Photo/Liang Xiao (NBD)

On March 5, NBD learned that during the 2024 Two Sessions, Zeng Yuqun, representative of the National Committee of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC) and chairman of battery giant CATL, submitted four proposals focusing on the development of the new energy industry, covering topics such as heavy truck electrification, bidirectional integration and interaction of batteries and power grids (B2G), and full life cycle management of industrial solid waste. 

Photo/Provided by CATL

In 2023, China’s new energy industry maintained a high-speed development momentum, with electric passenger vehicles, lithium-ion batteries and solar cells becoming the “new three items” of foreign trade, breaking the trillion-yuan mark for the first time in export value; new energy vehicle production and sales ranked first in the world for nine consecutive years. Although after decades of development, China’s new energy battery technology has achieved global leadership, and its scale accounts for more than 60% of the global share. But looking forward to future development, it still faces challenges from power grid instability, international competition and other aspects.

From the perspective of international competition, Zeng Yuqun proposed four suggestions. One is to promote technological progress through standard guidance; the second is to compete orderly when going out, and prevent the tragic of Chinese motorcycles in the Southeast Asian market from happening again; the third is to participate deeply in the revision of international standards; the fourth is to build a national quality standard laboratory.

From the perspective of power grid stability, Zeng Yuqun believes that currently, with the rapid increase of new energy vehicles, the disorderly charging of large-scale electric vehicles will overwhelm the power system. Zeng suggested that vehicle-grid interaction (V2G) and bidirectional integration and interaction of batteries and power grids (B2G, Battery to Grid) might be a solution. 

From the perspective of commercial application, Zeng Yuqun said China’s electric heavy trucks have gained strong market competitiveness in recent years, but the penetration rate is far lower than the average level of the automotive industry. Zeng Yuqun suggested that we should further optimize China’s electric heavy truck management policies, improve the standard system, encourage market technology innovation and promotion of electric heavy trucks, and accelerate the realization of the dual-carbon goal of China’s transportation industry.

From the perspective of the full life cycle of the new energy industry, Zeng Yuqun said that currently, the general industrial solid waste management is still weak, which has brought negative impacts on the resource conservation and intensive recycling of industrial solid waste in China. Zeng Yuqun suggested that we should establish industrial solid waste passport management policies and standards, clarify the responsibilities of each activity party, improve the full life cycle management requirements, strengthen the input of information technology means, and realize the data recording and traceability of the whole process.