To achieve successful transportation electrification, we need to understand the role of different vehicle charging solutions. This report focuses on conductive technology that involves the physical exchange of empty batteries with fully charged ones, an approach called battery swapping. The battery swapping alternative has garnered great interest in China and many other developing economies in recent years, particularly for two- and three-wheeled vehicles. This battery swapping approach is now tackling the heavy vehicle sector, such as trucks and buses. As a result, this approach to “refueling” electric vehicles is important to explore, and we need to understand the conditions needed for battery swapping to succeed. In this report, we focus on the use of battery-swapping technology to develop and market Electric Heavy Trucks (EHT) in China.

Batteries is one of the main systems of electric vehicle. Batteries determine the total performance and define the capabilities of the electric vehicle regardless it is a passenger vehicle or heavy truck. Batteries are also determining the total price of the electric vehicle to large extend. In our first two reports on battery-swapping, Exploring Battery-Swapping For Electric Vehicles in China 1.0, and Exploring Battery-Swapping for Heavy Trucks in China 1.0, our focus was on passengers’ vehicles, and heavy trucks and the development and estab- lishment of large-scale battery-swapping systems in the Chinese context.

Due to the importance of batteries for the performance of electric vehicles, it is important to explore and understand the development of technologies for batteries in China as China is not only largest manufacturer of electric vehicles but also one of the largest developers and manufacturers of batteries used in electric vehicles.

In this report we are focusing on the technology development in historic perspective of the last 15 years in China. We see that the lithium-ion technology is the dominant technology, but we also see new emerging battery technologies that might be the game changer for the performance of electric vehicles. We demonstrate the dynamics of main battery technologies, LFP (lithium iron manganese, LiFeO4, battery cell) battery and NMC (lithium nickel manga- nese cobalt oxide battery cell) battery, the distribution of installed volumes between LFP and NMC in the Chinese market. During the early days of modern battery, the LFP battery technology were dominant with 69% of the market while NMC had 27% of the market. Over the last 5 years we can see big change where NMC is moving to the 67% level and LFP is going down to 32%. During the emerging stage of the China’s new energy vehicle development, LFP batteries account for 69-72% of the installed capacity due to their low cost and mature technology.With the introduction of NMC batteries into the mar- ket, their energy density, capacity and operational vehicle range and safety performance have been improved compared with LFP batteries. In recent years, the installed capacity of NMC battery technology accounts for two-thirds of the market in China. With the intensification of competition in the new energy vehicle market, NMC batteries with higher energy density and better cost efficiency ratio have become the new favorite and are still the mainstream of the market until now.

The CTP (cell to pack) technology of CATL (Contemporary Amperex Technology Co., Limited) improves the energy density and group efficiency of NMC battery, and the blade battery developed by BYD improves the energy density and safety performance based on the low cost of LFP battery. LFP battery market share expected to grow.

However, professionals in the industry point out that the energy density of LFP battery and NMC battery is close to the theoretical limit, the energy density limit of high nickel material + silicon carbon negative cell is about 300Wh/Kg At current time only CATL and GOTION High-Tech have reached this level.

New battery technologies are emerging, such as the Li-S (Lithium-Sulfur) battery that was first proposed in the 1960s, but progress has been slow so far; it was not until the 21st century that China’s research on Li-S batteries began gradually to develop. Solid-state lithium and lithium-rich manganese-based battery technologies are becoming the new hot-spots of battery development in China.

Beside capacity and performance, the main challenges for battery development that we have identified are:

Safety issues, especially the risk of fire during battery charging. The need to improve battery-management systems in collaborative settings between vehicle OEMs and key partners such as battery manufacturers and battery swapping technology developers. The management of batteries in their second and third lifecycles, as well as the decommissioning and recycling of old batteries.According to the development of the existing market, the market size of power lithium battery pack recycling will reach about 6.5 billion yuan by 2020, of which the market size of ladder utilization is about 4.1 billion yuan, and the market size of recycling is 2.4 billion yuan. By 2023, the total market size for battery decommissioning will reach 15 billion yuan, of which the market size of ladder utilization is about 5.7 billion yuan, and the market size of recycling is about 9.3 billion yuan.

