station funds for reallocation. Seoul's hydrogen bet is looking increasingly like an expensive hedge that didn't pay off.
Vietnam issued regulations mandating dedicated EV parking and charging zones in apartment buildings, effective December 2026. Underground stations are capped at 22 kW and 25 EV spots per zone, with mandatory fire detection and gas sensors. Existing buildings get six months to comply. Southeast Asia's building codes are catching up to its EV ambitions.
Across developing Asia and Africa, surging oil prices are accelerating Chinese EV adoption — but charging infrastructure is critically lagging. Thailand has 4,600 public chargers for 424,000 EVs. State-owned utilities are emerging as the default network builders in markets where private CPOs see insufficient returns.
Oceania
New South Wales committed AUD $6.5 billion over ten years to purchase 1,700 electric buses and build 17 charging depots, dramatically scaling up from the state's current fleet of ~220 e-buses. The investment backs the Zero Emission Buses scheme targeting 8,000+ bus transitions. Sydney's Brookvale depot recently became the first in Australia to install Kempower pantograph chargers.
Zenobē Energy closed a AUD $400 million financing platform backed by a syndicate of global banks for heavy vehicle fleet electrification across Australia and New Zealand. The turnkey model — depot electrification, chassis and battery leasing, ongoing optimisation — removes upfront capital barriers. Recent partnerships include a 30-truck deal with Winning Group and a 170-bus rollout in Auckland.
Chinese manufacturer Autel launched its DS600L fast charger and iGreen solar-storage-charging solution in Australia, attracting interest from NRMA, Woolworths, and IKEA. Autel's Australia revenue surged 57% last year. Between $6.5 billion in bus electrification and Chinese hardware flooding in, Australia's charging market just went from afterthought to battleground.
South America
Colombia is building Ruta-E, a 1,195 km zero-emission freight corridor connecting Bogotá and Cartagena with charging stations every 100 km. Backed by the Ministry of Transport, CALSTART, DHL, and BYD, the project targets 1,000+ electric trucks by 2032 and 185,000 tonnes of annual CO₂ savings. Latin America's first electric freight highway is a statement of intent.
Costa Rica's state utility Grupo ICE will deploy 180 public 21 kW AC chargers over three years for $4.6 million, targeting underserved regions outside the Greater Metropolitan Area. The first 25 go live in 2026. It's a modest number by global standards, but in a country running on 99% renewable electricity, every charger is effectively zero-carbon from day one.
Africa
The Iran-linked oil crisis is reshaping Africa's transport economics. Africa imported 44,000 Chinese EVs in 2025 — up 130% — as fuel costs make electric motorcycles and buses dramatically cheaper to operate. But the infrastructure story is sobering: Ethiopia has banned non-EV imports yet has fewer than a dozen charging stations in the entire country.
Some $300 million in charging infrastructure investment has flowed into the continent, with state-owned utilities emerging as the primary network builders. Kenya is planning to eliminate EV import duties, while Ethiopia leverages its hydropower grid for genuinely clean electricity. The pattern is familiar: governments are moving faster on demand-side incentives than supply-side infrastructure. Africa may be writing the most compressed version of the global EV adoption story.
This Week in Charging is published every Friday. It summarises the most significant EV charging infrastructure news from the past seven days, sourced from our global news intelligence feed. Register for your free 7-day trial to get your daily personal newsletter as well as all the other goodies on our site.