Pure Electric Ships to Likely Sail Oceans in Three Years, Says GM of CATL's Maritime Business

(Yicai) Dec. 5 -- Contemporary Amperex Technologies is pushing the boundaries of electric applications into the ocean shipping industry, aiming to develop pure electric vessels able to sail in the open ocean in about three years, according to the general manager of the Chinese battery giant's marine division.

CATL's battery powered electric ships have been deployed in inland rivers, lakes, and coastal waters and are now expanding to open oceans, Su Yiyi told the media yesterday at Marintec China, Asia's most influential maritime exhibition. “Perhaps within the next three years, we will have pure electric ships sailing the oceans.”

Compared with new energy vehicles, whose market penetration rate has exceeded 50 percent and sales growth has slowed, the market development of electric vessels is still in the exploration stage, with relatively low ownership and penetration rate, leaving substantial room for growth.

The maritime electric business is a key link connecting the past and future of CATL's "full-spectrum growth" strategy, which aims to extend the core capabilities accumulated by the company in the development and application of new energy power systems for land vehicles to full transportation scenarios, including the maritime and aviation sectors, Su noted.

At Marintec, CATL also launched its Zero-Carbon Shipping and Smart Port-Shipping Integration Solution, intending to achieve end-to-end integration from on-board power systems and shore-based energy supplement networks to cloud-based intelligent management and intelligent operations.

The solution includes maritime batteries and power systems, smart navigation systems, shore-based energy supplement options, such as charging and battery swapping, and cloud-based services covering remote ship monitoring, dispatching, and operational optimization.

"It will significantly improve the operational efficiency of electric ships, reduce operating costs, enhance ship safety and management convenience, and truly make green shipping as easy, safe, and efficient as driving an electric car," CATL explained.

CATL entered the maritime new energy sector in 2017 and officially established a related business subsidiary in 2022. It now provides customers with four core products and services: maritime power system integration, maritime power battery systems, maritime smart navigation systems, and electric ship battery swapping.

Editors: Tang Shihua, Futura Costaglione