Thus far, the global electrification of transportation has been conducted mainly by the use of battery-powered vehicles. Over the years, the number of electric vehicles (EV) has grown substantially in number, the batteries have become larger in size providing vehicles with longer ranges, the efficiency of batteries has improved, and the prices have decreased substantially, etc. However, all batteries need to be charged with electricity. Several solutions to battery charging have been introduced, static and dynamic conductive and inductive technologies as well as cable charging. The most common, almost the dominant global solution, is stationary charging using cables, whether normal or fast charging.

There is, however, another battery charging tech- nology, that of battery-swapping, i.e. replacement of the discharged battery in the vehicle with a charged battery from outside the vehicle. This modern battery-swapping technology was used by the German company Mercedes-Benz in the 1970s, the Israeli company Better Place in 2007 and also by US company Tesla in 2013. Tesla originally designed their car in a modular way that embraced battery- swapping but then opted for their own proprietary cable-based charging system and a business model that integrates cars and charging.

During the 2010s, when the country started the substantial development of new energy vehicles, Chinese grid operators and entrepreneurial OEMs tried to put the swapping technology into practice in collaboration with Better Place. However, the early exploitation of battery-swapping failed due to the high cost of battery-swapping systems and batteries, lack of standards, lack of openness and diver- gent technical and economic interests among key stakeholders and objections from car manufacturers to opening up their vehicle structure. Additionally, one fire accident on a pilot project car raised safety questions that needed to be solved. Lastly, political support was lacking because the Chinese government did not promote battery-swapping technology in the countries’ first strategic development plan for a new energy vehicle 2012 to 2020.From 2012 to 2016, battery-swapping charging stations underwent large-scale development as the major complementary energy solution in China. BAIC, Lifan, NIO and some other Chinese OEM brands together with third-party battery-swap station opera- tors, such as Aulton, insisted on exploring the battery-swapping option and made substantial progress. Market scale reached a certain volume and the technology became more mature. When cable-based charging solutions became insufficient, forming the bottleneck of the rapidly growing EV market, Lifan again proposed battery-swapping as a complementary solution to the national congress in 2016. This time, the attitude of the various players was more positive. In 2020, after a discussion meeting with delegations from major stakeholders related to EV development, Chinese central government included battery-swapping technology in the National New Energy Vehicle Development Strategy 2021 to 2035 and included battery-swapping in the list of the New Infrastructure Construction campaign.

Since 2020, there has been fast growth in battery- swapping infrastructure in Chinese cities and along the main highways. Modularly designed cars with fully integrated automated fast battery-swapping system solutions are available. There are also other emerging application areas for battery-swapping such as buses, trucks, heavy-duty vehicles etc.

The new emerging business model for commercialization of battery-swapping is based on the idea of separating the price of the electric car from its cost liest part, the battery. Batteries can be chosen flexibly based on their size and can either be purchased or rented on a monthly basis to reduce anxiety and uncertainty among customers. Also, the charging of batteries can be cable-based or based on a monthly subscription according to the required amount of energy, resulting in great flexibility for the customer.

Thus, the investment cost for customers is based on their purchasing power, risk taking attitude, level of uncertainty and driving habits. The swapping time is reduced down to 1 minute. This system enables great flexibility because the customer can choose and, if necessary, subsequently change the battery size depending on their needs as well as choosing the charging system and payment methods.

At the end of January 2021, there were 562 battery-swap stations operative in China, providinga service to taxis, online car-hailing vehicles, private passenger vehicles and business operation vehicles. More than 100,000 cars have been sold with battery-swapping systems. Battery-swapping’s status asan important complementary solution to EV energy supply has been recognized by various parties. The feasibility of developing battery-swapping for taxis, online car-hailing vehicles, logistic vehicles and other business operation vehicles has been preliminarily verified.

