(Yicai Global) July 7 -- A unit of Chinese carmaking giant Zhejiang Geely Holding Group and green energy firm GCL Energy Technology are joining forces to promote the use of battery-swap technology among commercial vehicles, or any auto that carries goods or fare-paying passengers.

The two parties aim over the next three years to sell over 3,000 autos made by the Geely Commercial Vehicles Group that use rented batteries and GCL Energy will build more than 60 battery swapping stations to make charging easier, GLC Energy said yesterday, referring to the agreement signed on July 5.

Battery swapping can help car owners save money on buying batteries and save time on charging batteries. Instead of buying a car with a battery, they rent one from the auto company and simply swap their depleted batteries for fully-charged ones at battery stations. However, it requires a higher degree of standardization between the batteries and the vehicles. It also costs a lot more to build a battery swapping station than to build a normal charging station.

Geely and GCL Energy will use their technological advantages to ensure that the vehicles and battery swapping stations are technically matched. The range of autos they are targeting include heavy-duty trucks, tractors, refuse trucks and dregs transport vehicles. They also plan to set up a ‘NEV battery swap special investment fund’ to invest in building NEVs, battery banks and battery swapping facilities, they said.

GCL Energy, a subsidiary of new energy developer GCL, has made electric vehicle battery swapping one of its main businesses. Just last month the Suzhou, eastern Jiangsu province-based company said it would spend CNY3.6 billion (USD556.9 million) to build 488 NEV battery swapping stations across China, 313 for passenger vehicles and 175 for heavy-duty trucks.

GCL Energy’s share price [SHE:002015] closed down 3.03 percent today at CNY9.61 (USD1.50).

Editor: Kim Taylor