Geely has always been neat in its work, and at the end of November last year, Geely officially announced that it would settle its western headquarters of the technology group in Chongqing. By mid-December, Geely and Lifan Technology had both announced that they would establish a new joint venture. By January 24 this year, chongqing Ruilan Automobile, a joint venture between the two companies, has completed the industrial and commercial registration procedures and will enter the market as a new "power exchange travel brand".
This series of operations can only be described in three words, that is, "fast, accurate and stable". This is also a very typical Geely style, once you look at the track, you quickly enter.
From a while ago, the Ningde era announced to join the power exchange market, to now Geely and Lifan have entered strongly. "Power exchange", a term that seemed to be exclusive to Weilai before, has instantly become the hottest point in the new energy market.
Why do Geely and Lifan want to enter the power exchange market? What's to see for their new company? Let the kung fu car take everyone to see it together.
(1) Overcome the "old and difficult" and change the electricity into a new hot spot
When it comes to the bottleneck of the development of new energy vehicles, mileage anxiety must definitely come first. In the early years, the endurance of electric vehicles was generally less than 300km, basically only used by online car-hailing, and individual car owners were very few.
This reason is also simple, electric vehicles have a very big advantage, that is, the cost of the car is low, and the cost per kilometer can be done in a few cents. Therefore, even if frequent charging is required, online ride-hailing can be tolerated. But the individual car owner runs less, and he is not so cold to this, so naturally he will not buy it.
Then with the breakthrough of battery technology, such as Tesla's first launch of liquid-cooled BMS battery management system, Ningde era launched the famous "811" ternary lithium battery, BYD launched blade battery, manufacturers respectively through battery chemical element ratio optimization, structural optimization and temperature control control optimization, to achieve higher battery energy density. As a result, batteries become stronger and lighter, and the battery life of electric vehicles is also increasing.
In 2017, Tesla Model S endurance exceeded 500km, Xiaopeng P7 in 2020 exceeded 700km, and GAC Aion LX PLUS in 2021 broke through 1000km, announcing that electric vehicles have entered the monthly charging era, it can be said that the development of battery technology in recent years is still visible to the naked eye.
But manufacturers also quickly realized that endurance breakthroughs are becoming more and more difficult. Longer endurance, in fact, many times rely on the "stack battery", not only increase the cost of the vehicle, but also higher requirements for safety. And for a while and a half, I am afraid it is difficult to have a big breakthrough, at this time, the idea of changing electricity has re-emerged.
Because not all car owners have private estates, especially in the case of general parking spaces in first- and second-tier cities, many target users cannot help but have doubts about the way electric vehicles can be replenished. On the other hand, the uncertainty of battery performance has also brought great pressure to car owners, such as electric vehicles generally have a 70% discount in winter endurance, and the charging time in winter has increased by about 70% on average.
The power exchange mode can become a good supplement, first of all, it can reduce the user's car purchase cost, without having to pursue a 600km+, 700km+. In fact, the energy replenishment speed is faster, the safety is higher, the speed is not to mention, most of the replacement power stations can complete the service in a few minutes, so the centralized battery management can also better ensure battery safety.
In fact, a while ago, the Ningde era has released its own new brand EVOGO "Lexing Power Exchange", and now Geely and Lifan have launched Ruilan Automobile, which shows that the first battery giant in China and the first car company in China have taken a fancy to this market.
(2) What are the advantages of Ruilan power exchange?
As we all know, Geely has always been very cautious, since it has entered the power exchange market in a big way, it must have made enough reserves at the technical and market levels, let's take a look at its characteristics of power exchange.
First of all, at the technical level, Geely adopts an exclusive power exchange architecture, which can adapt to the 2700mm-3100mm wheelbase model for power exchange, basically covering the vast majority of models from A class to D class. For example, the wheelbase of BYD Dolphin is 2700mm, and the wheelbase of the Polar Kr 001 is nearly 5 meters, and the wheelbase is only 3005mm, which means that the Geely replacement power station can almost all models "net out".
