News from CATL shows that the country's first pure electric sightseeing cruise ship "East Lake Star" equipped with a straight-wing rudder propeller and certified with the China Classification Society's "Green Ship-3" mark was recently delivered in the East Lake waters of Dongqiao District, Ningde, Fujian. 

"East Lake Star" is 27 meters long, 6 meters wide and 1.6 meters deep. It adopts CATL marine power battery system and can accommodate 58 passengers. Its designed maximum speed is ≥15km/h and has been put into operation. This is the first electric ship in Fujian Province to obtain the "Green Ship-3" symbol from the China Classification Society. It is also the first electric sightseeing cruise ship in Ningde City. It is mainly used for sightseeing in Ningde East Lake.

CATL is the world's first full life cycle solution provider for electric ships. In addition to the "East Lake Star", the world's largest pure electric tourist ship "Yangtze Three Gorges 1" and China's first oil-electric hybrid dual-power large coastal tourist ship "Greater Bay Area 1" are also equipped with CATL Marine power battery system.

Currently, more than 500 new energy ships equipped with CATL marine power batteries have been put into use around the world.

Like electric vehicles, power batteries are also the core part of electric ships. Marine power lithium batteries and battery management systems must obtain a China Classification Society (CCS) type approval certificate before being shipped.

CATL is the first domestic power battery company to pass the certification of CCS's latest inspection guideline "Inspection Guidelines for Pure Battery Powered Ships" (including battery cells, battery packs, and battery management systems). Since 2018, electric ships such as "Minjiang Star", "Haixun 12909", "Guanyu", "Deep Sea 01", "Greater Bay Area No. 1", "Sun Yat-sen University" and "Yangtze Three Gorges No. 1" have all been equipped with CATL's prismatic lifepo4 battery.

Moreover, from a time perspective, basically at least one iconic electric ship built with CATL marine power batteries is delivered or put into operation every year. Up to now, CATL's marine products have been applied in multiple ship types and scenarios in the Yangtze River, Pearl River, Min River, Kanas Lake and coastal areas.

Since 2022, CATL has continued to increase its electric ship layout.

At the end of 2022, CATL registered and established a wholly-owned subsidiary, CATL Electric Boat Technology Co., Ltd., whose main business is marine power battery system-related technology, product development and application.

In 2023, CATL will take more actions in the field of electric ships. The first is to invest in Wuhu Shipyard. On July 5 last year, Wuhu Shipyard Co., Ltd. (referred to as "Wuhu Shipyard") underwent industrial and commercial changes. Chery Holdings withdrew from the shareholder list, and seven companies including CATL's wholly-owned subsidiaries Qingding Investment and Qingdao Wudaokou became new shareholders.

After the equity change, Wuhu State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission became the actual controlling party, and Qidian Investment, which holds 100% of CATL's shares, became the ninth largest shareholder of Wuhu Shipyard, holding about 2.5% of the shares. Yin Tongyue, Party Secretary and Chairman of Chery Holding Group, holds approximately 17% of the shares of Wuhu Shipyard through his personal holding company Wuhu Ruichuang Investment Co., Ltd., making him the third largest shareholder.

During the 2023 China International Maritime Technology Academic Conference and Exhibition held in December, CATL demonstrated a variety of electric ship battery products, systems and solution, and released the industry's first new energy ship collaborative operation cloud platform, as well as CATL's first zero-carbon battery charging and replacement comprehensive energy supply solution.

At the same time, Times Electric Marine, a wholly-owned subsidiary, also signed a strategic cooperation memorandum with Bureau Veritas (BV) to strengthen cooperation and common development between the two parties in marine batteries and related upstream and downstream fields.

In terms of electric ships, the technology is relatively more mature and more suitable for short-route application scenarios. At this stage, pure electric ships are mainly concentrated in inland lakes, inland rivers and offshore ports, mainly car and passenger ferries, port tugs, port ships and offshore engineering vessels. .

The future of electric ships is promising

Driven by my country's power battery technology innovation, ships have gradually become the next application scenario for power batteries. Since 2019, my country's ship electrification has pressed the "fast forward button." That year, the lithium electrification penetration rate of my country's electric ships reached 0.035%, more than double that of 2018.

According to statistics, China's electric ship market size will reach 9.48 billion yuan in 2021, a year-on-year increase of 12.9%. The market size is expected to reach 16.87 billion yuan in 2025.

In addition, the shipping industry itself is also ushering in a new round of replacement cycles. In 2022, the average age of global ships with a gross tonnage of greater than 100 tons will be 22.7 years, a record high. The general "retirement" age for shipping ships is 25 years old. Considering that the delivery time of new ships is 1-2 years, 2023 is the starting point of a new shipbuilding cycle.

Analysts believe that under the general trend of energy conservation and emission reduction, coupled with market demand and policy efforts, and the combined effect of internal and external forces, the penetration rate of electric ships is expected to increase rapidly.

Lithium Battery companies lay out electric ships

According to information on the CCS official website, CCS has issued lithium battery-related product type approval certificates to dozens of companies including CATL, CALB, EVE, Gotion, Sunwanda, Ganfeng, Cornex, Lishen, GBS, etc., covering cells, modules, BMS and Battery pack.

Among them, EVE has the earliest layout of electric ships. As early as 2016, EVE's marine power batteries obtained CCS certification. In less than three years since then, the total installed capacity of EVE marine batteries has exceeded 30MWh, and the number of installed units has exceeded 100 ships.

On June 28, 2019, EVE also won the world’s first batch of 5,000-ton new energy bulk carriers (Diamond 5K series) project. Subsequently, iconic electric ships such as the "Junlv", "Blue Dolphin Cruise" and "Koko Princess" were all supplied with lithium iron phosphate batteries by EVE.

As of October 2023, EVE's cumulative shipments have reached 447. More than 50% of electric ships nationwide are equipped with EVE's battery solutions, and the cumulative shipment scale exceeds 200MWh.

CALB's lithium iron phosphate battery is equipped with China's first pure electric offshore catamaran, the Far East 42C new energy catamaran, which will be officially released in 2023. At the same time, the zero-carbon ship energy storage power system designed and developed by CALB passed DNV certification, becoming the first domestic ship battery system product independently designed by a Chinese team to obtain DNV certification.

Sunwanda announced in 2021 that its wholly-owned subsidiary had obtained a type approval certificate from the China Classification Society. The certified product name is "Lithium Iron Phosphate Battery". The product is suitable for ships and offshore facilities, and the certificate is valid until 2025.

Gotion officially entered the ship field after acquiring 51% of the shares of the original Shanghai Wuyang Ship Technology Co., Ltd. and reorganizing it into Shanghai Gotion Wuyang Ship Technology Co., Ltd. In 2020, the subsidiary won the first batch of three orders for ship power lifepo4 battery systems. In addition, Hebei Qinhuangdao launched a hybrid recreational fishing boat, which was also powered by Gotion.

Cornex has also continued to work hard to reach cooperation with a number of leading shipping companies, such as the "Electric Xiangjiang" 208TEU new energy pure electric distribution ship, Anhui's first "oil-to-electricity" ship, Wuhan Optics Valley Transportation Investment and Construction Co., Ltd. pure electric Cruises and other projects.