The major challenges faced by players include the large investment required for battery-swapping station construction, operation and maintenance requests, the high financial cost of batteries in the swapping stations, and battery depreciation, difficulty in achieving unified standards, overlap of the division of responsibilities, limited space for station construc- tion and safety issues. Accordingly, solutions are being intensely worked on by various players.

A multi-player, new ecosystem is investing jointly in battery-swap stations and battery asset companies are also starting up. Third-party operator Aulton is initiating the exploration of battery standardization by unifying the interfaces of the battery outer package and the vehicles, leaving the content of the battery to OEMs. Government agencies are also driving a discussion on the standardization issue. Innovative collaborations on space sharing is providing space for battery-swap stations. Active and passive safety technologies are being developed that address the safety issue.

A combination of local provincial governments, the automotive industry, IT-developers, entrepreneurs, state grid system operators, swapping system operators, electricity suppliers, institutes and univer- sities are developing a new ecosystem and placing large-scale systems in operation.We call this the Chinese approach, the Symbiotic Business Model, the collective exploration and experimenting of industrial, institutional and political players, leading all the way from technology devel- opment through to the establishment of local market solutions for the development and commercialization of battery-swapping systems, and the simultaneous construction and reshaping of a new ecosystem.

The placement of battery-swapping on the national strategic list demonstrates the systematic approach to the electrification of transportation that needs to be seen and understood starting from energy production, distribution, charging, and the creation of a balancing component in overall energy sourcing and energy storage. Thus, the new ecosystem comprises the major part of the main players in the energy and electrification system. Battery-swapping must not be seen as just one technology that is only a business target for some players, but rather as strategic solution to the entire energy system transformation and part of the ongoing energy and transportation transformation.

The battery-swapping system when operated ona large-scale has significant strategic importanceas decentralized, distributed and localized energy storage helping to balance energy production and distribution in the national grid system. Substantial rapid developmental growth in battery-swapping is expected in China from 2021. It is still not possible to predict the long-term development of this technology approach, but it is only in trying it, that it will be possible to discover the outcome.

Implementation of the battery-swapping system can only be successful when all the main players in the energy-transportation system and along the value chain collaborate in the development and commercialization, implementation and large-scale diffusion.

With the development of human society, the total demand for energy is rising. However, due to the limited fossil energy stock and the threat of the green-house effect, adjusting the energy structure is crucially important for the sustainable development of all countries in the world.

Hydrogen energy has received great attention as one technology that can provide society with clean energy, support decarbonization, and be one key technology in the electrification of transport.

In 2018, China’s hydrogen production was 21 million tons, accounting for 2.7% of the total energy according to the calorific value of energy management. According to the prediction of China hydrogen energy alliance, hydrogen energy will account for 5% of total energy consumption in 2030 and 10% in China’s thermal energy by 2050. According to the market forecast, China’s hydrogen production will exceed 20 million tons in 2020. China hydrogen energy alliance predicts that China’s hydrogen demand will reach 35 million tons by 2030, with a compound annual growth rate of 5.76%.

In 2050, China’s hydrogen demand will be close to 60 million tons. Hydrogen energy is increasingly more widely used in China, and the market development speed is growing rapidly.

This report focuses on the development of hydrogen technology in China where the Chinese central government has put hydrogen technology on the strategic listing, repeatedly issued relevant policies to support the development of hydrogen technology and the industry, upgraded the fuel cell development to the level of strategic development, and guides and encourages the development of the fuel cell vehicle industry.

Hydrogen based vehicles have been launched mainly in Japan, USA and South Korea. Compared with the relatively mature fuel cell vehicle market in Japan and South Korea, the customers of domestic hydrogen refueling stations in China are mainly buses and official vehicles. However, there are several Chinese enterprises manufacturing passenger cars to runon hydrogen fuel, such as Chery, Changan, Hongqi, GAC, FAW and others. As illustration, the GAC’s self-developed hydrogen fuel cell-based passenger vehicle has an operational range of 650 km.

Compared with the more mature pure electric vehicle, based on batteries as energy source, the hydrogen fuel vehicle is still in a very early but rapidly maturing stage.

