On March 16, CATL announced that its subsidiary Shanghai Ningpu Times signed a cooperation agreement on heavy truck battery swapping project with Fujian Expressway New Energy, a subsidiary of Fujian Expressway Group. According to the agreement, the two sides will carry out the investment, construction and operation management of electric heavy truck battery swapping stations. In the first phase of the project, four electric heavy truck battery swapping stations will be put into operation to create the first new energy green logistics line on the expressway in Fujian Province.
This is not the first time that CATL has made efforts in the field of heavy truck battery swapping. Due to the extremely high market share of CATL's lithium iron phosphate batteries in the new energy heavy truck market, which has been above 85% in recent years, it is more operable for CATL to take the lead in negotiating with downstream vehicle enterprises on the standardized construction of battery packs and battery swapping stations.
In February last year, CATL joined hands with Sany Heavy Industry to promote the implementation of the battery swapping heavy truck application demonstration project in Fujian Province, and the Funing trunk line, the first electric heavy truck trunk line in the country, was officially put into operation. In August, CATL signed a strategic cooperation agreement with FAW Jiefang to establish a joint venture company, Jiefang Times. The core businesses of Jiefang Times include services such as vehicle-battery separation, customized battery swapping station construction and operation. The entire heavy truck battery swapping market also started to gain momentum in 2022, becoming one of the most promising sub-sectors in the lithium battery sector.
According to industry data, the monthly sales of new energy heavy trucks increased for twelve consecutive months last year, with the total sales exceeding 25,000 units. Among them, the sales of electric heavy trucks reached 22,000 units, accounting for 89.67%, and the total sales of battery swapping heavy trucks reached 12,000 units, accounting for 48.79%. The economic benefits of the price difference between oil and electricity, as well as the reduction in purchase costs brought about by vehicle-battery separation, are the underlying driving forces for the growth of the heavy truck battery swapping market. Due to the fixed transportation routes and operation scenarios, and the relatively single vehicle model, compared with the obstacle of inconsistent battery swapping standards faced by passenger cars, the pressure to increase the battery swapping penetration rate of heavy trucks is lower. Meanwhile, since last year, the strong support policies in Hebei, Henan, Inner Mongolia, Jiangsu and other provinces, as well as the maturity of battery swapping technology, have promoted the rapid popularization of battery swapping heavy trucks.
In September last year, CATL's pioneering MTB technology made its debut and was applied to the Qiyuan Xindongli battery swapping heavy truck project under the State Power Investment Corporation. CATL's MTB technology directly integrates the modules into the vehicle bracket/chassis, increasing the system volume utilization rate by 40%, reducing the weight by 10%, and achieving a system energy density of 170Wh/kg. The U-shaped water cooling system has been specially optimized for heat dissipation problems, and the battery supports free combination and configuration within the range of 140kWh - 600kWh. In addition, third-party battery swapping enterprises such as GCL New Energy have introduced extremely cold battery swapping solutions to address the energy replenishment needs of electric heavy trucks in low-temperature environments, which is conducive to the promotion of electric heavy trucks in northern regions.
Recently, Ouyang Minggao, an academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, said at a conference that the technology of pure electric heavy trucks is gradually maturing and entering the commercial explosion stage, and the business model of battery swapping heavy trucks has the economic competitiveness to compete with traditional fuel vehicles. Ouyang Minggao expects that the sales of domestic electric heavy trucks will increase by 100% to 50,000 units in 2023, among which the proportion of battery swapping products will exceed 50%, and is even expected to reach 70%.
