Weichai’s Electric Trucks Will Use BYD’s Blade Battery
BYD’s revolutionary LFP Blade Battery has been instrumental in boosting production and sales of BYD’s battery-electric vehicles as well as its “Super Hybrid” DM-i and DM-p plug-in hybrids. Last year, BYD sold over 1.8 million vehicles and is looking to produce and sell a whole lot more of its own vehicles this year. But that’s not all, BYD is also offering its Blade Battery to other OEMs. There are regular news feeds about prominent OEMs planning to use the Blade battery in the EV rumor mill, the most widely circulated rumor or the never ending rumor being related to Tesla planning to use the Blade battery for some of its more affordable vehicles in future. That has never been confirmed, but there are real products out now in China from other joint venture projects and partners that now use the Blade battery.
One of the most notable ones is the Toyota bZ3. The bZ3 is a battery-electric sedan jointly developed for the Chinese market by BYD TOYOTA EV TECHNOLOGY CO., LTD. BTET is a joint venture established by Toyota and BYD Company Ltd. (BYD) — and FAW Toyota Motor Co. Ltd. (FAW Toyota). It is produced by and sold through the FAW Toyota dealer network. The Toyota bZ3 has BYD’s revolutionary Blade battery. You can get the bZ3 in two options, a 49.92 kWh pack or a 65.26 kWh pack. These give a CLTC range of about 500 km and 600 km respectively. The bZ3 supports fast charging from 30% to 80% in about 30 mins. It has a rear-mounted motor (135 kW and 180 kW options) with peak torque of 303 Nm.
In another interesting development, Weichai’s light commercial new energy vehicles will adopt the BYD Blade battery. An announcement (translated from Chinese) last week, says “BYD is exclusively customizing Weichai’s new energy commercial vehicles, and it is the first to assemble mid-mounted blade batteries in Landking light trucks.” The announcement adds that a mid-mounted battery reduces costs and increases efficiency, enabling 320 km of range. It will have DC fast charging and will charge to 80% in about 30 minutes. The announcement also says “the voltage of a single box is 600V, the energy density of PACK is ≥155Wh/kg, and the IP protection level reaches IP68. Landking light trucks apply blade battery technology to achieve higher power, smaller size, lower cost, higher safety, support for fast charging and help accelerate the promotion and popularity of new energy vehicles.”
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BYD’s own commercial vehicles such as buses also use the Blade Battery. Last year, BYD unveiled its B12A03 electric buses in Singapore. The B12A03 bus, a model BYD specially designed for the Singapore market, is configured as a 12-meter full-low-floor bus with three doors. Adopting a fourth-generation aluminum body, the bus is also the first pure electric bus equipped with the Blade Battery. I am looking forward to seeing BYD’s collaborations with other companies, both in the passenger vehicle and in the commercial vehicle segments, continue to grow. This will also help lower the barrier to entry for new players in the market. They can base their vehicle designs on an established firm’s battery pack.
The Blade Battery. Image courtesy of BYD
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