The data show that in 2018, China’s input of hydrogen energy vehicles reached 1,527, including 1,418 buses and 109 logistic trucks. In 2019, the production and sales of fuel cell vehicles in China was 2,833 and 2,737, respectively, with a year-on-year growth of 85.5% and 79.2%, respectively. By the end of 2019, the cumulative number of fuel cell vehicles in China was 6,000.

In 2020, the policy for fuel cells became favorable. From the development of China, there is still a lot of room for growth.

Hydrogen technology requires refueling stations, and in China, several traditional oil suppliers are building hydrogen refueling stations.

On 1 July 1 2019, Sinopec built the first domestic oil and hydrogen combined station in Foshan, Guang-dong Province. Since then, Sinopec has built the first batch of comprehensive energy supply stations in Zhejiang, Shanghai and other places, which integrate refueling, hydrogenation and other functions. As a strategic partner of the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympic Games, Sinopec will provide hydrogen supply, vehicle hydrogenation, and operation support of hydrogenation stations for hydrogen fuel cell vehicles in the Beijing and Zhangjiakou Winter Olympic Games.

On 28 May 2020, Sinopec Guangdong Petroleum Branch, together with Huangpu District and Guang-zhou Development Zone, built the infrastructure for the application and development of hydrogen energy vehicles. It was planned to build more than 20 integrated energy sales stations in the area, integrating hydrogenation, refueling, charging, non-oil and photovoltaic power generation. It is estimated that the revenue of a series of projects will exceed 10 billion yuan/RMB (1,6 billion USD).

The Foshan area in the south of China has rapidly become a center of hydrogen development. Foshan municipal government has successively issued development planning and supporting subsidy policies.

The hydrogen energy industry development plan (2018-2030) includes building 57 hydrogen stations in 2030, which will develop the Foshan area into a leading national hydrogen energy industry demonstration city and agglomeration highland. Finally, hydrogen energy in China is facing a trend of rapid speed and scale of development. Clean energy hydrogen production and energy utilization are still in the early but rapidly growing stage of development. Soon, hydrogen energy will see immense development prospects in the field of transportation, heavy freight transportation and electric energy storage.

We have reasons to believe that hydrogen will be one of the strategic technologies and practices in China in the development of a green society, decarbonization and the electrification of transport.

In 2020, there were about 360 million vehicles in China, of which 270 million were passenger vehicles, accounting for 75% of the total number of motor vehicles, while the new energy vehicle population was 4.17 million, a year-on-year increase of 9.45%. According to the forecast of the State Grid Electric Vehicle Company, the number of electric vehicles in China will reach 300 million in 2040.

This article mainly conducts research in the field of wireless power transmission for static and dynamic charging of electric vehicles in China.

The orderly guidance of electric vehicle chargingcan greatly increase the utilization rate of grid equip- ment and save nearly 70% of investment. The power battery capacity can reach more than 20 billion kWh, which will provide 12 billion kWh of energy storage and 4.8 million MW of regulation capacity for the grid.

There are several Chinese automotive OEM companies, such as FAW, SAIC, Geely, Changan, Dongfeng, BAIC, GAC, BYD, etc., all of which are involved in the development of wireless charging technology, as well as several independent equipment companies. There are also more than 30 electric vehicle wireless charging equipment suppliers in China, including Xiamen New Page, ZTE New Energy, Huawei Technology, Wanan, Anjie, and Zhonghui.

Some interesting achievements of some of the Chinese companies include:

• SAIC Roewe released the pure electric SUV MAVELX in 2018, equipped with a 6.6 kW EV WPT (wireless power transfer) system. Themodel is also equipped with the AI Pilot intelligent driving assistance system, which has theAI Parking full-function intelligent parking assistance system, offering the perfect combinationof automatic parking and EV WPT. The wireless charging system configured by MAVELX is a front-end product. The vehicle chassis retains the structure, electrical and communication interfaces for the EV WPT. This is the first pure electric vehicle equipped with EV WPT.

