Green Power Transportation：Carbon Emissions and Climate Control Practices in China's Road Freight
Electric power substitution for heavy-duty trucks is a crucial entry point for achieving the "dual carbon" goals in the transportation sector. China has long maintained the world's leading position in railway and highway passenger and freight volumes, port throughput, and power generation, but freight emissions remain high. Trucks account for about 11% of the total number of vehicles but contribute approximately 65% of the sector's total carbon emissions. In Beijing, heavy-duty fuel trucks alone account for about 80% of all motor vehicle carbon emissions. Since 2019, China has been promoting new energy medium and heavy-duty trucks in industries such as thermal power, steel, coal, coking, non-ferrous metals, and cement, as well as in logistics parks and major freight corridors for bulk cargo transportation. Developing zero-emission freight fleets has become a necessary path for the clean and high-quality development of China's freight transportation. The penetration rate of new energy heavy-duty trucks is steadily increasing, achieving a significant scale in energy saving and emission reduction. Since the introduction of battery-swapping (BS) heavy-duty trucks in 2019, they have quickly become one of the core solutions for new energy heavy-duty trucks. From 2021 to 2023, the compound annual growth rate of new energy heavy-duty trucks reached 90%. Among them, pure electric trucks (including BS) consistently accounted for about 90% of new energy heavy-duty trucks. The compound annual growth rate for BS heavy-duty trucks was about 73%, while for charging heavy-duty trucks it was 81%, with the ratio of BS to charging being approximately 1:1. Other solutions, such as hydrogen fuel heavy-duty trucks, are mainly driven by policies; methanol and 5 / 38 hybrid heavy-duty trucks are still in the early stages of development and are not yet mature. Since the beginning of 2024, driven by the advantages of fuel economy, the sales and market share of pure electric heavy-duty trucks have continued to rise. From January to May, a total of 19,592 pure electric heavy-duty trucks were sold, including 11,353 charging heavy-duty trucks and 8,239 BS heavy-duty trucks, marking a yearon-year growth of 149.5%. The proportion of pure electric heavy-duty trucks among new energy heavy-duty trucks increased to 92.5%. In May 2024, the penetration rate of new energy heavy-duty trucks in the domestic market reached 10.8%, achieving a single-month penetration rate exceeding 10%. Based on the estimated over 10 million heavy-duty fuel trucks in China, replacing 30% of them with electric heavy-duty trucks, equivalent to 3 million vehicles, would result in an annual increase in electricity consumption by 432 billion kWh, a reduction in diesel consumption by 129.6 billion liters, and a reduction in CO2 emissions by approximately 341 million tons. This replacement would also reduce the emissions of four major pollutants by a total of 2.3846 million tons, highlighting the significant impact on carbon reduction.
Climate And Environmental Technologies
Climate change control technologies
SPIC initiated the green electricity transportation industry in 2016. Although early efforts were made to electrify urban ride-hailing cars, buses, and city delivery vehicles, the focus quickly shifted to the niche market of "high-frequency" and "heavy-load" BS heavy-duty trucks. In 2018, in collaboration with ecosystem enterprises, the world's first BS heavy-duty tractor and heavy truck BS station were developed. By 2019, SPIC had promoted the demonstration application and commercial promotion of battery-swapping heavy trucks and swapping stations. As of the end of June 2024, SPIC has promoted more than 30,000 BS heavy-duty trucks and construction machinery nationwide, holds nearly 20,000 sets of power batteries, and has built over 900 charging and swapping stations, with over 2,000 additional stations planned. Qiyuan has become the largest operator of heavy truck batteryswapping infrastructure services both domestically and internationally. Based on practical experience in the BS heavy-duty truck sector, Qiyuan is exploring technological development and industrial promotion in the fields of electric construction machinery, electric ships, and electric agricultural machinery. They have successfully commercialized two battery-swapping ships and are constructing four electric ships. Additionally, they are promoting the development and application of electric loaders, electric mining trucks, autonomous mining trucks, and electric excavators, while also conducting research and development of electric agricultural machinery and supporting energy supply equipment. In the future, they will continue to expand the scope and scale of green electricity transportation industry practices.
Significant progress has been made in provinces such as Hebei, Hainan, and Shanxi, where the large-scale promotion of electric heavy-duty truck has begun, laying the groundwork for a network of charging and battery swapping infrastructure. The feasibility of long-distance mainline transportation for heavy trucks using battery swapping has been validated, leading to the development of nearly 100 mainline routes for electric heavy-duty truck 16 / 38 transportation nationwide.