Secondly, the replacement rate of Geely substation is faster, and the power exchange process can be completed within 60 seconds, which is a real extremely fast sensorless power exchange. For comparison, the current power exchange time of the second generation of WEILAI substation is about 3 minutes. Moreover, the number of daily services of Geely Substation can reach 1,000 times, and Weilai can only do 312 times at present.
Weilai has built 800+ substations in recent years, and in Geely's planning, it will build more than 5,000 substations by 2025, and this overall layout is also very powerful. Geely's logic is also very simple, since the technical specifications of the power exchange in a short period of time are difficult to unify, everyone will spell the number and density, and strive to be the "king of the roll king".
Unlike other car companies, Geely's substation is not only facing C-end users, but B-end and C-end joint efforts. Among them, the B-end is mainly aimed at the field of online travel, the main features are "low operating costs" and "extreme power savings", reducing car costs and improving operational efficiency; while for private C-end users, it will focus on "free force" and "happiness", provide more efficient power exchange services, and have a better travel experience for everyone. After all, Geely already has an online car company such as Cao Cao Chuxing, and now it has integrated the resources of Lifan, which has a unique advantage in market layout.
Moreover, Geely has planned for follow-up development, and the service scope of Ruilan Automobile will cover cars, SUVs, MPVs, and even logistics vehicles and light trucks, fully meeting the needs of different markets. Its brand "base camp" is located in Chongqing, which in turn "radiates" key cities across the country.
(3) A match made in heaven, Auspicious completely activates the lifan?
More than a year ago, Lifan was still in a deep debt crisis. However, after Geely joined, Lifan has quickly achieved "taking off the star and taking off the hat" and has become a fragrant feast in the current capital market. This can be done mainly thanks to the perfect combination between the two.
First of all, Lifan has a good reputation in Chongqing, as early as the 90s, it made a name for itself in the field of motorcycles. Although due to its own limitations, the transformation of car manufacturing is not successful, but Lifan's high-quality assets are actually quite a lot. Therefore, after Lifan exposed the debt crisis, there were many companies in the industry that expressed their intention to take over.
But on the other hand, not everyone can integrate the acquired companies. Some small enterprises acquire large enterprises, and eventually "snake swallow elephants" to choke themselves to death; some international big names, buy you in order to "kill" you, after the acquisition, directly knock the bone to suck the marrow, and finally discard the brand.
Geely is different from them, it is the best at acquiring and integrating car companies. For example, geely acquired volvo in the loss that year, and it was almost unanimously not optimistic at home and abroad, and as a result, Geely made Volvo into a chicken that could lay golden eggs within ten years, and before returning to Sweden to be listed, the market value increased by more than ten times; for example, Geely acquired Lotus, which still maintained its top supercar status; Geely also acquired Malaysia's first national brand Proton Automobile, which is now thriving in Southeast Asia.
On the acquisition and integration, Geely said that the country is second, and no car company dares to say first. In fact, after Jili entered the main sail, Lifan immediately rejuvenated. As early as May last year, Lifan Technology's first power-changing model has been mass-produced in the Chongqing production base, and has reached strategic cooperation with companies such as Easy Internet Technology and Cao Cao Chuxing, and has already consulted a number of online car companies to purchase intentions.
In addition, Geely has begun to build an innovation research institute in Chongqing, aiming to establish an integrated platform for production, education and research, so as to continue to incubate more high-quality enterprises in the upstream and downstream of the industrial chain. It will even invest in the construction of a 12GWh power battery project in Fuling District, and its layout can be described as very extensive.
With the Lifan card, Geely's transformation is obviously more smooth. After obtaining the support of Geely, Lifan was also quickly activated and became a force that cannot be ignored in the new energy industry in the southwest region.
(4) Kung Fu shooting
Now, the cooperation between Geely and Lifan is obviously the effect of "1+1>2", which completely activates Lifan. The power exchange layout is very much in line with the needs of the current new energy market, after all, battery technology may not have a big breakthrough for a while and a half, to break through the early breakthrough, the power exchange can at least solve the current endurance problem, eliminate the user's worries, and attract more users who do not have private piles or have long-distance needs.
Of course, this is only the first step in the cooperation between the two, and whether they can ultimately get a greater "return on investment" depends on the next step of the two.