Even more anxious than range anxiety is charging anxiety.
Mileage anxiety is essentially a cost problem, 70 kWh of electricity is not enough to add money to 100 kWh of electricity, but the construction speed of charging piles is far less than the speed of electric vehicle popularity, on the contrary, it has become stretched because of the rapid popularization of electric vehicles.
On the National Day of 2021, the scene of long-distance travel of various new energy vehicles suddenly returned the supplementary energy of pure trams back to its original shape. No matter what it is long endurance, fast charging mode, efficient electric drive management strategy...
In a difficult situation, there is no solution, at this time, the advantages of the power replacement mode are reflected.
Oligopolistic pattern in the field of power exchange
Unfortunately, the status quo of the power exchange track is not optimistic.
On the one hand, although there are currently nearly a thousand substation operator sites in the country, the spatial distribution is seriously uneven, and the drought dies of drought and the death of waterlogging.
On the other hand, the current power exchange track is an oligopolistic market.
90% of the thousands of power exchanges in the country are only in the hands of two companies. One is the car company Weilai (about 500 seats) facing C-end users, and the other is Aodong, a new energy supplier facing B-end users (about 400 seats).
The Weilai replacement power station is only for the owners of Weilai, and the replacement power station of Aodong New Energy has nothing to do with the general public.
The turnaround came in April 2020, and the outlet of the power exchange track is quietly brewing.
At that time, the ministries and commissions of the Ministry of Finance, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, the Ministry of Science and Technology, and the National Development and Reform Commission jointly issued the Notice on Improving the Financial Subsidy Policy for the Promotion and Application of New Energy Vehicles.
The biggest significance of this notice is that for the first time, the official officially expressed the attitude of encouraging the power exchange mode of new energy vehicles. As a result, many domestic energy suppliers and automobile OEMs have entered the market, and Geely Automobile is one of them.
On December 2, 2020, Lifan co., Ltd. announced that the bankruptcy restructuring plan has been approved, and after the completion of the restructuring, it will be jointly held by Geely Technology and Chongqing Liangjiang New Area.
As for the reasons for Geely's participation in taking over Lifan Automobile, some say that Geely is therefore listed on a backdoor listing, and some say that Geely covets the plot of Land in Lifan Liangjiang New Area.
For a moment, the noise was noisy and the opinions were mixed.
Geely Automobile Group's power exchange chess
Looking back, we learned that Geely played a game of power exchange with the help of this new joint venture.
A few days ago, the latest plan of the new joint venture company established by Geely and Lifan shows that by 2025, more than 5,000 substations will be built, covering more than 100 cities, in addition, the two sides will launch a new power exchange brand and launch the "Wake Up Freedom Force 2022" tram replacement system global name campaign.
Since the restructuring at the end of 2020, it has only been 1 year, how dare the new joint venture company between Geely and Lifan plan such a big game?
First look at Geely, Geely has always been the first echelon of domestic power exchange technology.
As early as 2017, Geely has begun the research and development of power exchange modes and technologies. In 2019, geely accelerated the advancement of the technology after the national level voiced support for the power exchange mode. At the end of that year, Geely changed its holding subsidiary, Gechi New Energy Technology Co., Ltd., to Yiyi New Energy Technology Co., Ltd., and registered the brand trademark "Easy To Change Electricity" for this purpose.
In 2021, Geely successfully became one of the main drafting units of the national standard "Electric Vehicle Replacement Safety Requirements".
Looking at Lifan, it also has its own technical reserves in terms of power exchange technology.
In May 2019, the faltering Lifan Automobile actually released an open recruitment.
The recruitment mentioned that it plans to spend 5.2 billion yuan on the development of new energy vehicle power exchange mode and leasing business. After that, Lifan also cooperated with the Chongqing Liangjiang New Area Management Committee to establish a new energy company.
Obviously, Lifan's power exchange technology reserves are also an important reason for Geely's reorganization of Lifan.
In October last year, Geely Automobile Group released the "Nine Major Actions of Longwan", which mentioned a new brand of technology and new energy power exchange travel, based on the exclusive architecture platform, by 2025, it will successively launch 5 intelligent pure electric products that can be exchanged, providing users with efficient and intelligent travel services, and becoming a new force in the energy exchange technology ecosystem.