• ZXNE is a wholly owned subsidiary of ZTE Cor- poration. It began researching EV WPT technology in 2012 and established an operating company in July 2014. As of August 2019, ZXNE had completed the development of the third-generation EV WPT system. The first-generation products are put in operation. In 2016, it has completed modification and testing with 11 domestic and foreign auto manufacturers.

The development in demonstration sites began in 2015, based on the early days of research and basic technology development. The foundation has led to mature knowledge and a theoretical framework for the operation of wireless charging technologies.

In 2015, EV WPT’s TRL (Technology Readiness Level) curve reached TRL6 in the private domain due to the early mature theoretical system. Since 2019, the development of EV WPT in the private sector has become more mature, and the curve will reach TRL7 in 2020.

In the public application field, a large amount of theoretical knowledge about the application results of WPT on the TRL reached L3 in 2010 and rose to TRL6 in 2019.

There are two main reasons why TRL analysis does not show higher levels:

There is a lack of national and international standards, particularly in interoperability, preventing the wireless charging technology from going all the way to full scale commercialization.There is also uncertainty concerning radiation associated with wireless charging. The sender and the receiver modules are physically separated and the distance between must be overcome with high energy transmission that creates radiation outside the ray beam between the sender and the receiver. It is unclear what outcome this radiation might have on humans and animals. Until this is clear, full-scale commercialization has been put on hold.

Technology Readiness Levels (TRL) has become a standard approach to assessment of technologicaldevelopment projects. The origin of TRL is the US moon rocket programs. However, to develop and put intopractice advanced technology projects, also other aspects are important to evaluate in a systematic way.This paper provides a tentative analytical model of four main perspectives to analyze readiness levels oftechnology projects; Technology Readiness Level (TRL), Political Readiness Level (PRL), Social andSocietal Readiness Level (SRL), and Commercial Readiness Level (CRL).To be successful we need to explore and understand the process, interconnectivities between and the impactbased on all those four aspects in an integrated way. 

What customers want is one thing, but what they actually need and what they desire is something else. In this paper we define existing customer needs as something that customers know and are aware of, can express, and new customer needs as something that customers do not yet know and are not yet fully aware of. Just like in a Johari window. Companies usually go for the former because the latter is more difficult. Particularly when the customer desire is more psychological in character. Business models are valuable innovation tools because they can turn even an old and less novel technology into a successful innovation, but as stated by Chesbrough, at the heart, a business model performs two important functions: value creation and value capture. However, how can you create value when customers don’t know what they actually need? When they cannot express what they actually desire? Maybe a deeper interaction is required, interpreting the customer’s needs, reading between the lines, inferring what is going on underneath the surface, and collaborative prototyping. This study was based on an exploratory, inductive research approach influenced by grounded theory, studying three Swedish technological companies: Axis, HMS and Sectra. Using grounded theory coding techniques, a typology of seller and buyer needs was created based on four categories: unconstrained needs, undoubtful needs, unconventional needs, and uncertain needs. The results show that depending on which category the company resides, the typology can help managers decide when it is appropriate to listen closely to customers, and when it is not. When they want to fulfill existing customer needs and when they want to fulfill new customer needs. However, discovering new customer needs requires close interaction with customers. Especially when you want to discover not just what customers know that they want, but also what they do not yet know that they actually need. Intimacy is needed when you really want to come close to customers and really want to explore and understand their deep desires.

