Ziv Av Engineering (ZAE), one of Israel’s largest engineering companies developing and manufacturing high-tech products, will design and supply battery switching stations for electrically powered vehicles in Nanjing, a city with 8 million residents and the capital of Jiangsu Province in Eastern China.

ZAE has signed a co-operation agreement with Chinese company Bustil, which holds the franchise for charging and switching batteries on electric vehicles in the city.

The Chinese company already operates battery charging and switching stations in a number of Chinese cities, but in Nanjing it operates the entire municipal infrastructure, which is planned to include 7,000 charging stations around the city centre by the end of the year, as well as stations for switching batteries on public vehicles and buses.

The local government plans to deploy extensive and convenient infrastructure in order to encourage the public to travel in electric vehicles. ZAE was selected as a partner for the development centre and project on the basis of its experience in designing automated battery switching stations for the Better Place venture. The owner and Chairman of ZAE is Dr. Amir Ziv Av, former Chief Scientist of the Ministry of Transport, Infrastructure and Roads.

The agreement was signed at a ceremony supported by the Nanjing local government and attended by the Vice Mayor, senior municipal administration officials and senior Chinese transportation industry officials.