In 2021, the new energy vehicle market will achieve explosive growth, and charging and replenishment has become the "just need" of more and more car owners. In addition to the current widely used charging, power exchange as another way to quickly replenish energy has also begun to attract attention. On January 18, battery giant CATL released the power exchange service brand EVOGO, officially entered the main power exchange field, and will start the power exchange service in the first 10 cities, and the first adapted model is FAW Besturn NAT.
Previously, there have been a number of first-movers in the field of power exchange. At present, the two main players in the track, BAIC BJEV and NIO, have laid out a large number of power stations, but there are also pain points that the power exchange service is limited to a single brand. The Ningde era entered the power exchange track, saying that the power exchange service provided will be able to adapt to 80% of the electric vehicle platform, and will the improvement of universality drive the speed of the development of the power exchange track?
The battery giant has entered the main power exchange field
On January 18, TIMES Electric Service, a subsidiary of CATL, released the overall solution of combined power exchange. The overall solution of combined power exchange is composed of three major products: "power exchange block, quick change station and APP". Among them, the "chocolate power exchange block" is a mass-produced battery specially developed for the realization of shared power exchange, with three characteristics of small and high energy, free combination and minimalist design. "Using the latest moduleless technology, the weight energy density of the 'chocolate exchange block' exceeds 160Wh/kg, the volume energy density exceeds 325Wh/L, and a single battery can provide an endurance of about 200 kilometers, and can be adapted to the models developed by the pure electric platform that are 80% of the world's 80% already on the market and will be listed in the next 3 years." Chen Weifeng, general manager of Times Electric Service, introduced that consumers can arbitrarily select one or more batteries when changing electricity, flexibly matching the needs of different mileages. In addition, the "chocolate change block" adopts wireless battery management system technology, and there is only a high-voltage positive and negative interface on the outside, which greatly improves the reliability of the plugged and unplugged components.
The express change station has four characteristics: small area, fast circulation, large capacity and full climate. Considering the cost of land, each standard station only needs three parking spaces, a single block can be replaced for about 1 minute, and 48 power exchange blocks can be stored in the station, ensuring that users can always have a full power block to replace, without waiting for a long time. At the same time, the substation can also be provided with versions adapted to the climatic and environmental conditions of different regions.
In terms of APP, it undertakes the role of a link between different modules and consumers, providing interconnection and services for people, vehicles, stations, and blocks. In the future, more and more functional modules will serve consumers through APP.
The policy dividend makes the power exchange a new outlet
In recent years, with the increase in the penetration rate of new energy vehicles, and the replacement power station as a "new infrastructure" has been written into the 2020 government work report, thus releasing policy dividends, making the power exchange track a new outlet, attracting many enterprises to enter the game. As a result, the power exchange has gradually approached the lives of many car owners.
Mr. Wang, the owner of weilai, is a frequent customer of the power station near the home and the unit, he told reporters that 90% of the usual energy replenishment will choose to change the power, generally only in the vicinity of the power station or the power exchange needs to queue for too long, only choose to charge. "After all, compared to more than an hour of charging, the power exchange that can be completed in one or two minutes is too efficient." Mr. Wang admitted that one of the main reasons why he chose to buy Weilai was also because he liked its power exchange function.
Recently, Mr. Wang also experienced the second-generation replacement power station launched by WEILAI. "The second generation of the replacement power station has launched an automatic parking function, as long as the car is parked to the designated location, according to the camera and sensors of the replacement station, the vehicle can be automatically parked to the power exchange area." Mr. Wang said. However, there are also shortcomings in the replacement power station. Mr. Wang said that the number of substations is still a bit small, far from being everywhere like gas stations, and generally the substation is only equipped with 4 batteries for recycling, and may wait in line during peak periods.
In recent years, NIO has become a major player in the power exchange track. In 2021, WEILAI added 606 new substations, and as of now, 792 substations have been laid out nationwide. In 2021, NIO will also cooperate with Sinopec and state grid to build charging and replacing power stations. And it is also thanks to the dividend of the power exchange policy, all models of Weilai can still enjoy new energy subsidies in the case of a starting price of more than 300,000 yuan.
In addition to Weilai, BAIC BJEV also entered the field of power exchange earlier. However, unlike Weilai, BAIC BJEV believes that the power exchange model can better achieve profitability in the To B field. Beiqi Langu recently said that through its shareholding in Beijing Aodong, nearly 200 substations have been built in Beijing to achieve 24-hour uninterrupted operation and ensure the stable operation of the replacement taxi.
There are still many difficulties in promoting the power exchange mode
In addition to car companies, this time the power exchange track has ushered in the Ningde era, will it speed up the promotion of power exchange? In this regard, Liu Kai, director of the Technology and Certification Department of the China Electric Vehicle Charging Infrastructure Promotion Alliance, analyzed that the power exchange model is still in the stage where the technical requirements are not strong and the battery pack assets are heavy. As the leading power battery enterprise in China, the NINGDE era will be conducive to integrating the power battery technology needs of car companies, and will be conducive to carrying out unified technical standard research from the stages of power battery design, research and development, production, etc., and will also be conducive to the recycling and reduction of power batteries.
However, there are still some difficulties in whether the power exchange mode can really go to popularization. Chen Quanshi, director of the Automotive Research Institute of Tsinghua University, believes that the biggest problem facing the power exchange model is whether it is economically cost-effective. As early as 10 years ago, the multinational company Better Place was finally declared bankrupt in 2013 due to the difficulty of balancing operational investment and revenue. In 2013, Tesla also briefly tested the water to change electricity, but finally gave up due to the high price of the power exchange, inconvenient operation and other reasons.
Another difficulty in the promotion of power exchange is the problem of standardization. Liu Kai analysis, at present, due to the battery specifications are difficult to unify, the versatility of the power exchange facilities is low and other issues, a power station can only serve a single vehicle brand or even a single model, if you want to promote the power exchange mode on a large scale, it will lead to the increasing demand for construction and the contradiction of limited land and power resources to further highlight, so the unified power exchange technical requirements are the inevitable direction of promoting the power exchange mode. To this end, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology and the National Energy Administration jointly organized the pilot work on the application of the new energy vehicle power exchange mode, and also intended to explore the unified technical requirements for promoting the power exchange mode.
Image source: NINGDE times BAIC BJEV