Interviewee: Li Hongyan, vice president of Geely New Energy Commercial Vehicle Research Institute
Recently, the State Council issued the "Notice on Printing and Distributing the Action Plan for Carbon Peaking by 2030", which specifically mentioned the need to build a green and efficient transportation system. Accelerate the construction of urban and rural logistics and distribution systems, and innovate green, low-carbon, intensive and efficient distribution models.
Subsequently, Geely Group, together with 11 enterprise representatives such as Chuanhua Zhilian, Huawei, Yijiatong, JD Logistics, Ningde Times, Guoxuan Hi-Tech, Ewell Lithium Energy, and GCL, announced the joint establishment of the "China Zero Carbon Land Transport Alliance" to jointly promote the development of China's logistics in the direction of zero carbon, wisdom and efficiency, marking a new beginning in the restructuring of the logistics industry and innovation and reform.
1
Reconstruct the industry, innovate and change
Geely Group began to lay out its commercial vehicle business in 2014, and in 2016 officially established China's first commercial vehicle brand focusing on the new energy field, long-range vehicles. It has formed the development direction of a new generation of commercial vehicle products and businesses with "R&D as the guide and focus on green intelligence" as the core, and deeply practiced the brand vision of "creating intelligent interconnection and leading green commerce".
"In-depth analysis of the needs of the whole industry chain of the logistics industry, the product, service, platform, management concept into the concept of car manufacturing, reflected in the product." This has enabled long-range vehicles to enter the development highway in just a few years," said Li Hongyan, vice president of Geely New Energy Commercial Vehicle Research Institute, "positive research and development, demand-oriented, value chain thinking, bringing the automotive industry into a new era of architecture and manufacturing." The architecture is divided into three levels, the first layer is the intelligent green software and hardware design, architecture and cost-effective configuration; the second layer is the cloud architecture, which refers to the establishment of linkage capabilities between vehicles and vehicles, vehicles and roads, and vehicles and goods with vehicles as the core; the third layer is to create a deeper and more three-dimensional green ecological environment, deepen cooperation between various links, such as the operation of new energy vehicles requires the joint participation of basic supporting enterprises such as charging piles, and even needs the support of more targeted service agencies and service methods than traditional vehicles. ”
Vehicles have gradually become data carriers, such as logistics companies require front-end vehicle data to be connected with background data, electric pile data and vehicle data exchange to optimize the electronic control system, and so on. With "car" as the carrier, the collaborative relationship between logistics services, basic supporting facilities, intelligent networking, financial investment and other parties has formed a new ecology. In the future, users will no longer pay attention to just a single product such as a car, but a full range of capacity services to meet the efficient and safe transportation of goods from point A to point B. Vehicle brand, configuration, etc. will no longer become the core demand to some extent, and the new ecology that integrates big data including vehicles, drivers, logistics companies, and supporting services will accelerate the reconstruction of industrial value.
Geely New Energy Commercial Vehicle Group's new goal is only 8 words - to reconstruct the industry, innovation and change. On the basis of comprehensively considering all aspects of the industrial chain ecology, it provides a comprehensive solution for transportation services, builds a new ecology completely different from the previous industrial structure, and helps industrial upgrading more efficiently.
On July 2, 2021, The cloud industry, the industry's first fully forward-developed new energy architecture platform for urban logistics special vehicles in the true sense, was officially launched.
In order to promote the revolutionary transformation of the commercial vehicle industry from "hardware-defined vehicles" to "software-defined vehicles", the cloud platform of the highly scalable new energy light truck intelligent architecture has become the starting point for the underlying logic of commercial vehicles. Cloud can meet the needs of pure electricity, extended range, hydrogen fuel cell and other new energy power routes, using the electronic and electrical architecture derived from Geely passenger cars, in the field of light trucks in the leading level, can achieve L2+ level driving assistance, the future can be extended to L4 level automatic driving. The key controllers are equipped with OTA (Over-the-Air Download Technology) functions, which can quickly introduce new functions, enabling the vehicle to quickly learn and iterate.
Accelerating the restructuring of industrial ecology, green transportation capacity is the key link to achieve the goal of double carbon, and the cloud world can play a better role in carbon neutrality and carbon peak requirements. After China's carbon peak in 2030, it is expected to reduce about 300 million tons of carbon dioxide emissions per year to meet the requirements of carbon neutrality in 2060. Therefore, in addition to the installation of energy-saving transformation, photovoltaic wind power, CCUS and other means, in the energy field with low-carbon energy and hydrocarbon-free alternatives to traditional fossil energy has become one of the options to promote the dual-carbon strategy.
The operation of new energy vehicles relies on electric energy to supply energy, but is the energy supply mode green electricity or gray electricity? The thermal power generation we currently rely on is gray electricity, which is generated by burning non-renewable energy sources such as coal. In China, about 1.4 million tons of carbon dioxide are produced every year, and about 80% of the emissions are emitted by coal power. The power industry, which relies on thermal power generation, has become one of the industries with serious pollution emissions in China.
