Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei power exchange visit: Who is waiting for the power station replacement?

A Weilai power station in Beijing. Beijing News reporter Wang Linlin photographed

With the continuous issuance of documents by the state, the new energy vehicle power exchange model has taken the stage.

In January 2022, the National Development and Reform Commission and seven other departments jointly issued the Implementation Plan for Promoting Green Consumption, which clearly strengthened the construction of supporting infrastructure such as charging and replacing electricity, and promoted the pilot work of applying the power exchange mode of new energy vehicles.

As one of the 13 pilot cities of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology for the replacement mode of new energy vehicles, the development status of the power exchange model in Beijing, the user experience of the driver, and the future prospects of the development of the power station have attracted much attention. The integration of Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei and cross-regional offices have increased the demand for substations in Tianjin and Hebei to a certain extent.

In February, the Beijing News shell financial reporters divided into three roads and visited the replacement power stations in Beijing, Tianjin and Hebei to conduct a "thorough visit".

The reporter found that the busy situation of the Weilai replacement power station in the Beijing area showed regional differences, the northwest was particularly busy due to the gathering of science and technology enterprises, and the relative queues in other areas were relatively small; the Weilai replacement power station in the Tianjin area was concentrated in the morning and evening peaks. In addition, the coverage rate of pure electric vehicles in the Ring Beijing area of Hebei Province is relatively high, and the layout of charging piles is relatively dense, but the demand for power exchange is relatively weak, resulting in the lagging development of the power exchange market.

Mainly for the taxi market, Aodong New Energy is constantly increasing the construction of replacement power stations in the Beijing area, but because the battery life of new energy taxis is slightly shorter, there is still room for improvement in related support, and the pressure of power exchange in winter is greater. The reporter visited the second-tier cities in the Ring Beijing area of Hebei Province and found that local taxis used natural gas as fuel, and no substations serving the public domain such as Aodong New Energy were found in the urban area.

In the face of the new energy vehicle market, what practical problems does the power exchange model face? How to meet the differentiated needs of various regions? Can the power exchange mode currently enter the promotion fast lane?

Beijing:

The queue for changing electricity has improved, and there are still gaps in Zhongguancun and other places

In Beijing, Aodong New Energy and Weilai Automobile basically occupy the majority of the power exchange market. Among them, Aodong mainly provides services for BAIC's taxis, and Weilai is almost the only civilian replacement brand. At present, NIO has laid 836 substations across the country, and 68 substations in Beijing, becoming the vanguard of private power exchanges.

Weilai customer service told reporters that downloading the mobile APP to make an appointment, the vehicle only needs 3 minutes to change the battery. It is said that many Weilai customers have been using it for several years after purchasing a car only by changing the power supply, and have not been charged. Is the reality really as beautiful as the customer service staff introduced?

On Saturday, February 19, Shell financial reporters drove to a Weilai replacement power station in Beijing, which can accommodate five batteries. The battery suitable for the reporter's driving model has been replaced, and two people are queuing, and the reporter learned that if there is a queue, it will take about an hour to wait.

Weilai APP shows that in the afternoon, a generation replacement power station 4.5 kilometers away can accommodate 5 batteries, and there are 3 batteries that can be replaced at that time. Another second-generation replacement power station 4.5 kilometers away can accommodate 12 batteries, but only 1 battery is left at the time, and there are still 3 owners queuing. Another second-generation replacement power station 6.3 kilometers away is in maintenance and needs to wait for about an hour to change the power.

The reporter found that if you are patiently searching, you can still find a suitable place to replace electricity in Chaoyang District and Fengtai District, but it is relatively difficult for the owner of Haidian.

According to the sales staff of Weilai, a large number of employees of science and technology companies have gathered in the northwest of Beijing, especially near Zhongguancun, whose acceptance of electric vehicles is very high, and the replacement power station is relatively more scarce, "In the future, we will continue to repair the power station in the northwest."

On Monday, February 21, the reporter followed a Weilai owner to drive the ES6 experience replacement station, and made an appointment for the nearest replacement power station, and the owner ranked fifth. After 15 minutes, the owner of the new station was in third place. After waiting for 15 minutes, the system notifies the owner to start changing the battery. The power exchange process took only a few minutes.

However, during the peak period, the queue for Weilai power station replacement is more serious. Li Bin, the founder of Weilai, said on the 2021 Weilai Day that more substations will be laid out in 2022.

The sales staff responded that when Weilai first implemented the power exchange, there were only about 100 substations in the country, when the owner crowd was relatively large, it was indeed impossible to cover all the owners, there would be a peak period for changing the power, the peak period of queuing, but now the Weilai power station continues to grow, and now in addition to some of the Weilai car owners gathering place, it can be said that there is basically no need to queue.

