(Yicai) Dec. 5 -- Contemporary Amperex Technologies, already a global leader in electric vehicle batteries, is doubling down on electrifying shipping. The Chinese firm aims to develop pure electric vessels that can ply the oceans within roughly three years, according to the general manager of its marine business.

CATL's electric ships are already in use on rivers, lakes, and in coastal waters and the Ningde-based company is now pushing to expand to ocean shipping, Su Yiyi told the media yesterday at Marintec China, Asia's largest maritime trade fair.

“Perhaps in about three years, we’ll see pure electric ships sailing the oceans,” she said.

New energy vehicle adoption exceeds 50 percent and sales growth has slowed, but the market for electric ships is still in the exploratory phase, with relatively low ownership and adoption so far, leaving substantial room for growth.

CATL first entered the electric ship field in 2017 and set up CATL Electric Ship Technology in late 2022, which now offers four main maritime services: power system integration, power battery systems, smart navigation systems, and battery swapping.

Su said the electric vessel business is a key plank of CATL's "full-spectrum growth" strategy, which aims to leverage its core strengths, developed through building new energy power systems for land transport, and expand them across all transport domains, including maritime and aviation.

At Marintec, CATL also unveiled its zero-carbon shipping and smart port-to-ship integrated solution, which aims to deliver end-to-end integration from on-board power systems and shore-based energy supplement networks to cloud-based intelligent management and smart 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 ease of management, and truly make green shipping as “as easy, safe and efficient as driving an electric car,” according to CATL.

Editors: Tang Shihua, Futura Costaglione