The power exchange mode of new energy vehicles is gradually catching fire, and the system construction needs to be accelerated

According to statistics released by the Ministry of Public Security, by the end of 2021, the number of new energy vehicles in the country will reach 7.84 million, of which 6.4 million are pure electric vehicles, accounting for 81.63%. At the same time, the number of charging piles in the country in 2021 is 2.617 million units, but the number of substations in the country is only 1192. It can be seen that the substation is far slower than the layout speed of the charging pile.

Li Shufu, a deputy to the National People's Congress and chairman of Geely Holding Group, said on March 2 that the core of the future development of the automobile industry is electrification and intelligence, and it is necessary to promote the accelerated development of human-computer interaction, automatic driving and energy technology. It is recommended to accelerate the construction of electric vehicle power exchange system and accelerate the standardization and generalization of power exchange mode.

The advantages of power exchange are highlighted

Compared with the traditional charging pile power supply mode, the vehicle-power separation power exchange mode has the advantages of efficient energy replenishment and cost reduction. In terms of efficient energy replenishment, passenger cars only need about 1-5 minutes to change electricity, which has an absolute advantage compared with traditional charging piles; in terms of cost, the initial purchase cost of electric vehicles, power batteries account for about 40%, and in the vehicle-electricity separation mode, the purchase cost of electric vehicles can be reduced by up to half.

In the 2020 government work report of the two sessions of the National People's Congress, Premier Li Keqiang proposed the construction of "two new and one heavy", clearly including the replacement power station in the scope of new infrastructure construction, and the power exchange mode and the charging mode complement each other, jointly promote the popularization process of new energy vehicles in the mainland, and achieve the national strategic goal of the mainland automobile industry from large to strong. On October 20, 2020, the General Office of the State Council issued the "On Printing and Distributing the Development Plan for the New Energy Vehicle Industry (2021-2035)", which clearly encourages the promotion and application of the power exchange model. In the 2021 government work report of the two sessions of the National People's Congress, Premier Li Keqiang once again proposed: to increase parking lots, charging piles, replacement power stations and other facilities, and accelerate the construction of a power battery recycling system.

However, in the entire life cycle link and ecological construction of vehicle-electricity separation, there are still some supporting policies and measures that need to be broken through. First of all, in the relevant links of the construction and management of the substation, the substation is a heavy asset investment, the land is mostly leased, there are few land options, and there are many restrictions on land approval. Secondly, limited by the versatility of cross-brand, multi-model, power exchange platform and device technology, power exchange battery pack communication protocol, electrical connector technology, etc., a power exchange station can only serve a single vehicle brand or even a single model, resulting in the increasing demand for station construction and the contradiction between limited land and power resources is further highlighted.

In addition, the lack of power exchange standards makes it impossible for car companies to use different power exchange interfaces and cannot be adapted. The R&D direction and progress of each battery manufacturer are different, and the energy density, battery structure, size specifications and other aspects of power battery products cannot be unified, resulting in the difficulty of forming a scale effect in the power exchange mode.

Swap mode is becoming a trend

It can be seen that the sustainable development of the power exchange model requires the cooperation of government departments, industry associations and enterprises to jointly promote. The National Standards Commission issued the "Electric Vehicle Replacement Safety Requirements" standard, which was implemented on November 1 last year, which is the first basic universal national standard for electric vehicle power exchange mode. On May 20 last year, the National Development and Reform Commission and the National Energy Administration issued the Implementation Opinions on Further Improving the Service Guarantee Capacity of Charging and Replacing Infrastructure (Draft for Comments), indicating that it is necessary to optimize the layout of urban and rural public charging and replacement network construction, improve the promotion mechanism for the construction of charging piles in residential communities, strengthen the innovation and standard support of charging and replacement technology, and accelerate the promotion and application of the power exchange model.

In order to better promote the development of the electric vehicle industry, on December 20, the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers (China Charging Alliance) "Electric Passenger Car Sharing and Replacement Power Station Construction Specifications" series of group standards were officially released. The introduction of this series of group standards not only regulates the key core components, technical requirements and general processes of electric passenger car sharing and replacement power stations in detail, but also classifies, regulates and requires quick changers, communication protocols, locking mechanisms, data management, test rules and safety protection.

With the gradual recognition of the power exchange mode and the support of a number of policies, a number of enterprises have carried out the research and development and layout of the power exchange mode. Dongfeng, Weilai, Aodong, BAIC, Changan, SAIC, Geely and other enterprises have cut into the power exchange track, including the battery head enterprise Ningde Times also announced that it has cut into the power exchange track. NIO announced that it will lay out more than 4,000 substations worldwide by the end of 2025; Aodong New Energy said it will complete the construction target of 10,000 substations within 5 years. Geely Group plans to complete 35 substations in Chongqing this year, and at present, Geely has signed more than 1,000 substations nationwide, and it is expected that at least 5,000 substations will be built in 2025.

In view of the various problems faced by the current power exchange model, at the two sessions of the National People's Congress, Li Shufu put forward three suggestions: First of all, we must speed up the clarification of the relevant provisions of the construction of the substation, the change of high and low pressure boxes, and the approval of land and construction, and incorporate them into the national market management standard system. It is recommended that the government open up resource access and support for public parking lots, effectively and reasonably optimize the allocation of land resources, optimize the approval process for high-voltage new installation (capacity increase) of power exchange projects, implement the requirements for compressing the time limit for application, open up multiple households at one site, and accelerate the construction cycle.

Secondly, Li Shufu suggested that we should further improve the relevant policies and regulations of the power exchange model, optimize the announcement regulations of the power exchange model, establish an exclusive announcement certification system for the power exchange model, and form a separate certification of the car and the battery under the separation of vehicle electricity. At the same time, we will further improve the national traceability system for new energy vehicles, and optimize the adaptation of vehicle-to-electricity separation mode (such as vehicle-to-electricity separation insurance).

In addition, Li Shufu also suggested accelerating the standardization and generalization of power exchange modes. Promote the standardization of software and hardware protocols for power exchange interfaces, preset 2-3 technically advanced interface forms to formulate recommended standards; standardize the mechanism, form and compatibility of power exchange stations, so that technologically advanced power exchange stations can be given priority recommendations; promote the standardization of power exchange battery packs, so that power exchange battery packs can truly be interchanged between different car companies, different power stations and different users.

With the rapid development of new energy vehicles, how to make the replenishment of new energy vehicles gradually convenient is a practical problem that needs to be solved urgently. The change in the way of energy replenishment will promote the construction of power exchange facilities, and will further promote the growth of demand for power exchange modes. It is foreseeable that in the rapidly developing new energy vehicle market, there will be many new opportunities in the field of power exchange.

Responsible Editor: Li Yan'an Editor-in-Chief: Yu Jianping