Green electricity refers to the use of renewable energy sources such as wind, photovoltaic and water to generate electricity, and their pollution and impact on the environment are almost negligible, and hydrogen energy is one of the more typical ones.
At present, the production and energy application of hydrogen in China has a certain foundation, and hydrogen energy vehicles are the most important direction for the future utilization of hydrogen energy. Compared to lithium-powered vehicles, hydrogen-fueled vehicles are pollution-free, and the electrolytic chemical reaction only produces water. Its efficiency is also higher, the fuel cell power generation rate can reach more than 50%, and there is still room for improvement, excellent endurance, and the filling time only needs 3-5 minutes. Although hydrogen energy has many advantages, with the current technology, it also has the problem of transportation and storage difficulties and high cost.
According to the Hydrogen Energy Alliance, China's hydrogen refueling stations will reach 12,000 by 2050. The localization breakthrough and large-scale production of hydrogen refueling equipment, the construction cost of hydrogen refueling stations will drop significantly, and it is expected that the market size of China's future hydrogen refueling infrastructure will exceed the increase of 100 billion yuan in 2030-2050, and the cost will be reduced, which in turn will reduce the cost of hydrogen supply, thereby further enhancing the industrial scale.
2
Ranger solves mileage anxiety
At present, the development of new energy vehicles has not been subversive breakthrough in battery technology, and pure electric vehicles have also performed well in the short distance of urban distribution, but in addition to providing transportation power, refrigerated trucks must ensure the operation of cold machines, and the demand for energy is more huge than that of ordinary van logistics vehicles. Energy saving and emission reduction, low carbon and high efficiency, and product lightweight are the main directions of the development of the refrigerated truck industry.
Under this premise, Geely New Energy Commercial Vehicle Group proposed a green integrated solution to create a refrigerated truck driven by pure electric drive in the extended range, which can solve the user's electricity anxiety and mileage anxiety and bring a better experience.
Li Hongyan said that the range-extended new energy vehicle is in line with the national new energy green card policy, the principle is to cut the battery capacity by half or 2/3 on the basis of pure electric vehicles, and then add a set of high-power generator sets, which is equivalent to matching a charging treasure for the mobile phone, a 4.2-meter refrigerated truck, which can apply electricity to travel 120-140 kilometers.
When the power is about to run out, the gasoline engine equipped with the power supply is activated. This small-displacement 1.5L gasoline engine comes with a small fuel tank that can continue to generate electricity with the tank and does not affect the continuous operation of the vehicle and the normal operation of the cooler.
Geely's remote extender adopts the technical route of full working condition extended range, which has higher technical content and more efficient than micro working conditions. Full-service technology does not need to stop and wait when charging, and the engine's fixed-point power generation makes it always run in the cost-effective zone.
Geely's engine adopts VOLVO technology, and the three electric and wiring harness connectors are all internationally renowned brands, and the products are highly reliable. The range extender trickles down the power battery, shallow charge and shallow discharge, which can greatly extend the battery life and the vehicle residual value is high.
In terms of technical highlights, taking the remote Xingzhi GLR refrigerated car as an example, it adopts the Ewell lithium energy 53.58 degree lithium iron phosphate battery, equipped with a 1.5T gasoline range extender, fast speed, timely delivery, short-distance transportation is equivalent to pure tram, long-distance through the increase in range recharge continuous driving, the mileage is equivalent to fuel vehicles, effectively alleviating the user's mileage anxiety.
The supersize allows power to reach 10kW, the power load capacity is sufficient, the refrigeration temperature can reach -25 °C, and the optional multi-brand refrigeration machine meets the customized needs of users. During the drive, the range extender and the power battery continue to provide uninterrupted power to the supersize, with strong cooling and stable cooling capacity, and it takes only 20 minutes to cool from 20 °C to 0 °C. Its containers have also been strengthened, high strength, good sealing, good continuous insulation performance, energy saving and environmental protection.
In terms of load carrying capacity, the volume of the remote range extender refrigerated truck can reach up to 20.9 cubic meters, the front axle carries 2.5T, and the rear axle carries 4T, meeting the needs of users "Dora Fast Run".
In addition, Geely's remote range extender refrigerated truck is equipped with a pure electric switch, which can be switched arbitrarily in oil and electricity modes, does not rely on charging piles, and saves 0.4 yuan per kilometer of use cost than diesel vehicles, while saving energy and environmental protection, ensuring the economy of user cars.
Whether it is a new energy vehicle or a traditional energy vehicle, users hope that the cost can be further reduced. Now the freight rates on the market are low, which also derives the user's demand for finance, so the implementation of leasing, installment payment, low down payment, zero down payment and so on is also particularly urgent. Companies are slowly changing from retail to platform- and are likely to purchase hundreds or thousands of vehicles at a time, and the financial model is very important to them.
Based on excellent product strength, flexible financial policies, all-round after-sales service and operation strategy of combining rental and sales, remote range extender refrigerated vehicles achieved a market share of nearly 50% from January to November 2021.
