On December 23, CATL’s Qiji Energy launched its longest battery swap route for heavy-duty trucks that spans 1,250 km on the Shanghai-Chengdu Expressway’s Sichuan-Chongqing-Hubei section in China.
Qiji Energy is a subsidiary of CATL that focuses on heavy-duty truck battery swap solution. The official claimed that its battery swap stations are compatible with over 95% of mainstream heavy-duty truck models, allowing different brands of vehicles to complete battery swaps in approximately five minutes.
Each battery module has a capacity of 171 kWh. One to three battery modules can be assembled each time, allowing users to choose the number of batteries according to their needs. Users can make reservations and optimize their battery swapping routes using Qiji’s cloud platform.
According to CATL, under the battery swap model, each truck can save 30,000 to 60,000 yuan (4,300 to 8,500 USD) in operating costs annually and lowers carbon emissions. Based on a traditional heavy-duty truck traveling 200,000 km per year with a fuel consumption of 33L/100 km, the carbon emissions per vehicle amount to 174 tons, equivalent to the total amount of carbon dioxide absorbed by 9,643 trees in a year.
Earlier, Zhang Kai, Chief Technology Officer of CATL’s battery swapping business, shared that the business will be advanced in two stages: first the To B (business) market, and then expanding to the To C (consumer) market. “For battery swapping services, To B is a mature market with clear demand, while To C is a crucial process for CATL to quickly obtain consumer feedback and build brand recognition.”
By 2030, Qiji Energy plans to build a nationwide battery swapping network covering approximately 180,000 km, encompassing 80% of China’s truck line transportation capacity and 16 major city clusters.
In November, China’s heavy-duty truck sales reached 113,000 units, a year-on-year increase of 65.4%, marking eight consecutive months of growth. This includes 28,000 new energy heavy-duty trucks, a year-on-year increase of 178%, and the penetration rate has exceeded 30% for the first time.
Sales of new energy heavy-duty trucks in the first three quarters also increased by 184% year-on-year. From January to November, the cumulative sales of new energy heavy-duty trucks are 187,000 units, representing a penetration rate of 25.95% (compared to 12.54% in the same period last year).
Source: CATL
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