The Ningde era has entered the game, and the electricity exchange market has "come to the wolf"?

The "catfish" Ningde era is quietly entering the power exchange market. On January 18, Times Electric Service, a wholly-owned subsidiary of CATL, launched the power exchange service brand EVOGO and the overall solution of combined power exchange, and CATL officially entered the power exchange market. At present, the contradiction of new energy vehicles is becoming increasingly prominent, and the power exchange mode is once again put on the agenda. Previously, in the domestic new energy vehicle C-end market, power replacement has always been based on the promotion of car companies, Weilai and BAIC have distinct power replacement labels, and in recent years, it has also become the direction of many new energy vehicle brands.

However, car companies have entered the game and have not really opened the new energy vehicle replacement market, under the problem of standardization and unification, the power exchange market has not been able to get rid of the situation of "fighting alone" of car companies, forming a scale effect. At this time, the Ningde era, which has a rich "circle of friends" and supplier identity, is considered by the industry to be the key to breaking the deadlock in the development of the power exchange market.

Screenshot of ningde era live broadcast

"King Ning" entered the game

After the release of the "sodium ion" battery, "Ning Wang" is ready to share a piece of the power exchange market.

In order to alleviate the pain points of users' cars, Times Electric Service, a wholly-owned subsidiary of CATL, officially released the power exchange service brand EVOGO and the overall solution of combined power exchange. It is understood that Times Electric Service has launched a combination of three major products of "power exchange block, quick change station, App" to replace the overall solution and service, in the mode of separation of vehicle and electricity, the battery is independent as a shared asset. Among them, the battery "Chocolate Exchange Block", which is specially developed for the realization of shared power exchange, will use CTP technology in the Ningde era, 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.

"At present, the Times Service App has been launched." The relevant person in charge of the Ningde era said that when the user changes the power, he can arbitrarily select one or more batteries to match the needs of different mileages. If the owner buys a model that can use the "chocolate power block", he can change to a rental battery without buying a battery. The price of the power exchange is based on different times and different locations, because the environment is a variable, the company will provide competitive prices according to different situations,

The power exchange is not limited to ternary lithium batteries or lithium iron phosphate batteries.

Beijing Business Daily reporter learned that the "power exchange block, quick change station, App" this combination of power exchange overall solution, but also has a power multi-vehicle, on-demand rental electricity, rechargeable and replaceable characteristics. Among them, each standard station requires 3 parking spaces, a single block can be replaced for about 1 minute, and 48 power exchange blocks can be stored in the station. The substation can also be supplied in versions adapted to the climatic and environmental conditions of different regions. The above-mentioned person in charge revealed that the battery assets in the replacement power station belong to the "battery bank", and this "battery bank" will include the times electrical service, and the company welcomes relevant parties in the industry to join and jointly promote the rapid development of the power exchange network.

In fact, the concept of "battery bank" began with a new car-making force - Weilai. Previously, weineng, a battery asset company established by Weilai and cooperated with Weilai, was established to carry out battery asset management based on the "separation of vehicle and electricity" model, which was also known as "battery bank".

It is worth noting that the Ningde era has long been laid out in the field of power exchange. In July 2020, CATL signed a contract with BAIC BJEV for the vehicle-to-electricity separation project, and officially entered the field of power exchange operation as a battery manufacturer. Subsequently, the heavy truck jointly built by CATL and Foton Zhilan New Energy was delivered in Beijing. In January last year, CATL established CATL Times New Energy Technology Co., Ltd., whose business scope covers the sale of new energy replacement facilities. On December 24 last year, CATL signed an agreement with the Guizhou Provincial Government to cooperate in the construction of a power exchange network.

"The previous layout of the Ningde era was on the one hand to test the power exchange market, but also to pave the way for the release of its own power exchange brand in advance." Yan Jinghui, a member of the expert committee of the China Circulation Association, said that the Ningde era will not only be satisfied with providing batteries, with the gradual maturity of the new energy vehicle market, power replacement will become an indispensable way for the future market to fill the energy, as a supplier, Ningde times for future development will inevitably choose to enter the market.

Promote pain points

Before the Ningde era entered the market, the power exchange market has become the "label" of many car companies.

In the domestic new energy vehicle C-end market, since its establishment in 2014, WEILAI has been laying out the power exchange market, and has laid out the battery rental service BaaS sales model in the later stage. As a representative car company of the "power exchange" model, Weilai's sales volume and market value have reached new highs in recent years. Power replacement can not only supplement the battery life in time, apply battery rental services on power exchange models, but also allow users to further reduce the cost of car purchase, and attract more consumers to choose related brand models through lower prices. Taking the NIO ES6 Sport Edition as an example, the price of the model after subsidy is 346,666 yuan, and the baaS service car purchase price is only 276,666 yuan, a direct drop of 70,000 yuan.

CATL believes that in order to alleviate mileage anxiety and meet occasional long-distance demand, consumers will choose to buy models with larger batteries and pay high costs for this. However, separating the car from electricity and taking the form of battery sharing or leasing may be the key to solving the owner's battery life anxiety and reducing the cost of car purchase.

