Railway electrification and wireless power: Value chain
Train giants, road-charging start-ups and swap station networks
What this tab covers Who does what, from equipment makers to builders, owners, operators, traders and users, with the leading companies at each step.Rail electrification runs from equipment and rolling stock makers through infrastructure managers who own the wires to train operators. Wireless charging and swapping are younger chains led by technology start-ups, carmakers and battery makers, with road authorities as the main customers.
The chain
Rolling stock and traction makers Wireless road charging developers Battery swapping operators and suppliers Power beaming developers Infrastructure owners and road authorities Regulators and research| Stage | What happens | Leading companies |
|---|---|---|
| Rolling stock and traction makers | Build electric trains, pantographs and traction electronics. The top ten makers took about 70% of a EUR 64.6 billion new-vehicle market in 2024. | CRRC (China) Alstom (France) Siemens Mobility (Germany)111617 |
| Wireless road charging developers | Design coils, power units and vehicle receivers, and install road sections. | Electreon (Israel) Vinci Autoroutes (France)614 |
| Battery swapping operators and suppliers | Build and run swap stations and supply standard packs. | NIO (China) CATL (China) Didi (China)92021 |
| Power beaming developers | Develop lasers, receivers and test ranges, mostly under defence funding. | Teravec Technologies (US) Packet Digital (US) US Naval Research Laboratory (US)8 |
| Infrastructure owners and road authorities | Own track and wires or commission electric road trials. | Michigan Department of Transportation (US) Trafikverket (Sweden) Network Rail (UK; to be folded into Great British Railways)36725 |
| Regulators and research | Set safety and interface standards and fund research. | Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (China) Oak Ridge National Laboratory (US) DARPA (US)589 |
Rolling stock is concentrated: SCI Verkehr ranks CRRC as the clear global leader (group revenue RMB 246.5 billion in 2024, including non-rail businesses), Alstom second (new-vehicle revenue just over EUR 10 billion in 2024, within total sales of EUR 19.2 billion in 2025/26) and Siemens Mobility third. In battery swapping, NIO ran about two-thirds of China's stations at the end of 2023 (calculated from 2,333 of 3,567), but battery maker CATL is now expanding faster.
Sources
- Electrification Cost Challenge Railway Industry Association (RIA), 2019
- Novel technology reaches 100-kW wireless power transfer for passenger vehicle Oak Ridge National Laboratory, 2024
- Detroit unveils wireless EV charging roadway Construction Dive, 2023
- Electric road E20, Hallsberg-Örebro Trafikverket (Swedish Transport Administration), 2025
- DARPA program sets distance record for power beaming DARPA, 2025
- China is betting on battery swaps to tackle EV chargers shortage Rest of World, 2024
- Worldwide Rolling Stock Manufacturers 2025 (reading sample) SCI Verkehr, 2025
- World's first dynamic wirelessly-charged motorway shows highly promising real-world results Electreon and VINCI Autoroutes (PR Newswire), 2025
- CRRC presents 2024 annual results and growth strategy at Hong Kong investor briefing CRRC Corporation, 2025
- Alstom's fiscal year 2025/26 results Alstom, 2026
- Nio tops 120 million battery swaps as 4,000th swap station goes live CnEVPost, 2026
- CATL's Choco swap stations top 2,000 as roll-out speeds up CnEVPost, 2026
- British government outlines key milestones in journey to GBR International Railway Journal, 2026