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The head of Chinese battery maker CATL has set out for the UK Financial Times a vision of a truck industry in China that would be 50% electric by 2028, with trucks regularly swapping e-HGV batteries rather than recharging them.
The predictions came in an FT interview with CATL founder, chair and chief executive Robin Zeng. He said that by 2028, half of all trucks sold in China will be electric powered. He told the newspaper that CATL had agreements with more than a dozen Chinese truckmakers to use CATL’s standard battery ‘Number 75’ in more than 30 electric HGV models.
Zeng suggested a ‘battery swap’ model for eHGVs instead of recharging on the vehicle. In the FT he highlighted the speed at which batteries can be swapped, the possibility of running with fewer batteries with a smaller load and the option of combining batteries with different characteristics of charging speed, range, etc as benefits of this model.
The battery swapping model fits with CATL’s announcement during London Climate Section Week of a ‘shared ambition’ for a transition to a circular battery economy. In June, Jiang Li, vice president and Board Secretary of CATL Jiang Li said CATL plans to deploy over 10,000 battery swap stations. He said shifting from traditional ownership to shared, service-based or second-life models could help users switch to batteries.
Jiang Li was speaking as CATL and the Ellen MacArthur Foundation, announced a strategic partnership to map out how circular economy principles can be applied across the battery value chain. He said the circular approach would unlock new economic opportunities, and claimed that by 2040 the global battery recycling market could exceed US$165bn in value.
CATL said its goal is to decouple 50% of new battery production from virgin raw materials within 20 years.
Read the full FT interview
https://www.ft.com/content/87372b46-ee9c-4747-ae2d-3f729b92b008