It is understood that at present, weilai replacement power station is divided into a generation and a second generation, a generation of replacement power station needs the owner and passengers to get off, the system will lift the car when changing the power, can accommodate less batteries; the second generation of replacement power station owners and passengers do not have to get off, the whole process of power exchange is carried out underground, and there are more batteries that can be accommodated. The first generation of power stations can support 60 car owners to change electricity every day, and the second generation of power stations can support 200 car owners to change power.

In the harsh winter, the evening temperature in Beijing is close to zero degrees Celsius, and the second-generation replacement power station is obviously more popular with car owners.

Compared with Weilai Automobile, which mainly serves the model of this brand, Aodong New Energy mainly provides taxi and online car services.

Taxi driver Mr. Zhang and his companions told Shell Financial Reporter that the taxi that replaced the battery has advantages and disadvantages, but the overall environment is improving. Mr. Zhang said that compared with fuel taxis, the cost of using electric taxis is lower, and now the price of oil is rising, and the price of No. 92 gasoline has reached 7.67 yuan / liter, compared with the current cost of changing power stations is 0.35 yuan / km, compared with the cost of fuel taxis with fuel consumption of about 7 liters per 100 kilometers, which has dropped by 30%.

However, at present, there is still room for improvement in the number and distribution of substations. Some drivers have called for more power stations to be built in Beijing, although there are almost no problems in spring, summer and autumn, but in winter, the fast power loss of the battery gives them a lot of pressure.

"Changing the power station to winter is not powerful, which is a special situation." There is no need to build a large number of replacement power stations, and it is also a problem to use them in the air at ordinary times. Mr. Zhang said.

"Things are much better this year." Another taxi driver, Mr. Li, told the Shell financial reporter, "Last winter, the queue was difficult, and this year there are more stations, and the queue is not so serious." In the winter, the company also gave some money to make up for it, and it felt that everything was developing for the better. ”

Tianjin:

In the morning peak, Weilai does not need to queue up for power exchange, and has basically been upgraded to the second generation

The reporter found in the interview that many car owners shuttled between Beijing, Tianjin and Hebei, and there was also a demand for new energy vehicles in Tianjin Hebei.

During the morning rush hour on the morning of February 21, Shell financial reporters visited several Weilai replacement power stations in Tianjin and found that no car owner had yet arrived at the station to change electricity. Shell financial reporter found through the Weilai App that most of the battery reserves of Tianjin Weilai Replacement Power Station during this period are about 10 pieces, and the number of queues is 0.

A staff member introduced that the distance within 500 meters of the substation can be reserved for the replacement of electricity, generally at noon and morning and evening rush hour to change the owner of the car more.

"There is an hour of rest at noon, and some car owners will come to change the battery, in addition to the morning and evening rush hours. At most, there will be 5 cars queuing, it takes 5 minutes to change the power, the owner has to wait for more than 20 minutes at the longest, you can choose the replacement station with the fewest people on the App. The staff said.

For the safety of charging and the battery life in winter, the staff said that the general power of the reserve battery for power replacement is not 100%, but 93%, "For the battery we have the corresponding quality standards, after using to a certain extent, we will replace the new battery into the station." On average, the loss of electricity per car owner's normal driving is generally between 18 and 22 degrees, and there may be a power failure in winter, which is a common problem of all trams, but the cost of electricity is also cheaper than the cost of fuel. If you do not change the power but charge, the charging pile in the most expensive period will cost about 60 yuan at a time. ”

Related enterprises have begun to lay out the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei market. At the end of 2019, in order to support the Green Winter Olympics and ensure the service of the Winter Olympics, Aodong New Energy launched business in Zhangjiakou City, Hebei Province, established a substation in Chongli area, and replaced 64 local electric taxis with power exchange services. In Tianjin, Aodong New Energy plans to build 17 substations within the year.

On the other hand, Weilai is also eating in the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei market. It is understood that Weilai's substation in Tianjin has basically been upgraded in the second generation, "the first generation of substation reserves 5 batteries, the upgraded second-generation substation reserves 13, and now the generation is basically upgrading to the second generation, for example, the substation in Red Star Macalline in Hedong District will be upgraded in March." Weilai sales staff told reporters.

Hebei:

The number of private power stations is small, and the off-duty shift is the peak period for power exchange

Shell financial reporters visited the Huanjing area of Hebei Province and found that compared with charging stations, the number of substations is small, mainly concentrated in urban areas, development zones and other places with more traffic.

