As a giant in China’s traditional energy power sector, how does Weichai view the rapid development of the new energy trend? Is it a challenge or an opportunity?
On December 3, Weichai unveiled its full series of new energy commercial vehicle power batteries to the industry for the first time. This includes power batteries for both heavy trucks and light trucks. These products all use blade battery technology, leading the trend of new energy commercial vehicles.
Heavy Truck Power Battery Focus: Large Capacity, Fast Charging, Versatility
From the 1.0 phase of converting oil to electric to the 2.0 phase of forward research and development, and then to the 3.0 phase of the exclusive new energy platform, user demands for new energy heavy trucks have gradually become clear: large capacity, lightweight, fast charging, long lifespan, and low-temperature performance.
Weichai focuses on models such as 6×4 tractors, offering new energy power battery solutions tailored to diverse scenarios like port towing, short-distance regional transport, and intercity transport, meeting the varied needs of customers.
Weichai’s full series of heavy truck power batteries has a single package capacity of up to 100 kWh, supporting multi-package parallel technology, allowing the total capacity to be expanded to between 200 kWh and 600 kWh to flexibly meet the energy needs for different distances. Through various lightweight design solutions, the battery pack reduces the weight by 110 kg in a 400 kWh system compared to similar competitive products, significantly improving the vehicle’s range and payload capacity.
In terms of fast charging, the battery supports continuous charging at up to 1.3C, significantly reducing charging time compared to the 1C continuous charging of competing products. Additionally, the product adopts a new battery management system (BMS), optimizing both hardware and software designs, achieving a state-of-charge (SOC) control accuracy within 5%, greatly enhancing the accuracy of range predictions, ensuring users have a clear understanding of their travel distance.
In terms of reliability, the blade battery’s inherent advantages offer significant improvements over competitors in heat management, cell lifespan, and structural strength. It can even charge normally in environments as cold as -20°C. During development, the battery underwent four times the national standard verification to ensure stable operation in various complex environments.
Light Truck Power Battery Focus: Long Range, Lightweight, Long Lifespan
Weichai’s full series of light truck power batteries is known for its high energy capacity, with a single package capacity reaching an industry-leading 140 kWh, fully meeting the energy needs of long-distance transportation. Additionally, with a high-power fast-charging performance of 2C, the battery can charge from 20% to 80% in just about 18 minutes, nearly achieving a “charge and go” convenience. This is designed specifically for the urban distribution light truck market, effectively alleviating range anxiety for logistics providers.
Another highlight of this battery is its system cycle life of up to 4,500 cycles, combined with its fast-charging characteristics, significantly improving the vehicle’s lifetime economics. This not only further reduces the operating costs of pure electric light trucks but also brings its convenience and service life closer to or even surpassing that of fuel-powered light trucks.
By adopting blade battery technology, the 140 kWh power battery reduces weight by approximately 30 kg compared to competing products with the same capacity, making an important contribution to the vehicle’s weight reduction.
For low-temperature environments, this light truck battery has also been specifically optimized. It supports charging at -20°C and has a heat management system with a warming rate of 1°C per minute, effectively improving performance in low-temperature environments. The battery’s modular-free structure also gives it inherent high strength, easily meeting double the national vibration standards, ensuring that the battery structure is durable and reliable.
From Technology to Product and Service: Weichai Shows Comprehensive Advantages in New Energy
In the transformation of commercial vehicles to new energy, Weichai has fully mastered the core technologies of the three-electric system.
Weichai Power continuously improves the energy density, cycle life, and safety of its power batteries by optimizing the cell chemical system and enhancing the battery management system’s performance. They have also collaborated with industry chain enterprises and research institutions to drive the innovative development of new energy commercial vehicle battery technologies.
Meanwhile, Weichai Power has established a deep collaboration with BYD to build a new energy power industrial park, creating a full industry chain research and manufacturing base for new energy commercial vehicle power batteries, electric motors, electronic controls, and electric drive assemblies. The planned battery production capacity has reached 50 GWh, with an annual production capability of 50 GWh battery packs, 500,000 flat-line motors, 400,000 electronic control units, and 50,000 electric drive assemblies.
Based on a complete new energy industry chain layout, Weichai’s pure electric solutions cover heavy trucks, light trucks, mini trucks, vans, buses, and even construction machinery. At the same time, Weichai is actively exploring diversified technological routes such as hybrid power, flexible-fuel internal combustion engines, and hydrogen energy.
It is worth noting that, to ensure customer satisfaction with vehicle usage, Weichai has quickly established service capabilities for new energy products through its traditional engine and vehicle service station network. Through professional training and technical support, they have enhanced the new energy maintenance capabilities of service stations, ensuring that customers receive timely and professional after-sales service during vehicle operation.
According to statistics, from January to October this year, the cumulative sales of domestic new energy commercial vehicles reached 405,000 units, a year-on-year increase of 32.5%. Notably, in September and October, the market penetration of new energy commercial vehicles reached 23.8% and 24.4%, respectively, nearing a quarter of the entire commercial vehicle market.
Weichai is not only a leader in the traditional power sector but also firmly embraces the new energy trend for commercial vehicles. Its leading position and forward-looking planning in the new energy commercial vehicle sector not only showcase its profound insight into industry trends but also demonstrate its strong commitment to green and sustainable development.