The core competitive advantages are as follows: 1. Carbon Emission Control Advantage: Currently, a total of 641.7 million liters of fuel have been saved, reducing carbon emissions from fossil fuels by 460,000 tons. 2. High Replicability: In many provinces in China, large-scale promotion of electric heavy-duty trucks has been achieved, and the prototype of a charging and swapping infrastructure network layout has been completed. Nationwide, nearly 100 trunk transportation routes for electric heavy-duty trucks have been promoted. Internationally, business operations in scenarios such as mines, steel plants, and long-distance trunk transportation are being advanced in countries like Indonesia, Mongolia, Vietnam, Thailand, and Singapore. 3. High Fuel and Electricity Economy: Compared to fuel heavy-duty trucks, the overall fuel and electricity savings rate of battery-swapping heavy-duty trucks is 17%. 4. Integration with Clean Energy and Artificial Intelligence: Not only can green electricity resources from wind and solar power be used to recharge battery-swapping heavy-duty trucks, but the backup batteries in swapping stations also have power storage capabilities to balance wind and solar power output curves and enhance grid stability. The technology of swapping stations is also developing towards unattended and automated inspection and maintenance, achieving coupling with artificial intelligence from an operational maintenance perspective.
Top 50 in China's Charging and Battery Swap Industry 2021 2021/07/01 China Charging Pile Network
Top 10 Competitive Brands in China's Charging and Battery Swap Industry 2021 2021/07/01 China Charging Pile Network
Top 10 Best Battery Swap Technology Awards in China 2021 2021/07/01 China Charging Pile Network, China International Charging and Battery Swap Industry Conference
APEC ESCI Best Practice Award in Smart Transportation (Gold) 2022/05/10 Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation
Shanghai Green Technology Directory 2022/09/01 Green Technology Bank Management Center
First Breakthrough and Demonstration Application Project 2022/11/01 Shanghai Municipal Commission of of Shanghai High-End Intelligent Equipment - First Breakthrough of Heavy-Duty Electric Vehicle Intelligent Battery Swap Equipment Economy and Informatization
Annual Advanced Member Enterprise in the Field of Power Energy Conservation, Environmental Protection, and Climate Change Response 2022/11/30 China Electricity Council
Battery Swap Operator of the Year 2022 2022/12/21 China Charging Pile Network, Battery Swap Hundred People Forum, Lianlian Charging
Battery Swap Mode Innovation Award 2022 2022/12/21 China Charging Pile Network, Battery Swap Hundred People Forum, Lianlian Charging
2022 Green Electric Heavy-Duty Truck Annual Quality Supporting Enterprise Award 2022/12/21 EV Resources - 3rd China New Energy Heavy-Duty Truck Industry Ecosystem Conference
2022 Green Electric Heavy-Duty Truck Annual Charging and Battery Swap Brand Recommendation Award 2022/12/21 EV Resources - 3rd China New Energy Heavy-Duty Truck Industry Ecosystem Conference
2022 Green Electric Heavy-Duty Truck Pioneer Operating Enterprise 2023/01/10 EV Resources, Chengdu New Energy Vehicle Industry Promotion Association
Certificate of Scientific and Technological Achievement Appraisal - International Leading 2023/10/24 China Electricity Council
Energy Innovation Award - First Prize in Technology Innovation 2023/11/22 China Energy Research Society
2023 Best Battery Swap Mode Innovation Award in the Battery Swap Industry 2023/12/22 /
National Pilot Task Implementation Unit for Building a Powerful Transportation Country 2024/02/20 Ministry of Transport of the People's Republic of China
Shanghai Key Service Unicorn Enterprise 2024/04/23 Shanghai SME Development Service Center
Innovation Enterprise of the China Automobile Industry and Finance "Navigation Award" 2024/06/28 China Automobile Industry and Finance Summit
Qiyuan and companies in the Green Electric Transportation Ecosystem focus on R&D and product iteration around the comprehensive energy solution integrating "vehicle-battery separation" and "charging-swapping-supplying" for electric heavyduty trucks, resulting in a series of core intellectual properties. Together with the industrial ecosystem, they have accumulated over 900 core technology patents, covering charging and battery swapping equipment, key components of batteryswapping heavy trucks, batteries and thermal management, digitalization, and derivative products. Among these, Qiyuan has applied for a total of 219 related patents, including 89 invention patents, 119 utility model patents, and 11 design patents, along with 43 software copyrights. They have also applied for 2 international patents. They have been granted a total of 90 patents, including 11 invention patents, 70 utility model patents, and 9 design patents, and have been granted 43 software copyrights. The intellectual property primarily includes four major areas: a) Core Patents Related to Battery Swap Station Systems: These mainly include the methodology of battery swapping, station control systems, battery swapping equipment, and charging equipment as four core subsystems. b) Core Patents Related to Battery-Swapping Heavy Trucks: These mainly include onboard battery swapping systems, onboard capability systems (battery packs, battery systems), and battery thermal management systems. c) Industry Digitalization Intelligent Hardware and Algorithms: These include 38 / 38 intelligent hardware, station control systems, battery authentication, and energy management control algorithms. d) Other Electrification Products: These include related technologies for electric agricultural machinery, electric ships, etc.