It is worth mentioning that the reporter visited the second-tier cities in the Ring Beijing area of Hebei Province and found that because local taxis use natural gas as fuel, the urban area has not found a replacement power station such as Aodong New Energy that serves the public domain.

Relatively speaking, WEILAI Automobile's substation is more common, but the business is not busy. The reporter visited the Weilai Automobile Replacement Power Station and found that the replacement power station stored four batteries, but only one car came to the store for power exchange within half a day of the reporter's visit.

The staff of a Weilai automobile replacement power station told reporters, "Users use the APP reservation method, and make an appointment in the APP in advance when they need to change the power to avoid queuing, and it is the peak period for the power exchange after work at night." ”

The staff member also said that the substation is connected to the NIO car experience store, and there are many charging piles distributed around it, and there are more charging piles available for the NIO car in its urban area, so the number of people who change the power station is not as much as expected.

In fact, the coverage rate of pure electric vehicles in the Ring Beijing area of Hebei Province is relatively high, and the layout of charging piles is relatively dense, but the demand for private power exchange is relatively weak.

On the other hand, the replacement market for electric heavy trucks in Hebei has begun to take off. On February 8, the State Grid and Delong Iron and Steel jointly built the first heavy-duty truck charging and replacement power station in Hebei South Grid. As a leading enterprise in Xingtai, Hebei Province, Delong Steel will gradually eliminate LNG energy vehicles, upgrade all diesel transport heavy trucks into electric heavy trucks, build a green transport structure, and promote green and low-carbon development.

The electric heavy-duty truck charging and replacing power station built this time includes 2 substations, 10 charging piles, and a total capacity of 8000kVA, which can meet the daily demand for cleaning and transportation of electric heavy-duty truck charging and replacing.

investigate:

Replace the wind outlet of the power station, and the development model will trigger discussion

The reporter learned that Weilai car owners can choose to install 1 charging pile for free and enjoy free power exchange services 4 times a month, and can also choose not to install charging piles but send 6 free power exchanges per month.

"Assuming that each power change is about 400 kilometers, 6 times a month is 2400 kilometers, which can fully cover normal life." The sales staff calculated an account for the reporter, after exceeding the number of free times, the price of the power exchange is basically equal to the charging price of the State Grid, about 100 yuan-180 yuan each time.

Can this power swap mode be replicated on a large scale?

An industry insider told Shell Financial Reporter that Aodong New Energy pays attention to the development of the power exchange business model. At present, Aodong adopts a kilometer-based pricing model in Beijing, which greatly improves the driving experience of rental and online car-hailing, whether it is summer air conditioning or winter heating, users can enjoy it with confidence.

Aodong insiders told reporters that the company has raised more than 3.5 billion yuan in total, but the biggest problem facing the construction of the substation is the coordination of all parties: store leasing, grass-roots unit coordination, grid expansion, etc. are all problems encountered when building new substations. He said that he hopes that enterprises and government parties will work together to form an interaction and promote the benign development of power exchange. Special subsidies can also be set up to allow enterprises to alleviate some phased operational pressures.

Soochow Securities believes that 2022 is the first year of the power station release, with the gradual improvement of the mainland policy, many parties can benefit from the power exchange model, and the power exchange ushers in the development of the outlet. Huaxi Securities believes that based on the growth trend of demand for new energy vehicles, it is expected that in 2025, the number of new domestic substations will reach more than 9,000.

CITIC Securities believes that from the perspective of operating market space, it is expected that the total market space for domestic power exchange operations is expected to reach 60.5 billion yuan in 2025, and the charging operation market is about 173 billion yuan.

Despite the much attention, not all people in the industry are optimistic about the promotion of the power exchange model. Auto industry analyst Zhong Shi believes that car owners are more concerned about whether private cars are better to use the power exchange mode in the future, but in fact, once the power exchange mode is started, the most suitable customer must be the commercial fleet, including large taxi companies, city buses, logistics vehicles, intercity or inter-provincial transport trucks, environmental protection vehicles in the city, ambulances, school buses, which are very suitable for electrification.

Zhong Shi further explained that these commercial vehicles are larger in scale and more uniform in models, and can quickly calculate how many batteries need to be prepared, can have their own charging and replacing power stations, and have the opportunity to develop into a large-scale and systematic service system.

"The current concern about whether private cars can be replaced may be the latest to be implemented, and it is also the least likely mode." Zhong Shi said.

Beijing News shell financial reporter Lin Zi Wang Linlin Bai Haotian Luo Yidan Editor Xu Chao Proofreader Liu Baoqing