Pure electrification tide is gradually coming, for the vast majority of users, they do not care about the energy attributes of transportation, as long as the good use of oil, electricity, hydrogen can be, the biggest pain point of pure tram users at the moment is the problem of long-distance travel charging, energy supplement efficiency is far less than the traditional fuel vehicle, 2021 eleven long holiday the major service areas queued for three hours, charging an hour deeply stung all pure electric vehicle users. In response to this problem, some brands have laid out self-driving charging piles on the trunk line, led by Tesla and Xiaopeng, and Weilai has increased the power exchange on this basis. Which is the optimal solution for long-distance travel, power exchange and fast charging? With the Spring Festival holiday, I experienced the WEILAI ES8 in detail for a while, if you have any questions in this regard, you can read this article in detail.
Model introduction
The test drive is the Weilai ES8 six-seat signature version model, the battery pack capacity is 100kWh, the price of the vehicle purchase is 611,400 yuan, if the rental battery is used, the price is 483,400 yuan, and the price of the 100kWh battery rental service is 1480 yuan / month.
The six-seat signature version of the configuration is basically equivalent to the top model, and the only configuration that is not selected is the qihui orange caliper and the carbon fiber alloy wheel, which affects the "value" of the vehicle, and there is no difference in the actual use experience.
Charging experience
As a "user" without home charging piles, charging is the primary problem, no matter where you go, finding charging piles is a troublesome thing, the charging map function in the Weilai App is very powerful, it includes almost all the charging brands on the market, on this map you can not only view the location of the charging pile, but also choose the brand, power, price, etc., the basic service construction is quite in place.
In addition, Weilai has also launched a lot of "red envelope piles", which can enjoy a 50% discount or free charging, which can enjoy fast charging and do not need to pay fees.
Travel preparation/vehicle setup
Approaching the Spring Festival, going home is naturally the top priority, the first preparation before traveling is to wash the car, I always feel that washing a clean car should be better to drive, if you go out of the door even if it rains, you have to wash the car. However, the car wash industry will increase prices during the Spring Festival, the price of conventional car washes in Beijing range from 100-500 yuan, I opened this ES8 to buy Weilai's "service worry-free", with 35 car wash coupons, directly to the door to scan the code, like charging free.
The epidemic in Beijing at the end of 2021 has left many people without access to their hometowns, and the epidemic prevention policies in different regions have not been spared, so this Spring Festival can only go to the mother-in-law's house to eat and drink.
From the East Fifth Ring Road to Shijiazhuang total driving mileage of 316 kilometers, the fifth ring road - Daxing Airport Expressway - sixth ring road - Beijing-Hong Kong-Macao Expressway - Xinyuan Expressway, ES8 full power NEDC mileage of 580km, the whole low temperature + high speed, after arriving may also use the car, so I chose the xushui service area to change the power plan.
The navigation that comes with the on-board system itself will recommend a suitable power replacement and charging location according to the current power and battery life when it is set, and of course, you can also use the App settings on the mobile phone to send directly to the car machine.
Weilai recently pushed the aspen 3.1.0 new system, adding a light color mode, for people like me who have a bad eye, the look and feel of the screen under the strong light during the day has improved a lot.
In the vehicle setting, the front and rear air conditioners are 26 ° C, the air volume is 4 gears, I personally care about the wind sound of the air conditioner, so no matter what car you drive, you tend to adjust the temperature to reduce the air volume.
The driving mode selects "personalized", in which the power output is adjusted to the weakest 9.9s to break the hundred, the motor power response is faster, the high-speed cruise is less practical, and it is more comfortable to drive. Kinetic energy recovery adjustment is the weakest, although often in contact with electric vehicles, I am still relatively resistant to kinetic energy recovery, and the suspension part of the lowest height, the stiffest, steering mode selection is stable, I need a subjective sense of stability, in order to ensure the effect of air conditioning, air conditioning directly choose the standard mode.
It's always cool to change the battery all the time
After driving on the fifth ring road, directly open the NOP pilot assistance system, in this case of traffic is not particularly large, the driving assistance system can play the greatest efficiency, Aspen 3.1.0 new system for the driver assistance system also has a certain optimization, I personally experience the most profound is that the system will be based on the curvature of the curve appropriate deceleration, the operation of anthropomorphism, more driver driving feeling, while more decisive when changing lanes to overtake, the success rate is much higher than before, if it is not the need for a large number of slow cars to accumulate the situation, The whole process can be opened, which can greatly reduce the driving fatigue, but it is still necessary to remind the driver assistance system at this stage is only auxiliary, and it is also necessary to be ready to intervene at any time when using, and keep the attention to look ahead.
The first stop arrived at the service area of the Doudian in Beijing, in the service area we found the temporary supply station of Weilai, the staff drove an ES8 to prepare simple supplies such as food and water for the user, if the vehicle encountered any problems, you can also ask for help from the staff of the supply station.
In addition, the supply station also has the Spring Festival "red packet drawing" activity, which focuses on the spirit of participation, and the year of the tiger doll is a piece and 288 points.
A supply station form is included for your reference, and you can punch in the clock when you return.
Say goodbye to the warm supply station, go to the Xushui service area to change the power, the Xushui service area of the replacement power station in the direction of Beijing, you need to take the underground passage of the service area through the highway, usually the underground passage is closed, you need to contact the power exchange brother to lead the way, may be during the Spring Festival traffic flow is larger, directly opened.
Vehicles in the approach to the station after the system will sense the prompt driver, if you are not good technology or lazy, directly drive the car into the identification area, you can use automatic parking directly to park in, from the automatic parking to the vehicle out of the whole process in about 6-8 minutes, the time experience and refueling is basically the same.
At present, weilai's second-generation replacement power station reserve battery is in 13 pieces, we learned from the mouth of the replacement brother that the charging power of the replacement power station is about 70kW, the time to fill a 100kWh battery is more than one hour, according to the official data, the replacement power station can complete up to 312 times a day, and the car we drive can enjoy 4 times a month free power exchange, so this time there is no cost.
If it is self-funded power exchange, the price of 41kWh electricity is 54.12 yuan, which is 1.32 yuan / kWh, and the price is close to that of third-party charging piles.
Our departure time is 12:23 minutes, the final arrival time is 16:38 minutes, after 4 hours and 18 minutes, if the charging scheme is adopted in the middle, the time needs to increase by about 1 hour, and the time experience in the case of power replacement is basically close to that of fuel vehicles.
About power swapping
The car itself is a means of transportation that serves life, the early charging pile power is low, the update is slower, for pure electric vehicle users long-distance travel has become a sin, buying a tram only in the city and some is not worth it, the new energy era battery technology itself has no breakthrough and the energy replenishment efficiency is low, at present, if you do not want to be tied up by electricity, the power exchange is indeed an optimal solution, the power exchange is cool, and the power has been replaced.
As of January 21, WEILAI has laid out 800 substations, and will complete the construction target of 1300 substations in 2022, covering the main domestic high-speed trunk lines, key lines, etc., thereby breaking the problem of endurance anxiety, in this era of focusing on experience, solving the post-service of pure electric vehicle models can maintain the image of their own brand, take care of old users, attract new users, thus bringing good reputation and user growth.