In the power exchange circle, there are no longer only car companies and service providers.
On November 30, Dongfeng Motor, Sinopec and Aodong New Energy signed a power exchange cooperation agreement, and the first batch of 100 Dongfeng Fengshen E70 power exchange models were put into the Wuhan online car and taxi market, and 800 orders for E70 power exchange models were signed on the spot.
It is worth noting that the venue of this event is The venue of Sinopec Hubei Wuhan Petroleum Tianshun Gas Station. A new power station of Aodong New Energy in the gas station will become one of the important "energy supply centers" for the above-mentioned power exchange products.
As early as more than half a year ago, Sinopec has already determined the power exchange business.
In April 2021, Sinopec signed strategic cooperation agreements with Aodong New Energy and NIO respectively. At the same time, Sinopec announced that it plans to complete 5,000 charging and replacing power stations by 2025.
In July 2021, Sinopec and Aodong New Energy announced that they will replace power stations in more than 30,000 Sinopec gas station outlets across the country. In the 1.5 billion yuan B round of strategic financing disclosed by Aodong New Energy in September, there is also the figure of Enze Fund, a fund under Sinopec.
Not only Sinopec, but even overseas oil giants have begun to consider the power exchange business.
As recently as November 8, Aodong New Energy just joined hands with British Petroleum (BP), one of the world's largest oil companies. The two parties will jointly establish Guangzhou Aodong New Energy Technology Co., Ltd., and plan to expand the cooperation to other cities in China and even overseas markets. In addition, the two sides will also explore new business models around power exchange, including energy supply, energy storage, battery banking, battery cascade utilization, etc.
(BP and Aodong New Energy Cooperation Signing Ceremony / Source: Aodong New Energy Official)
When talking about the reasons why these oil giants are eyeing the replacement of electricity, Lan Zhibo, vice president of the development of Aodong New Energy Enterprise, gave three words: "carbon neutrality".
Behind the construction of 10,000 substations in 5 years
With the release of the "carbon peak" and "carbon neutrality" timetables of governments around the world, the pressure on traditional petrochemical companies is increasing. Embracing new energy has become the only way for these heavily polluting enterprises.
In February 2020, BP's new head, Bernard Looney, unveiled a vision for the company's transformation: to be carbon neutral by 2050. A year later, Sinopec Chairman Zhang Yuzhuo also announced that the company would aim for net zero emissions and strive to achieve carbon neutrality by 2050.
Power exchange is undoubtedly one of the important ways to solve the problem of "carbon neutrality".
By centralizing battery storage, centralized slow charging, unified distribution in a constant temperature and humidity environment, and replacing the battery of electric vehicles in the replacement power station, it can not only help car owners save car purchase costs, but also help extend the battery life and manage the whole life cycle.
Up to now, Aodong New Energy has more than 50,000 power exchange service vehicles, the number of power exchanges is close to 10 million times, the mileage of power exchange has exceeded 1.3 billion kilometers, and the carbon emissions have been reduced by more than 80,000 tons.
Thanks to the addition of more partners, Cai Dongqing, chairman of Aodong New Energy, shouted the goal of "building more than 10,000 20-second ultra-fast power stations by the end of 2025" in May 2021. In just one year, the company's plan for the next 5 years is still 5,000 seats.
In the five years after its establishment, Aodong New Energy has built only about 500 substations, but it will significantly increase this number by 20 times in the next five years. Why does this B-side company dare to give such an aggressive development goal?
"If you do national infrastructure construction, the speed of power replacement is very fast. At present, many cities are doing power replacement city pilots. Lan Zhibo said.
(Aodong New Energy Substation / Source: Aodong New Energy Official)
China currently has 1.5 million taxis and will be fully electrified in the future. Lan Zhibo said that if two-thirds of the taxis can be calculated in the next five years, there will be 1 million. 1 million vehicles matched with 10,000 substations is a very normal state.
In addition, with the power exchange model entering the private car market, Sinopec's more than 30,000 gas stations across the country are likely to lay out replacement power stations in the future. There is not only one partner of Aodong New Energy, but also more similar joint partners such as BP.
Therefore, in Lan Zhibo's view, the goal of building 10,000 substations in 5 years is already relatively conservative, and it may not take 5 years to last so long.
At the station construction level, Aodong New Energy has cooperated with Sinopec in key cities. However, instead of cooperating at all Sinopec sites, places with good traffic flow and sufficient sites will be chosen.
Well, here's the problem. Charging can also solve the "carbon neutrality" problem, why do companies such as Sinopec still keep their eyes on changing power?
Why do you have to change the battery?
"Power exchange and charging are not substitution relationships."
In the view of Huang Chunhua, general manager of the Brand and Public Affairs Center of Aodong New Energy, charging and power exchange should be a combined solution. Charging solves the daily commuting scene in the city, and the power exchange can be used to solve the scene of long-distance travel or emergency.
