Chinese battery manufacturer Chaowei Group has founded a new company to make electric vehicles with a choice of lead-acid or lithium-ion battery.
Chaowei has invested ¥3.5 billion ($508 million) into its new company called Zhejiang Plante Electric Vehicle.
The firm will make the batteries at its existing plant, just 5km from where it wants to build 100,000 plug-in electric vans, named ‘Hussar’, each year.
The van will carry either a 1,150kg lead-acid battery or a 950kg lithium ternary battery to provide the vehicle with around 13KWh of power.
The lead-acid pack will consist of six 150Ah batteries, according to Dr. Guiping Dai, the chief scientist from Chaowei Group.
The company claims the lead-acid pack will ensure 160km of driving, while the lithium battery will have a range of more than 200km.
The lithium pack will be fully interchangeable, with Chaowei claiming it can be charged to 80% capacity within an hour.
A full charge of the lead-acid and lithium batteries will take less than eight hours, says the firm.
“As a battery manufacturer, we control the heart of the EV, therefore, it is a big development for our company to build the EV as well”, Dr. Dai said.
The electric vans are expected to reach the market in the summer 2017.
