Everyone thinks that when the power exchange model is at the end of the road, taxis bring new life

Since its birth, the tram has faced an ultimate problem: battery life.

There are two ways to solve this problem, one is to make the capacity of the battery larger. For example, the GAC Aean LX PLUS, which was recently on the list of vehicle purchase tax exemptions from the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, achieved an endurance of 1008 kilometers by making the battery 144.4kWh.

However, the volume of the battery pack on the car cannot be increased indefinitely, and the battery capacity depends more on the energy density of the battery. The previously mentioned LX PLUS uses the "silicon anode" technology, and although the battery capacity has increased, it is comparable to the 100kWh battery.

But silicon anode technology is only the icing on the cake of existing battery technology, and it is really necessary to make a breakthrough in the energy density of the battery, which is more dependent on solid-state battery technology. However, the research and development progress of solid-state batteries is not optimistic, and it is expected to take more than a decade to fully popularize.

Since the battery capacity can not go up temporarily, it is necessary to speed up the charging speed, only charging is as fast as refueling, the endurance is shorter, and the relationship is not big. Another solution is high-voltage fast charging, such as Tesla's V3 overcharge, the maximum charging power can reach 250kW, 15 minutes can add about 250 kilometers of cruising range for the vehicle.

However, in the real use scenario, it is difficult for fast charging to continue to run with the maximum charging power, and the actual experience is not so good.

In this case, some car companies have proposed a power exchange mode, like the mobile phone with removable battery in the past, there is no power, and they directly go to the power station to change a fully charged battery. Because the battery design of this model is more complex, the cost of building a replacement power station is also higher than that of the charging pile, such as the Weilai replacement power station, the initial cost of a single seat is about 3 million, and the cost of the second generation of the replacement power station is about 150, so few car companies use the power exchange mode.

Of course, the essence of power exchange is only a transition between fast charging and solid-state battery technology, so some companies are not very willing to invest in this transition technology, just as some car companies prefer direct electrification to hybrid technology.

Among the mainstream car companies, in addition to Weilai, most of the models that support power exchange are customized cars for the taxi and online car industry.

From the perspective of the average consumer, the power exchange model seems to be at the end of the road.

However, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology does not seem to think so. On October 28, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology issued the "Notice on Launching the Pilot Work on the Application of the New Energy Vehicle Power Exchange Mode", and the power exchange mode seems to have ushered in a new turnaround.

The first is the promotion of models, including passenger cars, commercial vehicles, and heavy trucks. We believe that operating vehicles such as taxis are suitable for power exchange mode, and in fact, heavy trucks are also very suitable for power exchange mode.

The pilot cities for passenger cars and commercial vehicles include Beijing, Nanjing, Wuhan, Sanya, Chongqing, Changchun, Hefei and Jinan, in addition to the northwest region, East China, South China, Central China, North China, Southwest China, Southwest China and Northeast China are all included, covering most of the domestic regions, which is very universal.

The pilot cities for heavy trucks are Yibin, Tangshan and Baotou

The Notice is good news for NIO, especially since the pilot cities include Beijing. In April this year, the Jimei Home Energy Storage Power Station in Beijing's Fengtai District caught fire and exploded, hindering the implementation of energy storage and power exchange projects in northwest Beijing. At least this notice, Weilai car owners in the northwest of Beijing can have a few more replacement power stations.

I believe you have found that although the promotion models in the "Notice" of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology include buses and commercial vehicles, I mentioned weilai the most.

This is mainly because in the current power exchange models, Weilai occupies the vast majority. Since the replacement models of other brands are mainly operating vehicles, few people have cared about the sales of these models in the past, but in the background of the pilot of this "Notice", we know that the total sales of the current power replacement models are 150,000.

You know, in May this year, Weilai's cumulative sales have exceeded 100,000 vehicles, and by October, this number has exceeded 140,000 vehicles. Although we do not know the deadline for sales statistics in the "Notice", it is not difficult for us to conclude that most of the trams running on the domestic roads are Weilai.

As for why taxis bring new life to the power exchange model. This is mainly determined by the mode of operation of taxis. For taxis that operate twice-shifts 2/7, fuel/electricity bills are just as important as time. Although trams reduce the cost of traveling per kilometer, the charging time of one or two hours will reduce the total revenue per taxi, so taxis are very suitable for power exchange mode.

Faw Group, which entered the power exchange field this year, the first power exchange model is the Besturn NAT, which is positioned as an operating vehicle, and delivered 500 vehicles to Liaoyuan City at one time in September this year, while the total scheduled volume is 2,000 vehicles. In addition to passenger cars, FAW Group also signed a one-time contract with Tangshan City for 2,000 Jiefang J6P electric replacement tractors and delivered the first batch of vehicles.

When there are more car companies that implement the power exchange model, they have to consider the problem of standards. The "Notice" also proposes to formulate standards for the safety, interface, battery box and battery of the power exchange. In the future, between models of different brands, it is likely to support the exchange of batteries.

In addition, the power exchange mode also has a question that many consumers question: what if my new car is replaced by someone else's old battery?

For this, the solution given by Weilai is that the battery is sold separately from the body, and consumers can choose to only buy the body and rent to the battery, so that the battery does not belong to itself, as long as the capacity of the battery is enough, the new and old batteries do not matter. This is also supported in the Notice.

Up to now, Weilai has built more than 600 substations, of which 400 were newly built this year, and in the rapid development of the construction of weilai power exchange network, the entry of the taxi industry and the "notice" of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology have injected another dose of strengthening agent into Weilai.

Before the popularization of solid-state batteries and overcharge, perhaps we can really refuel trams like refueling.