Today, Times Electric Service held its first press conference online to release the overall solution of power exchange service brand EVOGO Power Exchange and Combination Power Exchange.
First of all, let's talk about who is The Times Electric Service?
Times Electric Service is a wholly-owned subsidiary of CATL, which is committed to providing users with convenient and reliable mobile power solutions and services.
When it comes to the Ningde era, I believe in "DDDD", and I don't explain too much.
Let's start with swap mode
In fact, when the word "battery swap" is mentioned in 2022, we will not feel strange and novel. Because in recent years, the power exchange mode is not a new thing.
But let's be clear about one thing first:
Changing the electricity, Weilai is not the first, nor is it the only one.
Indeed, in recent years, with the sales of Weilai began to climb, and unremittingly promoted the rechargeable and replaceable mode of vehicle and electricity separation, the power exchange mode began to be known by more and more people, and gradually increased the utilization rate of the replacement power station.
But long before Niolai's first model, the ES8, was already doing this, and their enthusiasm for the power exchange model was not lost to Weilai. For example, Israeli electric vehicle charging and swapping service provider BetterPlace once vigorously promoted the electric vehicle swapping business, but with problems with funding, operation and profitability, the service provider declared bankruptcy in 2013.
(BetterPlace Substation)
In the same year that BetterPlace officially went bankrupt, Tesla also launched a power exchange mode for its Model S model, from the time the vehicle drove into the power station to the power exchange successfully, the whole process only took 90 seconds, which was much shorter than the replacement time of weilai today. But the problem it brings is still "cost", which includes the construction cost of the replacement power station, the cost of ground rent, the cost of operation and maintenance, etc., and also the cost of the user's car. At that time, Tesla's power exchange service, the user paid 60-80 US dollars (equivalent to the current exchange rate of about 400-500 yuan). Moreover, if the user wants to keep the replacement of the new battery, he must also pay the difference between the new and old batteries.
(2013 Tesla Model S battery swap demonstration)
Back to the main topic, the advantages of the power exchange mode are obvious to the user, after the separation of vehicle and electricity can reduce the cost of car purchase, the most important thing is that the power exchange is more efficient than charging.
But for OEMs, the first problem encountered is the technical difficulty, including the liquid locking of the liquid-cooled temperature control pipeline of the battery pack during the power exchange process, and also the reliability of the vehicle and the power battery during the power exchange process and after the power exchange. In addition to the technical difficulties, the high operating costs are also the biggest problems encountered by the power exchange mode.
In the Chinese market, in addition to Weilai, the OEMs that are currently running into the "power exchange" track also include Dongfeng, Aodong, BAIC, Changan, SAIC, Geely and so on.
When Beijing's taxis began to be replaced by BAIC EU5 quick-change editions one by one, they had already started the power exchange business of pure electric taxis. Geely's Maple Leaf Automobile has also opened a power exchange business in some areas. Including the light orange era, which was officially unveiled last year, it also signed a strategic cooperation with GCL Energy and began to explore the power exchange mode.
11-minute press conference:
One brand, one solution
The brief conference was only 11 minutes, at which Times Electric Service released the overall solution of the power exchange service brand EVOGO Lexing battery swap and combination power exchange.
At present, the new energy automobile industry has entered a new stage of explosive growth. As of December 2021, the retail penetration rate of new energy vehicles in the domestic auto market has reached 22.6%, the demand for power batteries has surged, and the price of raw material resources has risen sharply. In contrast, the cost reductions brought about by economies of scale and technological progress are just a drop in the bucket.
At the same time, most private car owners will only use 10-20% of the battery power in daily use scenarios, but in order to alleviate mileage anxiety and energy replenishment anxiety, they have to buy large-power models and pay a lot of sunk costs. The original intention of The Era Electric Service to launch the power replacement brand and the power exchange solution is to solve the three problems of mileage, convenience of power replenishment and purchase and use cost at the same time.
In view of these problems, EVOGO Power Exchange has launched a combined power exchange overall solution and service composed of three major products: "power exchange block, quick change station and APP". EVOGO Is the same as Weilai, in the mode of separation of vehicle and electricity, the battery is separated as a shared asset.
But the difference is that NIO's BaaS battery rental provides the choice of new car battery pack capacity and subsequent battery pack capacity upgrades, while EVOGO Lexing Battery Swap has launched a "chocolate battery swap block", which can provide a battery pack on the car or even a combination of multiple batteries on the car, and the user can choose the number of battery packs at any time, which looks more flexible than the BaaS battery rental and replacement mode of Weilai.
The combined power exchange solution of EVOGO Lexing power exchange can be charged and exchanged, and together with the existing home charge and fast charge, it constitutes a full-scenario energy replenishment method. As for the use scenario of "chocolate power exchange block", consumers can choose one to multiple batteries at will when changing power, flexibly matching the needs of different mileage. Like what:
In the car scene where daily commuting is used and there is a home pile, you can choose a chocolate for an electric block to get on the car;
In the daily commuting use and no home pile car scene, you can choose two chocolates to exchange for electricity blocks on the car;
In the car scene where you need to go out, you can also choose three chocolates to exchange for electric blocks to get on the car;
After returning from the far door, you can return the excess number of chocolates to change the power block according to the car usage scene.
It should be noted here that after purchasing a pure electric model equipped with a chocolate exchange block, the chocolate exchange block will be completely leased, and the vehicle purchase mode containing batteries is not supported or provided. In addition, the property rights of the chocolate bar will belong to the "battery bank", while the consumer will only retain the right to use it during the lease period.
EVOGO's "Chocolate Swap Block" is a mass-produced battery specially developed for shared power swapping, with three characteristics of small and high energy, free combination and minimalist design, which can be applied to passenger cars and logistics vehicles from A00 class to B class and C class.
