The commercialization of new energy vehicle power exchange accelerates

At the Tianjin Jinmen Lake New Energy Vehicle Comprehensive Service Center, robots are charging a new energy vehicle. The center provides five charging methods: automatic robot charging, wireless charging, plug and charge, automatic power exchange, and manual charging.

Photo by Xinhua News Agency reporter Li Ran

On March 24, the Weilai Station Charging and Replacing Power Station located on the left side of the Xingtang RT-Mart Parking Plant in Suzhou, Jiangsu Province, was launched, which is the 866th weilai automobile substation. With the state clearly encouraging the promotion and application of the power exchange model, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology launched the pilot application of the new energy vehicle power exchange mode in 11 cities, and the entry of industry giants such as Ningde Times and Geely, the once unpromising power exchange model has returned to people's vision. Some institutions said that this year will become the first year of the rapid development of the mainland power exchange industry.

Re-recognize the advantages of power exchange

"Into the warehouse, power exchange, out of the warehouse", the whole process is automated, the whole process is less than 5 minutes, a new energy vehicle can be fully charged again, which is a habitual scene for many Weilai car owners.

"Compared with charging, the advantage of power exchange is that it can achieve rapid energy replenishment, battery upgrade, battery health detection, rapid recovery of battery packs, and flexible power exchangers for users to use on demand." Talking about the advantages of power exchange, Shen Fei, senior vice president of WEILAI Energy, explained that this is not only the only power-up means that can be compared with the refueling speed of oil trucks, but also the cost of battery upgrade based on the power exchange network, which is far lower than the battery upgrade based on the conventional car maintenance system.

At the same time, users can also choose the appropriate battery according to their needs at different stages and different car use scenarios. "This not only improves the user experience, but also improves the efficiency of battery use, and there is no need to carry a large battery that costs a lot of money all the time." Shen Fei calculated an account for the reporter, in the initial purchase cost of electric vehicles, power batteries account for about 40%, and the charging mode of "vehicle and electricity integration" makes the cost of the vehicle rise significantly, and in the vehicle-electricity separation mode, the purchase price of electric vehicles can be reduced by up to half. Especially in the field of heavy trucks, taxis, and online ride-hailing, it can improve operational efficiency and make economic benefits more obvious. In addition, battery materials can also be incorporated into the circular economy, further improving environmental efficiency.

In fact, as early as 2011, the State Grid determined the basic commercial operation mode of electric vehicles as follows: power exchange as the mainstay, plug-in charging as a supplement, centralized charging, and unified distribution. For example, the construction of charging and replacing power stations near substations can avoid impacting the distribution network; urban centers can rely on substations in the suburbs to build centralized battery charging stations. Unfortunately, the original concept of "cutting peaks and filling valleys" failed to usher in the response of the industry.

Weilai's layout of the power station was once considered to be a transaction that smashed money and lost money. However, on October 20, 2020, the General Office of the State Council issued the "New Energy Vehicle Industry Development Plan (2021-2035)", which clearly encouraged the promotion and application of the power exchange model; after the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology launched the pilot application of the new energy vehicle power exchange mode, everything began to change.

On January 18 this year, CATL officially cut into the electric vehicle replacement track and launched the combined power exchange solution of EVOGO, a power exchange service brand, and "chocolate power exchange block". Six days later, Geely and Lifan announced the establishment of Chongqing Ruilan Automobile Technology Co., Ltd., which also entered the power exchange market.

"The addition of the giant Ningde era has not occupied the space of the power exchange market, but has broadened the track and allowed the power exchange enterprises to have more room for development." The person in charge of Aodong New Energy said, "After the Ningde era entered the power exchange track, our business progressed more smoothly, and many partners such as FAW and GAC took the initiative to discuss the development of the power exchange model. ”

CITIC Securities believes that 2022 is expected to become the first year of rapid development of the power exchange industry, and it is expected to add more than 3,000 new substations throughout the year, and it is expected to exceed 10,000 in 2025. CICC calculated in the relevant research report that the number of substations by 2025 will be about 12,500 to 51,900. In the long run, the country needs 550,000 passenger car replacement power stations and 60,000 heavy truck replacement power stations, corresponding to a total of 1.8 trillion yuan of substation equipment and grid-side equipment.

