"Battery down payment, 7 years interest rate, monthly rent from 952 yuan" "Battery rental plan, set to Gao Li minus 60,000"... In the face of various battery rental schemes, Li Peng, who plans to buy a car at the end of the year, is worried.
Li Peng, who has just joined the work, has a crush on a joint venture brand pure electric car with an official price of nearly 160,000 yuan, but he is not rich in hand, but the battery rental plan recommended by the sales staff makes him a little moved. "If you choose to buy by using battery leasing, the purchase cost can be reduced by 60,000 yuan, and you only need to pay 1,000 yuan per month for battery rental, so that you can lift a car for less than 100,000 yuan." Li Peng said.
Image source: Visual China
The "Daily Economic News" reporter found that more and more car brands have launched battery rental programs, and some even play the slogan of "half-price car purchase". For example, the battery rental plan launched by an independent brand for its models is "reduced by 100,000 yuan and the down payment is at least 22,000 yuan", while the official minimum price of this car is 229,600 yuan.
For car buyers, choosing a car purchase method such as battery rental seems to reduce the cost of car purchase, but is this really the case?
"100,000 immediate reduction" is not simple
"If you buy a car in the form of battery leasing, you have to separate the body from the battery loan, of which the battery part can enjoy an interest-free loan of 80,000 yuan, and the remaining body price can be purchased in full or with a loan, up to 80% of the price of the loanable vehicle, but the interest-bearing loan is 36 periods." The sales staff of a 4S store of an Ashkenazi joint venture brand in Beijing told reporters.
It is understood that the current models that launch battery rental programs are priced separately on the car and the battery, and the user only needs to pay the price of the car removing the battery when buying the car, and pay the monthly rent of the battery on a monthly basis. Unlike vehicle financial installments of 3 to 5 years, the lease period of battery leasing solutions can be as long as 7 years.
The reporter noted that in the battery rental program launched by most car brands, there are often attractive words such as "car purchase and reduction X million", "battery rental 0 down payment" and "enjoy 0 interest rate", but the fact is not so good as it seems.
For example, the "car purchase and immediate reduction of X million" advertised by some manufacturers is not a car price concession, but the price of the battery is subtracted from the total price of the car, so that the original high price seems to be reduced, but in fact, it is necessary to pay for the use of the battery through a certain amount of monthly payment every month.
Taking the above-mentioned joint venture brand pure electric vehicles as an example, if the battery rental scheme is adopted, it can be immediately reduced by 60,000 yuan. In fact, the 60,000 yuan subtracted from the selling price is the price of the battery, and the rental fee of 1,000 yuan per month will be paid in the future. After five years of leasing, the ownership of the battery and the whole vehicle belongs to the owner, and the rent is just 60,000 yuan.
At the same time, in some battery rental schemes, the high amount of reduction behind the number is actually not simple. "If you buy it in the form of battery leasing, you can immediately reduce it by 100,000 yuan, which is actually the battery price." The sales staff of a self-owned brand 4S store in Beijing said, "Consumers can install 5 years, and the monthly payment is about 2200 yuan." If calculated in this way, the interest generated by the battery price part will exceed 3,000 yuan. ”
The sales staff of a number of car brand 4S stores admitted to reporters: "In fact, compared with the loan to buy a car, the battery rental program does not have much appeal to users, and all models in our store have not participated in this activity." ”
True and false "car and electricity separation"
In the process of the reporter's visit, this battery leasing scheme of pricing the body separately from the battery and making loans was titled the "separation of vehicle and electricity" model by many 4S store sales staff.
However, most of the models sold in the current market under the banner of "separation of vehicle and electricity" cannot really achieve power replacement, but simply price and sell the body and the battery separately, which is more like a separation of business models. Most of the models that currently launch battery rental programs are finally owned by individuals after the user pays the battery loan.
"Although the battery and the body are separated, they cannot be replaced, and after the end of the 84 payment, the battery belongs to the owner." The sales staff of a new car-making force experience store in Beijing said that the battery rental plan is more to reduce the user's car purchase threshold.
Image source: Per reporter Huang Xinxu photographed (data map)
A senior consultant of an auto finance company who did not want to be named told reporters: "As far as the battery leasing scheme launched by some car companies is concerned, it is more like the battery price is packaged and sold to consumers in installments. In a sense, it is a financial service in disguise. ”
Compared with the battery ultimately belongs to the individual rental plan, in the battery rental plan launched by NIO, the user only has the right to use the battery. Take the purchase of a NIO ES6 Sport Standard Endurance (priced at 358,000 yuan) as an example, choose the NIO BaaS battery rental service, the car price can be reduced by 70,000 yuan, and then pay 980 yuan per month for battery rent, battery lifelong rental.