On the power exchange track, if Geely has been entrenched like a tiger, then Lifan has added a pair of wings to it at the best time, and the new joint venture company is born with a golden spoon.
——All are technical advance layout, Geely and Lifan both fate will meet, I have to say that the automotive circle is full of coincidences.
Social responsibility of China's leading car companies
As we all know, intelligence and standardization are the two main research and development directions of Geely's power exchange model.
At this year's China International Intelligent Industry Expo, Geely exhibited a double warehouse intelligent substation with an area of 126 square meters, including 39 power exchange warehouses, each time changing 60 seconds.
According to Geely's plan, the construction of 100 substations will be completed in Chongqing in 2021, and more than 200 will be completed by 2023, making Chongqing a demonstration city for power exchange, and thus radiating to East China, North China, and even the whole country.
Weilai's experience tells us that power exchange is an asset-heavy operation. According to the industry's prediction, 100 times a day is about a break-even point, and more than 160 times can get a better profit.
- Infrastructure is important, and cars that can change electricity are more important.
In July 2020, the first product of Geely's travel brand Maple Leaf Automobile, Maple Leaf 30X, was launched. As a small SUV positioned as "urban practical", the price range after subsidy is 68,800-95,800 yuan.
Behind the seemingly bland, there is a lot of article.
Generally speaking, the travel version of a model will appropriately reduce the comfort configuration, reduce the price, and prepare for mass entry into the market.
The travel version of the Maple Leaf 30X not only appears at the price of the sub-top (82,800) in the case of the same endurance, but also reduces the "cruise control, electric sunroof, leather steering wheel, color computer display, 7-inch LCD meter, rearview mirror heating", which is easy to calculate.
Obviously, the price of its travel version is exactly the cost space reserved for the power exchange design.
At that time, the construction of Geely's substation was in progress, and the power exchange skill of maple leaf 30X had not yet been activated. In the same year, Geely quickly restarted Lifan's production capacity. The first electric pure tram Maple Leaf 80V, the second model of Maple Leaf Motors, was mass-produced by Lifan.
Maple Leaf 80V is an MPV power-changing model model with a range of 400+, built based on the GBRC power-changing platform, and has become a shared model in the non-traditional sense.
If Geely only relies on maple leaves to promote power exchange, the situation will be no different from the aforementioned Aodong New Energy.
Geely And's new way of playing is that I build a platform to serve everyone.
The power exchange model created by gbrc power exchange platform can adapt to a wide wheelbase range of 2700-3100mm, covering many categories such as cars, SUVs, MPVs and even logistics vehicles, light trucks, etc., fully meeting the needs of different markets such as online car-hailing, private cars, taxis, logistics vehicles, etc., and can provide services for most brands and categories of power exchange models, and the 60-second power exchange speed allows operators to see the greater benefit of "traffic".
Only in terms of electricity exchange, Geely is more inclusive of the public than Weilai, and of course, it is more profitable.
Compared with energy companies and new car manufacturers, Geely Automobile's advantage is that it has a mature system in technological innovation, product research and development, and brand building for a long time. At the same time, Geely has a shared travel brand Cao Cao Travel, which can not only meet the demand for efficient, fast and safe travel in the operating market, but also nurture more potential users for Geely Automobile and accelerate the popularization of the power exchange mode.
In addition, Geely's full brand has a strong user base, which can promote the penetration of the power exchange model from operating users to the private market. Such two-way complementarity, the power exchange service system built by the new brand may usher in an explosive benefit in a short period of time.
brief summary
It is estimated that the number of substations in China will reach 22,000-26,000 in 2025, corresponding to a market size of about 33-52 billion yuan. If the new company plan jointly established by Geely and Lifan is reached, it will account for nearly 25% of the market share.
At the same time, the power exchange service of the new joint venture company between Geely and Lifan will not only be "power exchange", but also include the vehicle-electricity separation management mode and ecological layout of vehicle battery operation, decommissioned battery energy storage and utilization, and scrap battery regeneration treatment.
On the power exchange track, the new joint venture between Geely and Lifan has clear goals and a great future.