The results of the 5th APEC ESCI Best Practice Awards were announced in May 2022. SPIC’s “Battery-Swap Electric Heavy-Duty Truck: A Low Carbon Transportation Like No Other” stood out among 65 projects from 17 economies, including Australia, Canada and the United States, to win the gold award in smart transportation.

Leaders of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) launched the Energy Smart Communities Initiative (ESCI) in 2010. The ESCI Best Practice Awards, the only awards under APEC energy working group, have five categories – Smart Transportation, Smart Buildings, Smart Grids, Smart Jobs, and Low-carbon Demonstration Towns. Aiming to realize the goal that the energy intensity in APEC is reduced by at least 45% from 2005 to 2035, this biennial program hands out a gold award and a silver award in each category.

SPIC’s Battery-Swap Electric Heavy-Duty Truck (BSHT) offers a way of clean transport at high-frequency, short-distance transport scenarios at mines, steel mills and ports. Featuring truck-battery separation and fast battery swap, a truck can have its battery swapped in five minutes at a large-scale centralized battery charging/swapping station, while the digital operation platform further improves its efficiency. The Truck-Battery Separation mode (TBS mode) also reduces the users’ upfront investment while raising their overall cost-effectiveness by 15%.

A “power battery bank” has been established under SPIC’s BSHT project, through which SPIC operates the power batteries in an efficient and safe way – not only are they safer and more controllable thanks to the battery management and distribution system, but truck users no longer have to always worry about battery capacity loss either.

The battery swapping device developed under SPIC’s lead is so far the most widely used on BSHTs in the market. Being mini-sized, modular and mobile, it is applicable to more than 100 models of heavy-duty trucks produced by nearly 30 manufacturers that meet SPIC’s swap criteria, boasting a market share of more than 80%. Being applied in 31 provinces, autonomous regions, and municipalities across China now, the battery swapping device satisfies the demand for transport electrification across a full spectrum of scenarios, from mines, steel mills, ports and power plants to transport of urban slag and long-haul freight along main roads. A successful innovation both in terms of business model and industrial technology, SPIC’s battery swap approach presents a demonstrative case for the reduction of CO2 emissions and green transformation in relevant industries. It has offered all sectors a transport solution that is complete, proven, low-carbon, and intelligent, as well as a green energy solution.

Its experience in building and operating the Energy Industrial Internet has also enabled SPIC, with independently developed intelligent hardware and cloud platforms, to establish a digital ecology of green electric transportation underpinned by IoT and characterized by end-edge-cloud collaborative computation.

SPIC is the largest clean power generator in the world, with clean energy installed capacity taking up more than 62% of its power mix. The BSHT project will be integrated with smart energy for comprehensive utilization. Depending on different scenarios, charging facilities can be designed using distributed wind and PV power, or purchasing renewable energy electricity generated by SPIC itself through the power market. That will be green charging in the real sense towards smart and low-carbon emissions. Every step toward a green civilization is worth remembering and recording! Following the global trend of low-carbon development and electric transportation, SPIC’s BSHT is well positioned to make due contribution to the planet we share.