SAIC Motor, Aulton to co-work on promoting battery swappable taxis in Xishuangbanna

Shanghai (Gasgoo)- In a significant move towards greener transportation, Jinghong Jingyun Transportation Development Investment Co., Ltd., SAIC Motor Passenger Vehicle Branch, and Xishuangbanna Aulton New Energy Technology Co., Ltd. have signed a tripartite memorandum of understanding (MOU). This agreement, dated July 4th, and taking place in Shanghai, aims to jointly promote the application of battery swappable new energy vehicles (NEVs) in the Xishuangbanna region.

Earlier, on April 25th, the Yunnan Development and Reform Commission, along with five other departments, issued a notice on the "Implementation Plan for Promoting Green Consumption in Yunnan Province." The notice highlighted the development of green transportation, advocating for new energy vehicles, and speeding up the replacement of conventional automotive power technologies with new energy ones. It also called for infrastructure such as battery swapping and charging facilities, new energy storage, hydrogen refueling, and LNG facilities to be rationally laid out in public areas according to market demands.

Photo credit: Aulton

Under this strategic collaboration framework, the three parties will work together to spur the development of NEVs in Xishuangbanna. They intend to accelerate the promotion of the "vehicle-battery separation" model under the battery swapping mode, refine the construction of a regional shared battery swapping service network, and effectively address pain points such as high purchase costs, lengthy charging times, and the quick degradation of battery capacity. Other areas of focus include the risk of electric vehicle self-ignition and safety concerns. The collaboration aims to offer efficient and convenient battery swapping services for taxi drivers in the Xishuangbanna region.

Yang Ye, co-founder and vice-chairman of Aulton New Energy, introduced the company's basic situation, development history, business model, business format, and the operational situation in the Yunnan region. He noted that Aulton actively partners with industry stakeholders to form a closed-loop "vehicle-station-operation," enhancing the efficiency of battery-swapping operations. It has successfully built a battery-swapping industrial ecosystem with regional characteristics, promoting high-quality development of the battery-swapping industry in Xishuangbanna and even across Yunnan Province.

As a Chinese pioneer and leader of the battery swapping business, Aulton New Energy has used diverse business collaboration models to create a growth pole for battery swapping in Yunnan. Starting from Kunming and gradually extending to Yuxi, Chuxiong, Qujing, Honghe, and other central Yunnan cities, Aulton has formed a battery swapping energy network that radiates throughout Yunnan Province. The aim is to achieve province-wide connectivity in the battery-swapping network and ultimately create a quality user experience where the average search time for a station in the city center is less than 10 minutes, the average service radius is less than 3 kilometers, and the average distance between stations on major expressways is no more than 200 kilometers.