On May 11, the world’s first standard module battery swap vessel “HETUN WEILAN 01” departed from Wuhu Port, carrying 49 standard container cargoes, successfully arrived at Chaohu Port and completed unloading operations. This marks the official commissioning of the vessel codenamed “HETUN WEILAN 01”.
“HETUN WEILAN 01” was jointly built by Wuhu Shipyard and Sandianshui New Energy Technology Co., Ltd. The vessel has a deadweight of 3,000 tons and a maximum speed of 8 knots, designed specifically for inland waterway navigation. It is equipped with 6 standard module batteries, each with a capacity of 405.5 kWh. A single battery swap takes only 5 minutes, and the entire process of swapping all 6 batteries on board is controlled within 30 minutes.
The standard vessel type “HETUN WEILAN 01” has successively obtained the battery swap system certification certificate and ship inspection certificate issued by China Classification Society (CCS), as well as the Approval in Principle (AIP) certificates issued by Bureau Veritas (BV) and Det Norske Veritas (DNV). “‘HETUN WEILAN 01’ has gathered relevant certificates from the world’s three major authoritative classification societies, indicating that it has received high recognition from the international shipping community,” said Zheng Tianbao, Deputy General Manager of Wuhu Shipyard Co., Ltd. For this reason, certified and approved by CCS, “HETUN WEILAN 01” is defined as the “world’s first standard module battery swap vessel”.
“The core technology of ‘HETUN WEILAN 01’ lies in its adoption of the ‘ship, vehicle, storage’ shared standard module battery swap system,” said Liu Yang, Executive Deputy General Manager of Sandianshui New Energy Technology Co., Ltd. Under this system, standard module batteries can not only provide power for the vessel but also be hoisted ashore by swap equipment when docked, flexibly applied in scenarios such as port heavy trucks, forklifts, and industrial energy storage, building a new ecosystem centered on the port with shared energy facilities and cost sharing across multiple scenarios.
Liu Yang further introduced that this battery swap system has applied for over 370 patents, filling multiple gaps in this technical field globally. In addition, “HETUN WEILAN 01” integrates multiple industry-first technologies, representing a cross-border innovative practice by Sandianshui Company, based on the development of Anhui’s automotive industry and Wuhu Shipyard’s century-old shipbuilding experience, using automotive thinking to drive shipbuilding.
In terms of technical path, “HETUN WEILAN 01” adopts the new energy vehicle supply chain, being the first vessel globally to be equipped with automotive-grade motors, significantly improving drive efficiency and achieving comprehensive optimization in weight, cost, and energy consumption; it introduces the concept of automotive smart cockpit, constructing a ship engine operating system and a unified management architecture for the vessel’s multi-domain electronic and electrical systems; it is equipped with 360-degree surround view collision avoidance and visual enhancement functions, and pre-embedded hardware for automatic berthing and unberthing, laying the foundation for the intelligent upgrade of the vessel.
“After the official commissioning of ‘HETUN WEILAN 01’, it will promote the implementation of the ‘ship, vehicle, storage’ shared standard module battery swap system in more scenarios and routes,” said Zheng Tianbao. Next, we will work together with classification societies and industry partners worldwide to continue promoting the development of green and intelligent inland waterway vessel types, build a standardized supply chain system, and help the global inland waterway shipping fully enter the “zero-carbon era”.
