Regarding the energy replenishment mode of electric vehicles, the industry is currently mainly divided into two technical routes, one is the fast charging route, represented by Tesla and GAC, and the other is the power exchange route, represented by Weilai.
Compared with fast charging, power exchange is a way of separation of vehicle electricity, energy replenishment efficiency is faster, the original fast charging takes more than 1 hour, the power exchange only needs 5 minutes, but the problem is that many people have not thought, you only count the time of the power change itself, calculate the time of queuing?
Recently, a Owner of Nantong Weilai presented a pennant to The Weilai Automobile Sales Co., Ltd. in Nantong City, but it is not how good the service of Weilai is, but "3 minutes to change the power, wait for 1 hour", to spit on the power exchange business. Because in the process of changing the power, I found that the queue time was too long, and the charging time was almost the same, and the so-called advantages of convenient power exchange and fast speed disappeared.
Once Weilai's power exchange business, is considered to be different from other new car-making forces advantages, in the beginning, the charging speed of the power exchange mode, indeed much faster than the fast charging station, so that Weilai automobile has a refueling efficiency comparable to the refueling time, but with the continuous rise of Weilai car delivery, the power exchange model has also had some problems, for example, the number of power stations has not kept up with the needs of car owners, especially in first-tier cities such as Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou.
There are Weilai car owners who post the queue information of the Weilai replacement power station, located in the Beijing Ideal International Building, there are 35 people queuing, if the last owner to change to the battery, it may take several hours.
Some people say, then I can't make an appointment, wait until the queue is up for me and then go to change the battery? Reservations are OK, but only within 100 meters of the substation can enter the queue, that is to say, even if you make an appointment, you still have to go to the vicinity of the substation, of course, you can also choose to drink coffee and shop at this time, but the convenience of replenishment and the fast charging station are basically the same. The power exchange experience during the low peak period can be guaranteed, but at present, basically every power station in beijing has to queue up during the peak period, except for some particularly remote power stations.
Therefore, Weilai is currently facing a dilemma of choice: First, a large number of new replacement power stations to ensure the power experience of car owners, but the cost will be out of control, the construction cost of the replacement power station is much higher than the fast charging station, and Weilai's financial report may be worse. The other is to sacrifice the user experience, but in this way, the service advantage that Weilai Automobile strives to build is also lost.
Another problem with the power exchange mode is that the unified problem of the interface, the replacement power station needs the national level, and it is more appropriate to take a step back from the construction of battery manufacturers, for example, the recent transmission of the Ningde era to build a replacement power station is a good signal. Because the battery interface and specifications between different car companies are difficult to unify, this leads to the replacement power station becoming a single brand exclusive service, it is difficult to achieve linkage and maximize the utilization of resources.
And the construction and operating costs of the power exchange mode are very high, Weilai once calculated such an account, if calculated according to each car once a week, a replacement power station will radiate about 350 vehicles to support 50 orders a day and reach the breakeven point. The decommissioning and scrapping of batteries is another large expense.
The 2021 government report proposes to vigorously develop substations and support the "separation of vehicles and electricity" model. In October 2021, the General Office of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology issued the Notice on Launching the Pilot Application of the New Energy Vehicle Power Exchange Mode, and decided to start the pilot work of the application of the new energy vehicle power exchange mode. The power exchange mode is one of the general directions of the current development of electric vehicles.
However, there are still difficulties in the power exchange mode such as high construction cost, equipment reliability and battery consistency are not easy to guarantee, technical standards are not uniform, and it is not easy to integrate and coordinate the interests of all parties. Weilai has proved that, at least for now, the replacement power station, at least as a business model, is definitely a failure, and can only be used as a differentiated service for car companies at the moment, and Weilai can do a good job in the Ningde era? Once the fast charging technology is broken, or the solid-state battery is mass-produced, where is the future of the power exchange mode? These are all questions to ponder.