Hello, called out, impacting the 2 billion dollar battery swapping business

Ask AI · Can a high-profit battery-swapping model balance compliance and expansion?

Reporter丨Yang Song Editor丨Yan Ziwei

Hailuo’s battery-swapping business “Xiaoha Swapping,” has come to a stop.

“Temporarily not operating, suspended for rectification.” On March 17, when reporters from 21CBR contacted staff at two “Xiaoha service centers,” both said they were not operating for now.

The Xiaoha service center is a physical storefront for Xiaoha battery swapping.

In the CCTV Finance 315 program, a store clerk introduced, “Xiaoha (battery-swapping) 60V 30Ah.” The battery pack’s rated value, far exceeds the new national standard of 48V; according to regulations, it cannot be used in electric bicycles.

Source: reporter’s on-site photo

That evening, in the 500-word apology statement released by Hailuo, there was no detailed explanation for this. Reporters from 21CBR asked Hailuo to confirm; the response said it was inconvenient to reply and that the announcement would prevail.

For Xiaoha swapping, which has fallen into a public-opinion storm, from January to September 2025, its parent company’s revenue surged to 1.65 billion yuan, with profits as high as 220 million yuan.

The market is still growing, but Xiaoha swapping needs to first solve the exposed issues before it can expand more steadily.

Suspended operations

The Xiaoha service center belongs to a car-service store franchise system and is committed to building a service terminal that integrates battery swapping, car rental, smart battery sales, and battery-swapping vehicle sales.

Its scale is not large; across all of Beijing, there are only four offline stores. On the Xiaoha swapping mini program, it is marked with the words “directly operated stores.”

On the evening of March 16, a 21CBR reporter visited a service center; the store was closed, with a Xiaoha logo on the storefront and marked with “Hailuo | Alipay | CATL strategic investment.”

The staff member told the reporter, “This is a directly operated store.” Before CCTV 315 singled out anything, Xiaoha service centers pushed expansion at full speed.

At the end of January, Hailuo held a Xiaoha car-service merchant conference and said it would build a diversified profit model for merchants through a combination of “battery rental revenue + vehicle service revenue + product sales revenue.”

Source: Hailuo Travel

After getting caught in the public-opinion storm, some “Xiaoha car-service” store locations paused operations. Behind them, Xiaoha swapping also faces management challenges.

The latest issued “Safety Technical Specifications for Electric Bicycles” states that the battery voltage of electric bicycles should not exceed 48 volts.

Industry insiders point out that batteries with high voltage and high current can cause overload in electric bicycle wiring, generate high temperatures, and create a fire risk. A rider confirmed, in Beijing, battery voltage cannot exceed 48 volts.

The Xiaoha lithium battery and the “True Core” series jointly launched with CATL have a battery voltage of 72 volts. It also has 60-volt batteries.

How to prevent illegally using e-motorcycle batteries in electric bicycles requires the battery-swapping platform to strengthen management.

It is worth noting that Hailuo’s statement did not provide rectification measures for the problems exposed with Xiaoha swapping.

Targeting riders

Car-rental companies: why do they provide electric bicycles that go too fast?

This is to meet the core needs of millions of riders—they are more urgently seeking the speed of electric vehicles and the demand for battery swapping.

Xiaoha swapping also focuses on this market. On the Alipay platform, its mini program has an “intelligent delivery bikes” entry, directly selling products such as batteries, tires, brake pads, and more to the rider group.

“We only use battery-swapping (batteries); if you don’t, you can’t make it.” A rider told reporters that they swap 3–5 batteries per day.

Another rider said they bought a generic-brand electric bicycle and used Xiaoha’s battery-swapping service: “If you ride more, you swap more.”

By using a conversion connector, Xiaoha’s battery-swapping products can be compatible with models running on most 48V, 60V, and 72V systems.

From laying out battery-swapping stations to expanding offline service storefronts, what Xiaoha is targeting is a rapidly growing market.

“Demand for fast energy replenishment unlocks a trillion-yuan market; the battery-swapping track has entered a golden window.” At the end of January, Xiaoha swapping said that the rapid development of the same-day delivery industry and the evolution of two-wheel travel demand jointly give rise to a high-frequency energy-replenishment market of unprecedented scale.

In 2025, the expected size of China’s same-day delivery orders will reach 55.4 billion, up 14.7% year over year, and it is also expected to surpass one trillion yuan by 2030.

Source: 21 Finance App

This year, Xiaoha swapping expanded along the wave.

Its shareholder Zhongheng Electric’s financial report shows that as of September 2025, Xiaoha swapping’s parent company Ningde Zhixiang has total assets of as much as 3.33 billion yuan, up 1 billion yuan from the previous year.

Annual revenue of 2 billion

Xiaoha swapping is Hailuo’s core business, jointly established in 2019 by three parties—Hailuo, CATL, and Ant Group.

CATL provides battery technology; Hailuo leverages a shared two-wheeler electric vehicle and rental electric vehicle platform to achieve business synergy; Ant Group, through Alipay with over 900 million monthly active users, provides traffic support.

With an early entry and scale effects, Xiaoha swapping has captured the dividend from the instant retail industry and has already achieved profitability.

From January to September 2025, its revenue reached 1.65 billion yuan, with an average per quarter of 550 million yuan. If you add the fourth quarter, full-year revenue is very likely to exceed 2 billion yuan.

In the same period, its net profit surged to 220 million yuan, with a net profit margin as high as 13%.

In 2025, JD and Alibaba repeatedly added investment to the instant retail market, driving a sharp increase in rider demand. Growth in fleet capacity demand directly boosted Xiaoha swapping’s revenue.

Entering 2026, the platforms continue to issue subsidies. The battle in instant retail does not end; riders’ battery-swapping demand remains strong.

After 7 years of development, by 2025, Xiaoha swapping has over 5 million service users, and has completed over 800 million battery swaps, covering more than 400 cities nationwide and deploying more than 80,000 smart battery-swapping cabinets.

It has already achieved independent financing. According to materials, Xiaoha swapping’s latest round of financing was in 2021, with a total of hundreds of millions of yuan in funding.

Zhongheng Electric invested 200 million yuan to obtain 7.3% equity; based on that, Xiaoha swapping’s valuation is about 2.7 billion yuan.

At this stage, Xiaoha swapping has made another move.

In February, its Jiangsu headquarters was established in Wuxi to coordinate battery-swapping operations settlement across the whole province. In the future three years, it plans to invest nearly 500 million yuan to build 9,160 battery-swapping and charging equipment units and deploy 632,000 batteries.

It’s just that while expanding, Xiaoha swapping, in pursuit of profitability, must also face the management risks that have already been exposed.

Title image source: Hailuo Travel