Pre-editor: As one of the ways to supplement energy, power exchange not only meets the requirements of promoting the innovation of new energy vehicle models, but also alleviates the "charging anxiety" of car owners, and brings new choices and experiences for consumers' green travel.
A few days ago, following the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology's launch of the pilot work of the power exchange mode, the group standard of the "Electric Passenger Vehicle Sharing and Replacement Power Station Construction Specification" was also officially announced, and the power exchange mode entered a new stage of development. How do you view the power exchange pilot work? What is the significance of the introduction of the substation standard?
Power swap mode is a form of providing electrical energy replenishment to electric vehicles through a dedicated device or manual assistance to quickly replace the power battery.
This method has the following advantages: first, the rapid recharge of electric energy to solve the user pain points of slow charging; second, the battery is centralized storage, centralized charging, unified distribution, unified management, can better cope with battery performance attenuation, safety screening, prevention of safety accidents, etc.; the third is the orderly charging and discharging management of large-scale battery systems, which is conducive to achieving staggered peak charging, and plays an active role in balancing the power grid and even efficiently consuming renewable energy; fourth, through the implementation of the new model of power exchange, it is conducive to the implementation of vehicle-electricity separation. Solve the pain points of consumer concerns such as the high cost of purchasing new energy vehicles and the low residual value of second-hand cars.
Not long ago, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology launched the pilot work of the power exchange model, which will effectively promote the orderly, rapid and innovative development of the new energy automobile industry.
1
The unique advantages of the power exchange mode are currently facing many constraints
As an important embodiment of the innovative development of new technologies, new formats and new models in the new energy vehicle energy supply infrastructure industry, the power exchange model has become an important supplementary means for the charging model, which can promote the restructuring of the industrial ecology, accelerate the transformation of automobile manufacturers into service enterprises, and create new economic growth points, so it has received widespread attention from the industry.
In recent years, a number of pioneer enterprises have emerged in the mainland to actively explore the development of power exchange models, such as some automobile companies focusing on high-end private passenger cars to create an energy service system that can be charged and replaced and upgraded; some power exchange service companies take taxis and online car-hailing as breakthroughs to reach cooperative relations with dozens of mainstream car companies to achieve the compatibility and sharing of multi-brand power exchange models; some focus on the field of heavy trucks, and carry out short-reverse transportation demonstration operations for heavy trucks in many cities. By the end of October 2021, the Announcement has replaced more than 200 models, promoted more than 150,000 vehicles cumulatively, and built more than 1,000 power stations, initially forming an industrial scale.
However, the current power exchange model also faces a series of problems such as imperfect business models, imperfect technical standards, unclear application scenarios, and different standards of regulatory measures in different regions.
For example, in some places recently, due to the unclear approval unit responsible for the construction of the substation, the substation that has been built by the enterprise has been forcibly demolished, which has increased the operating burden of the enterprise and affected the planning and layout of the enterprise. With the continuous development of the power exchange mode, related problems will become more prominent and become an important factor restricting the development of the industry.
2
The Ministry of Industry and Information Technology launched a pilot project to encourage local first-movers
Under the current situation, the power exchange mode urgently needs to explore an intensive, efficient and sustainable development path.
In order to further promote the innovative application of the new energy vehicle power exchange mode, give full play to the advantages of the power exchange mode, and break through the obstacles to the development of the industry, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology issued the "Notice on Organizing and Carrying Out the Pilot Work on the Application of the New Energy Vehicle Power Exchange Mode" in April 2021, and launched a two-year pilot work of the power exchange mode, with the goal of strengthening the research and development of key technologies, accelerating the construction of power exchange infrastructure, and promoting the application of power exchange mode vehicles, adhering to the principles of market leadership, innovation drive, key breakthroughs, and coordinated linkage, in order to strengthen technology research and development. Carry out demonstration applications, improve infrastructure, strengthen monitoring and management, improve the standard system, optimize industrial ecology, strengthen policy support, etc. as the main content of the pilot, and encourage all regions to carry out active exploration and experimental demonstration in combination with local development plans and actual conditions.
In order to ensure that the pilot work achieves practical results, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology organized the formulation of strict evaluation standards, through a strict review process, reviewed the basic conditions, pilot content and objectives, pilot safeguard measures and other key contents of the declaring city, and selected 11 pilot cities with good basic conditions, reasonable development goals, rich application scenarios, clear implementation paths, and high work enthusiasm to carry out the pilot work of power replacement.
In order to increase support for the electrification of vehicles in the public domain, the review process divides the declared cities into "comprehensive application categories" and "heavy truck characteristic categories", and the "heavy truck characteristics" cities that focus on the promotion of heavy trucks and application scenarios are separately reviewed, fully considering the differences between the resource endowments and basic conditions of each city, excavating the characteristic scenarios suitable for the power exchange mode, promoting the power exchange demonstration of heavy trucks and other models with large emission pollution and high carbon emissions, and accumulating experience in the development of the power exchange mode.
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Work together to promote pilot work to achieve practical results and promote the low-carbon transformation of transportation
The author believes that the power exchange pilot work is an important measure to implement the "New Energy Vehicle Industry Development Plan (2021-2035)".
Through the pilot demonstration, the first is to promote local governments and enterprises to jointly explore the direction and path of the development of the power exchange model, especially in the aspects of power exchange standards, power station construction approval and safety supervision, etc., to form a mature technical route and institutional experience; the second is to break through the development constraints of the power exchange model, through the new model of "separation of vehicle and electricity", give birth to new industrial ecology such as the power exchange service system and the battery bank financial model, continue to improve the new energy vehicle energy replenishment network, promote the consumption of new energy vehicles, and form new formats and new models. During the pilot period, it is expected to promote more than 100,000 electric vehicles and more than 1,000 power stations, which will further stimulate the innovation vitality of the mainland's new energy automobile industry, and is of great significance for achieving the mainland's "double carbon" goal and accelerating the formation of a green and low-carbon mode of transportation.
The pilot work is a complex system project, and all parties can achieve practical results by working together.
In order to promote the innovative application of the new energy vehicle power exchange mode, promote the in-depth integration and development of new energy vehicles and energy, and support the realization of carbon peak and carbon neutrality goals, the author suggests that the pilot cities should establish a coordination work mechanism, formulate and improve relevant standards, regulations and policy systems and management systems, and ensure the healthy and orderly development of the pilot demonstration work; the competent departments should establish a sound supervision mechanism, organize industry experts and third-party institutions to provide scientific guidance to the pilot cities, do a good job in pilot support and service guarantee work, and ensure the smooth progress of the pilot work.
(Author Wu Zhixin, Fang Haifeng Unit: China Automotive Technology and Research Center Co., Ltd.)
Text: Wu Zhixin Fang Haifeng Editor: Li Qing Layout: Zhao Fangting