China has become one of the world’s leading countries in renewable energy, particularly in wind power. Goldwind Science and Technology has become not only the largest wind turbine manufacturer in China, but also one of the largest in the world. Goldwind has installed more than 31,000 wind turbines and in total more than 50 GW of wind power energy worldwide.The aims of this dissertation are to explore, in order to understand, how the business model approach has been developed over time to support the establishment and success of Goldwind, the role of the Chinese government, and how the business model can be designed, redesigned, reorganised and managed, providing Goldwind with opportunities to offer new service and maintenance solutions that fit customers’ strategic expectations and needs as well as stake holders’ expectations in a life-cycle perspective.I have chosen an action research approach, influenced by grounded theory and participatory approach, to develop a new “Open and Seamless Complementary Collaborative Business Model” focusing on service and maintenance for Goldwind. This model emphasises that service and maintenance operations should be seamlessly shared between Goldwind, its customers and third-party service providers in a way that considers customers’ strategic desires, capabilities and the best way to complement the capabilities of customers in the life cycle of wind turbine operations, from designing wind farms to repowering and recycling old systems.My research case is the organisational field that is centered by Goldwind, including political, institutional and regulatory actors. By an extensive analysis of the dynamics of business model innovation of Goldwind in the institutional system that Goldwind is embedded in from its inception to today, I have reached following conclusions:Chinese political, institutional and business actors co-created and co-shaped China’s wind power industry and the largest wind turbine manufacturer through mutual understanding and actions based on continual dialogue that is still going on.There is a specific “Symbiotic Business Model” in China in general and in the Chinese wind power context.- Symbiotic relationships exist in two dimensions: horizontal and vertical. The horizontal symbiotic relationship refers to the seamless complementary collaboration along the industry value chain. The vertical symbiotic relationship refers to political, institutional and business actors co-create, co-develop and co-achieve social, political and economic targets.- The symbiotic relationship is achieved via ongoing dialogue between political and business actors by using regulatory tools with the support of institutional actors.- Specific informal social network-based trust-building mechanism plays a complementary role that supports the smooth functioning of the symbiotic business model for the co-development of the Chinese wind power industry.- There are plural logics in the symbiotic business model, and multiple logics are absorbed in the symbiotic business model through the senior managers’ cognitive model and carried out in the strategic choices of the enterprise in the business model design and implementation.My observation is that by 2019, almost 85% of the new business model is being implemented in Goldwind’s practice.

Envision Energy is an emerging energy solution provider from China which entered the wind power market in 2007. Envision became the 3th biggest turbine manufacturer in China and the 9th largest in the world in 2015. Thus, the purpose of our research is to explore the underlying factors to Envision’s successful business model for internationalization. This qualitative research is based on interviews with key personnel at Envision. Our analysis has identified four major elements of their business model for internationalization that are crucial in the success of Envision. Those four are grouped on two major clusters:Upfront elements representing the face of the Envision to market and customers:

1. Market positioning by the clear positioning of Envision on the market areas left open by the lack of understanding of the market logic by competitors.

2. Customer orientation by clear focus on identified customer needs and desire for quality products also here left aside by competitors.

Backend elements representing the value creation and value deliverance elements:

3. Human resources as the key element through interaction with customers, creating bond and relations with customers and delivering promised values to customers and delivering.

4. Supply chain by the capacity of Envision to utilize the entire supply chain to create and deliver high quality products synchronized with Envision’s offerings to customers and customer’s expectations.

Our research shows that Envision represents a new kind of high-tech Chinese company which works systematically to develop new business models that can enable high growth and high level of internationalization that goes beyond the capacity of technology, products as tradition goes.

Envision Energy is an emerging energy solution provider from China which entered the wind power market in 2007. Envision became the 3th biggest turbine manufacturer in China and the 9th largest in the world in 2015. Thus, the purpose of our research is to explore the underlying factors to Envision’s successful business model for internationalization. This qualitative research is based on interviews with key personnel at Envision. Our analysis has identified four major elements of their business model for internationalization that are crucial in the success of Envision. Those four are grouped on two major clusters:Upfront elements representing the face of the Envision to market and customers:

1. Market positioning by the clear positioning of Envision on the market areas left open by the lack of understanding of the market logic by competitors.

2. Customer orientation by clear focus on identified customer needs and desire for quality products also here left aside by competitors.Backend elements representing the value creation and value deliverance elements:

3. Human resources as the key element through interaction with customers, creating bond and relations with customers and delivering promised values to customers and delivering.

4. Supply chain by the capacity of Envision to utilize the entire supply chain to create and deliver high quality products synchronized with Envision’sofferings to customers and customer’s expectations.

Our research shows that Envision represents a new kind of high-tech Chinese company which works systematically to develop new business models that can enable high growth and high level of internationalization that goes beyond the capacity of technology, products as tradition goes.