The B2B platform for full-electric and plug-in hybrid electric vehicles: Industry News

China National Offshore Oil Corp (CNOOC) is considering building a nationwide recharging network for electric vehicles. With a battery-swapping system as well as other projects the company is starting to heavily invest in the electric vehicle market.

According to the Wall Street Journal, China’s largest offshore oil and gas producer, China National Offshore Oil Corp (CNOOC), is looking at the opportunity to setting up a network for recharging electric vehicles.

“Since the company cannot manufacture cars, it can provide energy,” said CNOOC director of corporate strategy Shan Lianwen. “Electric car drivers will be able to charge their batteries at the stations nationwide when the network is established,” he added.

More precisely, the company is actually thinking about battery-swapping stations, meaning that the driver of a plug-in automobile would be able to swap out a depleted car battery for a fully recharged one.

“The feasibility of this program rests on whether the electric car is popular enough to sustain new business,” said Shan. “Petrol prices need to rise about 20 per cent to eight yuan (Eur 0.79) a litre before consumers would turn to the zero-emission cars in bigger numbers,” he added.

492 million euro for Li-ion batteries

Another factor influencing the success of the business is manufacturers being able to produce cheap but good-quality batteries, the CNOOC director declared. This is apparently also the reason why CNOOC invested 492 million euro this year in the Chinese lithium-ion car battery manufacturer Tianjin Lishen Battery Joint-Stock Co. in order to boost Tianjin's new plant with 20 battery production lines.

Following the call from the Chinese government to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and decrease the reliance on the overseas oil supply, many oil companies in China are conducting various projects on alternative energies. Besides investments into wind, water and solar power, the electric vehicle industry is becoming more and more popular.