SAIC-GM-Wuling (SGMW) and Contemporary Amperex Technology Co., Limited (CATL) have just unveiled their first battery swapping strategy for commercial EVs in China.
General Motors’ second joint venture in China and the largest local electric vehicle battery manufacturer announced a landmark collaboration to introduce the world’s first battery swapping strategy for commercial EVs. SGMW partners with CATL to expand the Chinese supplier’s battery swapping alliance in the local market, bringing it for the first time to the commercial vehicle segment led by the Wuling brand.
“Our goal is to make new energy wealth-creating vehicles benefit every striver,” said the SAIC-GM-Wuling General Manager, Lu Juncheng. “As one of the most valuable independent brands in China’s auto industry, Wuling has more than 40 years of experience in commercial vehicle manufacturing, providing high-quality wealth-creating tools for generations of strivers and winning the trust of tens of millions of users,” he added.
SGMW and CATL’s new strategic alliance will bring battery swapping technology into the logistics vehicle segment, while enabling Wuling’s commercial EV models to become increasingly cost-effective in both end-use and maintenance. As such, this strategy aims to improve the operational efficiency and return on investment of the new Wuling Red Label family of new energy vans.
All-new Wuling Yangguang EV
In particular, SGMW announced that the two companies will jointly develop vehicle models with swappable batteries and the first product with CATL will be a version of the all-new Wuling Yangguang EV, which is set to be launched during 2025. The Yangguang EV was introduced earlier this year in China as Wuling’s first next-generation all-electric van and kicked off the brand’s renewal of its commercial EV portfolio.
More details on the new battery-swapping strategy for commercial EVs between SAIC-GM-Wuling and CATL are expected to be revealed in China early next year, when an official launch event between the two companies will be held. Although initially focused on the commercial segment, SGMW stated that the partnership with CATL covers both commercial and passenger vehicles and said that the latter are in the process of development.
Comments
Swapping batteries is a great idea as long as you have a crane handy! Just swap vehicles or fill up the gas tank.
Battery swapping for mass market vehicles is a terrible idea. The logistics to make this work for 1.5 billion cars out in the world is mind-blowing. Think for every one of those cars, you will need two or three battery packs in circulation. Each swapping station can only hold 30 batteries at a time while charging. Imagine how many cars go through a gas station at a time and not to mention the batteries will probably land up being brand specific. And then there is concern that there may not be enough lithium to go around for all the 1.5 billion cars and the other things they want to put on lithium like diesel locomotives and power walls (replacing fuel fired generators). Tesla ditched the idea and even the president of NIO, who went deeper into exploring the idea, isn’t fully confident in the idea and stated that ultimately, charge times need to get better.
Now as for commercial applications, this may make sense. Especially in commercial vehicles that operate around the clock like taxicabs. The only alternative would be to buy two or three cars and have one charging, one charged and on standby, and one on duty. Atleast here, you buy a swap station to keep at the shop, buy one EV, and two extra batteries so one can charge and one on standby.
Battery swapping is a terrible idea. How do I know? Propane tank swapping is terrible. After doing it once, never did it again. Turn in brand new, well kept, pristine tank. Get back a terrible looking, surface rusted tank with sketchy connecting hardware. Functional, it was. But still, lost my pristine tank, which I should have just filled up.
This is specifically for commercial vehicles. The owner of the business would have the battery swaps, so they would control the quality of all the packs.
one has that option, your decision.