3
Breaking the "chip famine"
Because of the shutdown of many factories due to the epidemic, the "chip shortage" that lasted for a whole year in 2021 has made the automotive industry suffer. The market generally believes that the situation will ease in 2022, but it is expected that production capacity will gradually improve only in the fourth quarter of 2022 or 2023.
Due to the lack of cores, its price has risen almost crazy. Li Hongyan said, "A small chip is usually only six or seven yuan, but now the price has increased by 100 or 200 times, and it is still impossible to buy." Driven by the goal of carbon neutrality, new energy vehicles will grow at a high speed. The value of new energy vehicle bicycle chips is several times that of traditional fuel vehicles, due to the increase in sales of new energy vehicles, the increase in the added value of superimposed vehicle technology has also made the lack of cores particularly serious in the field of new energy vehicles.
In order to get rid of the dependence on foreign technology, you can only rely on yourself. Not long ago, Geely announced the official launch of China's first 7nm process vehicle specification-grade chip "Dragon Eagle No. 1" self-developed by its subsidiary Core Qing Technology, marking that Geely Group has begun to enter the field of chip manufacturing. On the one hand, self-produced chips can solve the problem of Geely's own chips, on the other hand, they can also provide solutions to the industry, such as some OEMs, breaking the foreign technology blockade and enhancing the technological advantages of the entire industry. It is expected that in 2026, Geely will complete the networking of 72 IoT communication satellites and 168 navigation enhanced low-orbit constellations to achieve "global blind zone-free" communication and centimeter-level high-precision positioning coverage.
Li Hongyan said: Geely's confidence comes from the in-depth understanding of domestic users from performance to energy consumption to functional needs, combined with rich experience in car manufacturing, exerting resource integration capabilities, and cooperating with cross-industry partners to provide more accurate technical solutions, especially in the refined operation of refrigerated vehicles, the limited range of automatic driving of logistics vehicles, the upgrading of communication capabilities, etc., all of which put forward higher requirements for the intelligence of chips.
4
Create a level playing field
In the past five years, the annual growth rate of refrigerated vehicles has reached 20%-25%, and the future will continue to drive the growth of green smart devices, from refrigerator chillers to intelligent sensors, including temperature and humidity sensors, as well as vehicle monitoring, cameras and other equipment will receive more attention. At the same time, the epidemic has accelerated the logistics of epidemic prevention materials and drugs, and these new subdivided industry demands have led to an increase in sales of new energy refrigerated trucks.
The entire system also has higher and higher requirements for the service of cold chain logistics and transportation, and the quality of service is increasingly improved, which provides an opportunity for cold chain enterprises to move towards platformization and giantization.
The overall development of the cold chain logistics industry also needs to form a bond between enterprises and enterprises, such as technology-based enterprises to empower traditional enterprises, provide them with solutions, consulting services, only by playing the leading role of the head enterprises in various subdivisions, everyone works together, in order to truly achieve full-link digitalization, intelligence, and achieve symbiosis and win-win.
The State Council has just released the cold chain development plan during the 14th Five-Year Plan period, indicating that the cold chain industry is about to usher in a golden age, and the "Planning" mentions many industry pain points, and also advocates green intelligent vehicle equipment to increase the promotion of new energy vehicles as much as possible. The "Planning" also proposes key projects such as the cold chain trunk line transportation scale improvement project, the green transformation project of cold chain logistics facilities, the renewal project of new energy urban distribution refrigerated trucks, and the cold chain logistics equipment update project, further refining and implementing related work tasks, clarifying the division of responsibilities, and helping cold chain logistics to achieve green and low-carbon development.
At present, the penetration rate of new energy refrigerated vehicles in China is not high, and the data shows that the market penetration rate of new energy refrigerated vehicles in the first half of 2021 is only 1.27%. Zhang Jiangbo, deputy director of the Department of Economics and Trade of the National Development and Reform Commission, stressed that "it is necessary to accelerate the elimination of high-emission refrigerated vehicles and encourage new or updated refrigerated vehicles to use new energy models." ”
From Geely's point of view, companies still need to rely on policies to create a level playing field.
New energy vehicles have different technical routes, pure electricity, hydrogen fuel, extended range can be on the green license, they have their own characteristics because of different working conditions, to meet different user needs, should be treated equally. This is an awareness that has been reached at the national level, but local policies with a certain local protectionist color have created an unfair and opaque competitive environment.
Although the extended range vehicle can solve the user's pain points and create a suitable solution, it does not get the subsidy it should enjoy in many cities. Its principle is still based on electric energy, the extended range only adds a part of the guarantee, the lack of understanding of the extended range technology and policy discrimination, forming an obstacle to the rapid market of extended range products. What Geely wants to see is that all compliant products that comply with national laws and policies can be handed over to customers through the market to make choices.
Although there are still non-compliant products flooding the market in many places, with the continuous improvement of technical requirements in the whole industry, it will drive the entire market to develop towards high-end. In particular, the support of the government, the leading role of leading enterprises/institutions, and the establishment of a standard system by industry associations are even more important. Only when the standards are unified and the policies are transparent, can the cold chain industry achieve the possibility of a level transition.
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