Whether it is Sinopec or BP, there are a large number of gas stations under its umbrella. When fuel vehicles are no longer mainstream, the gas stations owned by these petrochemical giants will inevitably face the problem of transformation.
(Gas station /image source: pixabay)
At present, there are two major solutions for the transformation of gas stations: the first is the hydrogen refueling station of hydrogen fuel cells, and the other is the replacement power station. In Lan Zhibo's view, compared with the hydrogen refueling station that is still in its infancy, the technology of the substation is more mature, the safety is relatively higher, and it is more suitable for large-scale delivery.
Why not charging?
In areas such as the Northeast, where there are many months of extremely cold weather in the year, on the one hand, the charging efficiency will become extremely low, and on the other hand, the time when the owner is outdoors is also quite tormented. The power exchange efficiency of the substation is higher, and the power battery in the station is in a constant temperature and humidity state all year round, which will greatly improve the efficiency of electric travel.
Even in areas with a suitable climate, a charging station with 20 slow charging piles needs to set aside a corresponding area of parking spaces, and a large number of gas stations are difficult to have enough space. The fast charging pile has abnormally high voltage requirements and is difficult to layout in large quantities.
According to the guangzhou bureau of statistics, the number of new energy vehicles in the city is 324,000. The capacity of Aodong 4.0 power station is 1,000 times a day, and the number of times a week is 7,000 times. Unlike taxis and ride-hailing cars, private cars change the frequency of electricity between 1-2 times a week. According to the calculation of 1.5 times / week, as long as there are 70 substations, it can basically meet the needs of private cars in Guangzhou, which is not counting the service capacity of charging piles.
According to the Ministry of Public Security, by the end of 2020, the overall car ownership in Guangzhou was 2.99 million, while the number of gas stations reached 780. This means that even if all vehicles in Guangzhou are replaced by pure electric vehicles with exchangeable electricity, the demand for replacement power stations is even less than that of current gas stations.
If more car owners usually use home slow charging, the final scale of the replacement station can be reduced to less.
At the same time, the utilization rate of charging piles in China is extremely low. In September 2021, Wang Yao, assistant secretary general and director of the Technology Department of the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers, said that the current charging market is facing the contradiction between charging queues and low utilization rate of charging piles, and the average utilization rate of charging piles in the country is 3%-5%.
According to Lan Zhibo, the utilization rate of Aodong New Energy Substation has remained at about 50% all year round. Even as the number of substations increases, the utilization rate has declined, which is much higher than the utilization rate of charging piles.
"Uniform battery standards are not a technical problem"
Of course, power swapping is still not a perfect solution for electric vehicles.
At present, charging is still the main force of electric vehicle power. Whether it is Sinopec or BP, they still "walk on two legs" for charging and replacing electricity. The power exchange is still in the stage of quantitative change, and there is still a certain time before the "qualitative change".
And such a "qualitative change" may be almost standardized.
Electric vehicle sales in 2021 have exceeded 2 million, but today's power battery design size standards are not uniform. Huang Chunhua said that it is precisely because of the problems in battery standards that the ToC process of Aodong New Energy has been hindered.
(Vehicle power battery / Source: NINGDE times official)
However, the trend is improving. At present, the new generation of pure electric vehicle models of some large OEMs is unifying the power battery specifications to 2-3 models according to the size of the model. When mainstream automakers unify battery specifications, power exchange service providers will face only 7-8 kinds of battery packs, and there will be opportunities for future shared power exchange models.
"The standardization of power exchange is not a technical problem, but a matter of determination." Lan Zhibo said that battery standardization is a good thing for the entire industry chain, at least it can bring about a 20% reduction in battery costs.
According to Huang Chunhua, in order to promote the power exchange model, Aodong New Energy is also promoting the construction of "battery bank". For example, when buying 200,000 electric vehicles, consumers only need to pay 150,000 yuan to buy vehicles, and the other 50,000 is to buy battery services.
Regardless of whether the future of gas stations is headed for power replacement, it cannot be denied that this new model is logically feasible. At the very least, charging will no longer be the only possibility in the future.
On December 22, 2021, Huang Chunhua will attend the "GTM2021 Global Technology Travel Forum" held at hyatt regency Shanghai Wujiaochang hotel and deliver a keynote speech entitled "Shaping a New Energy Supplement system for new energy vehicles".
The GTM2021 Global Technology Mobility Forum is an important part of the World Innovators Meet 2021 (WIM2021) hosted by EgoElialOcean.
With the theme of "Digital Reshaping the World", WIM2021 will invite renowned scholars, investors and industry leaders from around the world to participate in this "digital feast". In addition to the Global Technology Travel Forum, WIM2021 will also carry out a number of sub-forums on topics such as new technology, new consumption, and real economy transformation.
(WIM2021 Agenda/Source: EqualOcean)
The forum adopts the "1+9+2" conference structure, inviting well-known scholars, investors, industry leaders and other guests from all over the world to bring cutting-edge views to everyone through a series of keynote speeches, high-end dialogues, industry lists, report releases and other links.