The benefits brought by the power exchange model have also made the power exchange model a "fragrant feast" in the eyes of more and more new energy vehicle companies. Geely, Changan New Energy, Nezha, SAIC Roewe and other vehicle companies have begun to lay out the replacement car market. Among them, the ROE Ei5 quick change version of SAIC Roewe's Roewe power exchange model under SAIC Group was officially released, and the Shanghai power exchange service network of Aodong New Energy, a subsidiary of SAIC Roewe Power Exchange, was also announced. The relevant person in charge of the Ningde era believes that the promotion of any business model is actually not the choice of the enterprise, but the choice of the market and the choice of consumers.

However, the layout of many car companies has not fully opened the power exchange market. According to the released data, by the end of 2021, the number of charging infrastructure in the country will reach 2.617 million units, of which the total number of power exchange facilities is only 1298, of which Weilai Automobile has 789 substations and 402 power exchange service operator Aodong New Energy Construction substations. At the same time as the promotion is not effective, there is still a profit problem in the replacement power station. According to statistics, the income of most domestic substations mainly comes from the use of high frequency and a large number of operating vehicles, private cars are only used as a supplement, and the use rate of substations reaches 60%-70% to achieve breakeven, but as of 2020, the average load rate of first-line key cities such as Beijing is only about 20%.

The problem behind this is the failure to achieve "standardization". Industry insiders said that the key to being able to make a profit lies in large-scale promotion, but because the battery pack is not unified, the chassis platform is not unified and standardized, it is difficult to promote, and the replacement power station and battery cannot be universal, which means that the scale cannot be promoted. Car companies do not want to standardize, but there is already a competitive relationship between car companies, and no one is willing to use competitors' templates for manufacturing and development, so they have not been able to fully promote the scale effect, and the profit model has not been formed.

The "circle of friends" killer

On the one hand, the market needs to change the power model, and on the other hand, the car companies have failed to achieve the scale effect of the situation, which provides an opportunity for the Ningde era as a supplier.

It is understood that based on the development principle of universal adaptation, EVOGO's "chocolate exchange block" can be applied to passenger cars and logistics vehicles from A00 class to B class and C class. The substation can be adapted to various models using the "chocolate swap block" to achieve the freedom of choice of the swap model.

While applying a variety of models, the entry of the Ningde era will open up the pain points that the power exchange mode of car companies cannot communicate. "It can be adapted to 80% of the world's pure electric models that have been listed and will be listed in the next three years, and 80% adaptation means that as long as it is not special-shaped, it is basically adapted." The relevant person in charge of the Ningde era said that car companies do not need to adjust the chassis, but only need to develop a power exchange bracket suitable for chocolate batteries.

In fact, the Ningde era can open up the "pain points", not only because of its supplier identity, but also because of the "circle of friends" foundation laid by the previous layout of the battery field. As one of the world's largest suppliers of power batteries, CATL has also been expanding its "circle of friends". At present, CATL has cooperated with BMW, SAIC, Changan, Volkswagen, Volvo, Jaguar Land Rover, Toyota, BAIC and many other domestic and foreign car companies. Cui Dongshu, secretary general of the Passenger Car Joint Association, believes that the power exchange model is a high-cost input, and after the CATL era launches the power exchange model as a supplier, the car companies that have cooperated in its "circle of friends" may continue to cooperate with it in the field of power exchange, which can not only save investment, but also smoothly realize the launch of the power exchange mode.

Chen Weifeng, general manager of Times Electric Service, revealed that EVOGO's "Little Green Ring Family" No. 001 member ------- FAW Besturn NAT combination power exchange version has been launched. This means that CATL has taken the lead in reaching cooperation with FAW Besturn. In the future, EVOGO will be the first to select 10 cities to start the power exchange service, and will release more brands of power exchange models.

Not only does it have a good "circle of friends" foundation before, but also the favorable policy also provides good support for the Ningde era to enter the power exchange market. In April 2020, the Ministry of Finance and other four departments jointly issued the "Notice on Adjusting and Improving the Subsidy Policy for New Energy Vehicles", which stipulates that new energy passenger cars with a price of no more than 300,000 yuan before subsidies are eligible for a new round of subsidies, but new energy models that support the "power exchange" model are not subject to the 300,000 yuan rule. In addition, in October last year, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology 's Notice on Launching the Pilot Work of the Application of the New Energy Vehicle Power Exchange Model' was released, marking the official launch of the pilot application of the new energy vehicle power exchange mode, providing policy support for the power exchange. The document decided to start pilot work on the application of new energy vehicle power exchange mode in 11 cities such as Beijing, Nanjing and Wuhan.

Industry insiders said that under the impetus of the policy, there will be more car companies to launch the power exchange mode model, and compared with the competitive relationship between car companies, NINGDE era as a supplier identity and many car companies cooperation is easier to achieve scale, form standardization, and then form a profit model.

Beijing Business Daily reporter Liu Xiaomeng