It can be seen that the two different battery rental schemes that call themselves "separation of vehicle and electricity" have reduced the threshold for car purchase to a certain extent, but there are differences in whether the vehicle supports power replacement and battery ownership. Generally speaking, vehicle-electricity separation means that on the basis of the power exchange model, after the customer purchases the whole vehicle, the battery management company buys back the battery property rights, and the customer obtains the right to use the battery in the form of leasing.
Shen Fei, senior vice president of WEILAI Energy, said: "The vehicle-to-electricity separation model is that when users buy a car, they only buy vehicles that do not contain batteries, and Weilai Automobile sells this battery to the battery asset company, and the user rents the battery from the battery asset company and pays for it." ”
There is still a queue to change the power
The reason why major car brands have launched various battery rental programs is that the power exchange model is gradually favored by policies.
In May 2021, the National Energy Administration, together with the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, studied and formulated the "Implementation Opinions on Further Improving the Service Guarantee Capacity of Charging and Replacing Infrastructure (Draft for Comments)", which proposed to accelerate the promotion and application of the power exchange model, support the construction of special replacement power stations, and explore the separation mode of vehicle and electricity. At the same time, according to the provisions of the 2020 financial subsidy policy, the vehicle in the power exchange mode is not subject to the price red line of 300,000 yuan.
Lu Rixin, an analyst at Orient Securities, believes that the separation of vehicle and electricity has the advantage of efficient energy replenishment. In the fast charging mode of the public charging station, it takes 30 to 60 minutes to complete the charging process at the earliest, and the slow charging takes 6 to 10 hours. In contrast, passenger cars take the shortest time to change electricity, taking about 3 to 5 minutes.
A few days ago, the reporter saw the Weilai replacement power station in a parking lot in Tongzhou, Beijing, that the staff was changing the power for the vehicle, and the whole process took less than 5 minutes. Not far from the Weilai replacement power station, the Aodong New Energy Replacement Power Station also completed the power exchange for a taxi in a short period of time.
Image source: Photo by reporter Duan Siyao
But the short time does not mean that the power does not need to wait. The reporter saw on the Aodong power exchange APP that there are currently hundreds of substations in Beijing, but in places with large traffic such as Beijing Liangma Bridge and Liuli Bridge, the number of queued vehicles is often greater than the number of available batteries. "In the first two years, the company gave us a baiqi EU300 electric car, with a range of only more than 300 kilometers, and we needed to change the battery almost every day, especially in some places with large traffic, we can often encounter queues, sometimes for an hour or so." Taxi driver Master Wang said.
Similarly, at a substation at the Red Scarf Bridge on Beijing's East Fourth Ring Road, at three o'clock in the afternoon, there was a long queue of vehicles waiting for the power change. The station staff said: "From more than 10 a.m. to 3 p.m., the car has not been broken. ”
According to the China Charging Alliance, as of November 2021, the number of substations in Beijing is only 245. However, by the end of 2020, the number of new energy vehicles in Beijing has exceeded 400,000. Wang Du, deputy secretary-general of the China Automobile Dealers Association, said: "It is expected that by the end of 2021, China's new energy vehicle sales will exceed 3 million, and the penetration rate will increase by nearly 200% year-on-year. ”
C-end dilemma
"5 minutes to change the power, wait for 1 hour", the power exchange mode wrapped up in such an embarrassing scene has made it slow to reach the mass consumer market. During the visit, the reporter found that the current power replacement models are mainly concentrated in the travel operation market such as online car-hailing and taxi.
"The CHANGAN YIDONG EV460 replacement version is not sold privately and is only available to the taxi market." The relevant person in charge of Changan Automobile told reporters. In addition, roewe's Ei5 quick-swap version that supports power exchange functions is also available to the taxi market; Geely's first power exchange model, maple leaf 80V, is for the online ride-hailing market.
Not only that, substation operators such as Aodong New Energy are also focusing on B-end user groups such as taxis and online ride-hailing. "Since doing large-scale operations across the country, we have mainly focused on operating vehicles, and since 2021, we have laid out the private user market and are expected to expand to commercial vehicles in 2022." The relevant person in charge of Aodong New Energy said in an interview with reporters.
Everbright Securities Research Report believes that the power exchange mode improves the efficiency of vehicle operation by solving the pain point of charging time is too long, which can increase the income of the company and the driver, so it is more attractive.
Taking Beijing taxi as an example, the electricity fee of the taxi that currently adopts the power exchange mode is about 0. 35 yuan / km, the power exchange process only takes 3 minutes; the electricity fee in charging mode is about 0. 25 yuan / km, but the charging time takes about 1 hour. In addition, the energy cost of a taxi with a power exchange mode for 300 kilometers is 105 yuan, while the cost of a fuel taxi with the same distance is 150 yuan.
According to the calculation of Everbright Securities, the current taxi drivers who use the power exchange mode have the largest monthly net income of about 23,000 yuan, which is about 4,000 yuan higher than the net income in the charging or fuel mode.
