BAIC Foton, CATL and TELD form alliance for 5,000 standardized e-truck fast-charging stations
BAIC Foton announced an industry alliance in Beijing with CATL, Sunwoda, TELD and Hunan Jingneng, and plans over 3,000 stations abroad by 2027.
Chinese commercial vehicle maker BAIC Foton (Beiqi Foton Motor) has announced an alliance to build standardized fast-charging stations for electric trucks, electrive.net reports. The partners are the battery makers CATL and Sunwoda, the charging network operator TELD and the charging hardware maker Hunan Jingneng New Energy Technology. The initiative was presented at a corporate event in Beijing. electrive.net
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The alliance's stated goal is to build 5,000 standardized, integrated charging stations; no timeline was given. For markets abroad, the company plans to install more than 3,000 stations by 2027, naming the Asia-Pacific region, Latin America, Africa and Europe.
Charging ecosystem and data platforms
The "Supercharging" strategy coordinates vehicles, charging stations, the power grid and the cloud. It rests on four platforms: connected vehicle data, charging, vehicle-to-grid energy interaction and battery management. According to BAIC Foton, the system draws on more than 3.5 million connected vehicles, 3 petabytes of data processed per day and more than 770,000 connected charge points.
The station shown in Beijing has a 10 kV AC input and a 1,000 V DC output and can be coupled with photovoltaics and stationary storage. The company says it works best with dual-gun vehicles, which charge through two cables at once. electrive.net
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Megawatt-class trucks
BAIC Foton also presented the Aumark S, a light truck on a dedicated electric platform. According to the company, its maximum charging power is 1.05 MW; with an 8C charge rate the battery goes from 20% to 80% in eight minutes.
Among the heavy trucks, the Auman Galaxus and the Cavan Beacon are to receive megawatt charging ports. The company gave no peak power or charging time for them, saying only that about 100 km of range can be added in six minutes. It named express logistics, refrigerated transport, port operations and bulk logistics as target uses.
The Cavan Beacon platform is not new: a variant was shown at IAA Transportation, and Foton has so far indicated a battery-electric and a hydrogen-powered 40-tonner on it. electrive.net
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Vice President Qin Zhidong said the ecosystem is meant to raise logistics efficiency and cut operating costs. He also named virtual power plants, battery leasing and second-life battery concepts as further potential.