"Chocolate changer block" adopts CATL era CTP (Cell-to-Pack) technology, with a weight energy density of more than 160Wh/kg, a volume energy density of more than 325Wh/L, and a single battery can provide an endurance of about 200 kilometers. According to the information given by EVOGO Power Exchange, the "Chocolate Exchange Block" can be adapted to the models developed by 80% of the world's pure electric platforms that have already been listed and will be launched in the next 3 years.
In addition, the "chocolate exchange block" uses wireless BMS technology, and only the external high-voltage positive and negative interfaces are used to improve the reliability of the plugged and unplugged parts.
In fact, at this point, I will have two questions:
1. NIO uses a power battery with unified size specifications for power exchange service. Although the "chocolate bar" of EVOGO's electricity exchange is uniform in size and specification, the counterweight of the vehicle will also change with the different number of vehicles. So that the driving experience and driving stability will also change, how will this problem be solved?
2. Mentioned at the press conference: "Chocolate Changer Block" uses wireless BMS technology, and only the high-voltage positive and negative interfaces are left externally. I guess, maybe the "chocolate changer block" does not have a liquid cooling pump connected to the vehicle's liquid cooling temperature control circulation pipeline, so will only the electric vehicle model with air cooling temperature control be able to use the "chocolate power exchange block"?
In the EVOGO combined battery swapping total solution, in addition to the chocolate battery changer, there are also coupling stations and apps.
According to the information given at the press conference, each standard change station covers an area of about three parking spaces, the power exchange time of a single block is about 1 minute, and 48 power change blocks can be stored in each change station. At the same time, the changeover station also provides versions that adapt to the climatic and environmental conditions of different regions.
The APP provides interconnection and service of people, vehicles, stations, and blocks.
To sum up, the power exchange mode of EVOGO can be summarized as: one electricity multi-car, on-demand rental electricity, rechargeable and exchangeable.
Break through brand barriers
Previously, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology has repeatedly made it clear that it supports the creation of pilot projects for the development of vehicle-electricity separation models in various places, encourages enterprises to develop power-swap mode models according to use scenarios, mobilizes local governments to formulate relevant policies, and creates pilots to promote the development of the new energy automobile industry.
The National Energy Administration also issued five documents on October 23, 2020, which will be officially implemented on February 1, 2021. Includes:
NB/T 10434-2020 "General Technical Requirements for Chassis Battery Replacement Systems for Pure Electric Passenger Cars";
NB/T 10435-2020 "General Technical Requirements for Electric Vehicle Rapid Replacement Battery Box Locking Mechanism";
NB/T 10436-2020 "General Technical Requirements for The Cooling Interface of The Rapid Replacement Battery Box for Electric Vehicles";
NB/T 33004-2020 "Specification for the Construction and Completion acceptance of electric vehicle charging and replacement facilities";
NB/T 33025-2020 "General Requirements for Rapid Replacement Battery Boxes for Electric Vehicles".
It is worth noting here that in these five documents, NIO led the preparation of three documents 10435, 10436 and 33025, and was deeply involved in the preparation of 10434 and 33004 documents.
All brands that are working on the power exchange model must now be implemented in accordance with these "requirements" and "norms", but they are still difficult to break through a "barrier", that is, cross-brand services.
Each brand has its own model design, power battery specifications, and the same is true for the power exchange mode, and the power exchange service of different brands is difficult to communicate. If you want to solve this problem, in addition to the "unified technical requirements", you also need to unify the battery pack size, specifications, installation positions, and even fixed bolt specifications, installation positions, vehicle temperature control methods... Wait, too many hard requirements.
As one of the "top streams" in the power battery industry, the catheter era has a strong industrial chain integration ability so that the CATL era can have a strong advantage when entering the power exchange market. EVOGO's power exchange station can be adapted to various brand models that use "chocolate power exchange blocks", which breaks through the barriers between batteries and models.
At present, the member of the "Little Green Ring Family" 001 who joins the EVOGO power exchange is the FAW Besturn NAT combination power exchange version.
After that, how many brands and models will join the "Little Green Ring Family"? How quickly will the model and service network expand?
However, my personal opinion is:
There will be some pure electric models suitable for taxis or ride-hailing cars to gradually join the "Little Green Ring Family", but it will not be surprising that the number of pure electric models for consumers may be available, especially the mainstream pure electric models on the market.
Moreover, brands with their own charging/swapping technology and their own charging/swapping networks may not opt to join the "Little Green Ring Family".
At last
In terms of the power exchange mode that I have experienced and learned so far, I think that power exchange is a very convenient way to replenish energy. Moreover, the power exchange mode also has "multiple values":
1. It is a very convenient way to replenish energy;
2. Battery leasing can reduce the financial pressure of consumers to buy a car;
3. Vehicle-to-electric separation can extend the service life of electric vehicles;
4. Vehicle-to-electric separation can appropriately increase the "residual value" of used electric vehicles;
……
But then again, the reason for the slow development of the power exchange model is still inseparable from the high operating costs and technical standards that are difficult to unify.
Do you remember some time ago, NetEase CEO Ding Lei's proposal: unified smart device charging port. Nowadays, the charging ports of new energy vehicles in the domestic market have been unified through the "national standard requirements". Although the technical specifications for the power exchange mode have also been required, there are no absolutely strict unified requirements for the details related to commercialization of the power battery specification parameters, power exchange mechanism/structure, etc., which also leads to the current "variety" of power exchange modes on the market.
The step taken by EVOGO Lexing Power Feed is to hold hands with more OEMs under the premise of taking the products launched by itself as the standard to further expand the coverage of the market.
Therefore, for EVOGO Lexing power exchange, the next thing to fight is a protracted battle that is "costly".