The relevant person in charge of BAIC BJEV once said: "Let the B-end go first, do a good job in the economic and balanced market segmentation, and pave the channel for the operation of the substation to a certain density, and the C-end (private car field) market is expected to achieve greater coverage." ”
At present, in the C-end market, only a few car companies such as Weilai are trying to adopt the power exchange model. Shen Fei believes: "The advantages of the power exchange model are attractive to two types of people: one is that users who do not have household charging piles in the urban area can use the power station like a gas station; the second type is long-distance users." ”
In the view of Cui Dongshu, secretary general of the National Passenger Car Market Information Joint Association, there is always a property rights problem in the power exchange model, and if it is to be popularized, price-sensitive users will not choose, mainly high-end users and special scene users will choose.
Capital Securities believes in the research report released on January 4, 2022 that the serious shortage of private parking spaces in China has led to limited coverage of household charging piles, high efficiency of power exchange power station replacement, and is an ideal new energy vehicle energy supplementation solution, and it is expected to achieve the switching of to B to to C within 3 to 5 years of the replacement model, and gradually increase the penetration rate.
100 billion market "jianghu"
In fact, whether it is a car company or an operator, it has been slow to promote the power exchange model to the mass consumer market, and more reasons behind it are higher cost investment. According to everbright securities calculations, when the vehicle's daily mileage does not exceed 100km, even if the user service fee is charged, it is difficult for the power exchange enterprise to make a profit.
In addition, the construction cost of the substation cannot be ignored. According to the data disclosed by GCL Energy, the construction cost of a single passenger car replacement power station is about 4 million to 5 million yuan, and the cost of a single heavy truck replacement station is about 8 million to 10 million yuan.
According to the reporter's understanding, the utilization rate of the substation is equal to the cumulative replacement time of the current year divided by the total duration of the current year. Assuming a substation with a construction cost of 5.6 million yuan, the utilization rate is 7%, and the net profit after tax after deducting the cost of operation and maintenance, depreciation and so on is 50,400 yuan, which means that the recovery time of investment is about 13 years. Therefore, the level of utilization rate of the substation will also affect the profitability of the enterprise. When the replacement power station reaches full load operation, the economic benefits are good, and it will also lead to the queue during the peak period, and the low load in other periods further dilutes the profit.
Taking Beijing as an example, as of the end of 2020, the average utilization rate of first-tier cities such as Beijing is only about 20%, and under the premise of vehicle matching, the utilization rate of a single substation can reach 60% to 70% to achieve breakeven, that is, a substation designed to be exchanged more than 400 times a day, at least 240 to 280 times a day must be completed to ensure a return on investment.
Image source: Photo by reporter Sun Tongtong (data map)
According to the above-mentioned relevant person in charge of Aodong New Energy, "At present, Aodong has an average of about 12,000 times a day at the Beijing Substation. Among them, the average daily change of stations such as Honglingqiao Station and Wuliqiao Station exceeds 350 times. ”
In addition to high costs, the power exchange standards are not uniform, resulting in different manufacturers, different models, it is difficult to achieve the consistency of battery size and performance, which also restricts the popularity of the power exchange mode. The reporter noted that at present, in Beijing, Aodong New Energy Substation provides power replacement services for BAIC BJEV's EU200, EU300, EU260 and EU5, while Weilai Replacement Power Station only provides power replacement services for its models.
Although the "realistic bone feeling", the power exchange mode is still considered by many companies to be the "outlet". At present, the domestic power exchange field includes Shandong Weida, Guodian NARI, Xu Ji Electric and other power exchange equipment manufacturers; Aodong New Energy, Botan Technology, Space-time Electric and other midstream operators; as well as Weilai, Geely and other car companies and power grid companies, energy companies, and even Internet companies and other "players".
Lu Rixin expects that domestic new energy vehicle sales will reach 7.8 million in 2025, of which the proportion of power replacement models is expected to reach 30%. According to the calculation of sales volume, it is expected that in 2025, the domestic substation will reach 22,000, the operating market is expected to reach 263.1 billion yuan, and the substation equipment market is expected to reach 69.3 billion yuan.
Not long ago, the China Automobile Association and the relevant units of the alliance organization completed and officially released the group standard of "Electric Passenger Vehicle Sharing and Replacement Power Station Construction Specification", which provided a "standard template" for the construction of the replacement power station, and will realize the sharing of the battery pack platform and the battery module.
Zhou Ershuang, an analyst at Soochow Securities, believes that 2022 is the first year of the power station replacement, and with the gradual improvement of China's policies, consumers, vehicle manufacturers, battery factories and the social level will benefit significantly under the power exchange model.
Reporter: Duan Siyao
Editor: Sun Lei
Vision: Liu Yang
Typesetting: Sun Lei
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