Every Spring Festival, it is quite torturous for a considerable number of electric vehicle owners who want to drive electric vehicles home. Especially now that the highway charging facilities are not enough to cope with the huge return traffic, the long queue of charging vehicles has become one of the important factors causing highway congestion.
Even if there is a fast charge now, for the vast majority of electric vehicles, it still takes more than 1 hour to go from zero charge to full charge. Coupled with the high-speed charging network supported only by state-owned charging facilities, the waiting time for charging is also very long.
At this time, the Weilai and Ningde era came over: "No charging, you can change the electricity!" ”
As the forerunner of the power exchange model for the C-end market, WEILAI is already very familiar with it. However, NIO's power exchange model is limited to WEI's home models and has not been extended to other brand models.
The Ningde era is different, they are currently the world's largest power battery suppliers. Many car companies are using their batteries. Its scale effect makes it easier to promote power exchange in other car companies.
Moreover, the "chocolate battery block" power exchange mode of the Ningde era is more flexible, and different numbers of battery blocks can be used for different size models. In addition, according to different needs, the number of battery blocks loaded on a car can also be flexibly changed, and users can choose according to their needs, without having to carry a huge battery pack every time. Users can choose to be equipped with only 1 battery pack when driving in the city, and carry more chocolate battery blocks on long journeys.
The chocolate battery block single body adopts the latest CTP technology, the energy density is as high as 160Wh/kg, and the single chocolate battery block can provide a cruising range of about 200km. In addition, the chocolate battery block uses wireless BMS technology, and the battery plug-in interface is only used for charging and discharging, reducing the reliability problem caused by too many battery plugs.
CATL said that the chocolate power exchange block can be adapted to more than 80% of the world's listed and upcoming pure electric platform development models within 3 years, and the existing models can be adapted to the power exchange mode without too much adjustment to the chassis. The chocolate battery block can cover most models of various brands from mini cars to large cars, and can achieve the widest possible coverage of the replacement block.
As for the charging station of the Ningde era, the basic structure is similar to the Weilai replacement power station we are familiar with, a standard station covers an area of 3 parking spaces, can store 48 power exchange blocks, and the replacement time of a single chocolate battery block is only 1 minute. However, considering that the replacement block itself is much smaller than the size and capacity of the battery pack of Weilai, the power storage capacity of the replacement power station should be comparable to that of Weilai.
I believe that many car owners can appreciate it in actual use, and only need to spend a refueling time to replace the fully charged battery, which is very convenient and fast.
But this is only limited to the situation that there are fewer people in the power exchange service, and once the power exchange resources are run, the scene will be very ugly.
On the highway of the Spring Festival holiday, not only the front of the charging station was lined up, but even the second-generation charging station from Wei's home, the owners of Weilai waiting in front of the queue to change the electricity, also lined up in a long line.
Doesn't it mean that Weilai's second-generation replacement power station only needs 3-5 minutes to complete the power exchange? Why are there so many people before Weilai replaced the power station? And wait an hour?
The reason is actually very simple: the fully charged battery has been replaced, and the empty battery left behind after the previous replacement takes time to charge, and this charging time is no different from the fast charging of the charging pile, and the natural waiting time will be long.
Now the Weilai second-generation replacement power station can already accommodate 13 battery packs, which has more than doubled compared with the first generation of replacement power stations, and the power exchange speed has also been greatly improved. However, there is only one replacement power station in a high-speed service area, which is obviously not enough in the Spring Festival of the surge in traffic, which leads to when the fully charged battery is replaced, the owners need to wait for the battery to be fully charged before changing the battery.
Some people say that it is not enough to build a few more substations on the highway. But this is a thankless task for a private enterprise like Weilai.
The replacement power station is different from the charging pile, it is a heavy asset, the cost of building a passenger car replacement power station has reached 5 million yuan, and the subsequent operation, support and maintenance also need to spend a lot of money. At the same time, the movement of the substation also costs a high cost, so for the substation, it is necessary to maximize its benefits to be profitable.
However, highway charging facilities have such a characteristic - the utilization rate is very low at most times, but when the demand for medium- and long-distance travel such as holidays soars, there are more monks and less porridge.
Therefore, in addition to state-run charging service providers such as the State Grid, few private charging service providers will cover charging facilities on highways. Even Weilai and Xiaopeng are currently only covering their own charging services on some highways with relatively large traffic.
Therefore, if more power stations are built on the highway in order to meet the explosive demand of holidays, I am afraid that Weilai will have to bear a lot of construction and operating costs.
Is power exchange the ultimate solution for pure electric vehicle energy replenishment? I don't think so
Changes in the way of replenishment are determined by the industry and the market. The gas stations that everyone sees all over the streets and alleys now are the most efficient way to replenish the energy that fuel vehicles have stabilized after decades of development.
From lead-acid batteries decades ago to lithium batteries dominating the mainstream, the endurance and charging speed of pure electric vehicles have made great progress. However, compared with the fuel vehicle that can run up to 1,000 km in 3 minutes of refueling, the efficiency is still lower.
Therefore, I think that to change electricity to become the mainstream energy supplementation method of pure electric vehicles, there must be a prerequisite - the industry's default battery and charging technology will not have a leap forward in a short period of time, and then the market and users choose the relatively most efficient energy replacement method. This is a relatively long process.
But in the future, what kind of battery will be developed for pure electric vehicles, how much charging efficiency can be improved, how much endurance can be, and in the case of multiple technical routes going hand in hand, no one can say clearly. If batteries and charging can really develop to the same energy efficiency and endurance as current fuel vehicles, is it still necessary to replace the power?