Three major difficulties need to be broken through urgently

The number and use of new energy vehicles has grown rapidly, and the demand for charging and power exchange services has also increased. However, it is undeniable that in the entire life cycle and ecological construction of the separation of vehicle and electricity, some supporting policies and measures need to be broken through urgently. Li Shufu, chairman of Geely Group, said that first of all, in the relevant aspects of the construction and management of the substation, the substation as a heavy asset investment, the land is mostly leased, there are few land options, and there are many restrictions on land approval. At the same time, 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 limited land and power resources between the contradiction is further highlighted.

Secondly, in terms of national standards, in addition to the three mandatory national standards issued by the National Standards Commission and the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology in May 2020, "Electric Vehicle Safety Requirements", "Electric Bus Safety Requirements" and "Electric Vehicle Power Battery Safety Requirements", most of the other are recommended standards and industry standards released in previous years, which need to be revised and improved in today's rapid development of new technologies and new situations.

Taking the current car announcement model as an example, it is announced on the whole vehicle (including battery) as a whole. However, in vehicle-to-electric separation mode, a power-swapping model will match multiple batteries, and a battery will also match multiple models. If the three cars can correspond to the three batteries, then the three cars need to be announced 9 times, and new batteries are developed and need to be re-announced. If you are going to develop a new model, you need to make an announcement on all the batteries that can be matched.

In addition, the research and development 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. The low degree of standardization of the battery replacement also restricts multiple brand models from sharing the same power station, which delays the development process of the power station. The adaptation of the power exchange mode requires car companies and battery companies to jointly promote, if there is no standard promotion, the car company brands will still use different power exchange interfaces, can not complete the adaptation.

Increase the frequency of resource utilization

Any business model can only be sustained if it is profitable. Compared with charging, due to the larger upfront investment, the most troublesome charging enterprises at present is undoubtedly how to achieve profitability. In this regard, Chen Weifeng, general manager of Ningde Times Electric Service, said: "From the perspective of the commercial plan of the Ningde era, the more cars that change the power station to replace the battery, the opportunity to achieve profitability. Under the standardization, there will be more models to replace the battery, and we are more confident about this. ”

Shen Fei told reporters that the capacity demand of Weilai's second-generation replacement power station is similar to that of about 10 supercharged piles, but it only accounts for 4 parking spaces, while 10 supercharged piles need 10 parking spaces. Under the same footprint, the service capacity of the second-generation substation is about twice that of the supercharging station. In addition to rapid energy replenishment, the substation can also realize battery upgrades, battery health detection, rapid recovery of battery packs, and flexible power exchangers for users to use on demand. On the whole, as long as there is a certain demand for user power exchange, the cost per kilowatt hour of electricity, charging and power exchange is basically the same. If you consider battery upgrades, battery testing, rapid recycling, etc., the economy of the replacement power station will be better.

"Accelerating the standardization and generalization of power exchange models is a prerequisite for achieving profitability." Li Shufu believes that at present, it is necessary to promote the standardization of the software and hardware protocol of the power exchange interface, promote the standardization of the battery pack, so that the battery pack can really be interchanged between different car companies, different power stations, and different users, and improve the efficiency of resource utilization.

Xu Yanhua, secretary general of the China Electric Vehicle Charging Infrastructure Promotion Alliance, believes that promoting the standardization of battery packs from the replacement model can not only avoid the embarrassment of incompatibility of the replacement power station and the inability of consumers to see the station, but also help enterprises to improve the frequency of power exchange, form a scale effect, and run through the business model. (Economic Daily reporter Yang Zhongyang)