Text/Wang Haikun
The signal of the power exchange policy was released, and various princes entered the game one after another, and Sinopec rode on the dust.
From more than 700 to 22,000!
From 2021 to 2025, the latest authoritative forecast is that the number of substations nationwide will increase by 28 times in five years... This jaw-dropping speed is about to unfold before people's eyes.
As if a spring breeze came overnight, the replacement power station bloomed everywhere like a hundred flowers on the land of China. And just a year or two ago, such a sight seemed unimaginable.
The battery change is coming
The power change is really coming, and this time it is different from the past.
At the site of the replacement station of the Petrochina Tianjin Petroleum Yinhe Bridge gas station, the reporter witnessed the cool power exchange scene:
Ready to change the owner of a Weilai car click on the park button, the vehicle slowly drove into the replacement cabin of the replacement power station, after the vehicle parking into place, according to the voice prompt, the owner pressed the confirmation of the power exchange button, the replacement station duty commissioner clicked on the display screen on the side of the replacement cabin to confirm, the owner does not have to get off, the vehicle replacement battery program starts ——
The four wheels and chassis of the vehicle are fine-tuned to the standard power exchange position under the action of the automatic program, and the manipulator of the automatic power exchange platform rises to the standard position and begins to screw the screws of the battery compartment of the vehicle chassis... After the battery is synchronously exchanged through the dual-track entry and exit warehouse, the manipulator of the automatic power exchange platform tightens all the screws of the chassis of the vehicle that has replaced the battery, and the power exchange is completed, and the Weilai car drives out of the replacement cabin...
The reporter looked at the time, which took 4 minutes and 30 seconds.
The second generation of NIO was officially opened at the Yinheqiao Gas Station on September 16, 2021, and is the first charging and substation project jointly built by Tianjin Petroleum and Tianjin NIO New Energy Technology Co., Ltd.
"This substation is about 130 square meters, in addition to the substation itself covers an area of 60 square meters, other supporting facilities also occupy a certain area." Wang Lianzhong, secretary of the northeast branch of Sinopec Tianjin Petroleum Branch, told reporters.
According to reports, the second generation of Weilai replacement power station on the gas station of Yinhe Bridge was born in response to the background of cooperation between Sinopec and NIO. The battery compartment can store up to 13 batteries, and the daily service capacity can reach up to 312 times, which is more than 3 times higher than the first generation of replacement power stations. At present, there are two kinds of batteries in the second generation replacement power station, one is a 70-degree battery, which has 10 pieces; the other is a 100-degree battery, which has 3 pieces. The experimental data of the cruising range are 420 km and 580 km, respectively.
"Through practice, a 70-degree battery is no problem to run 370-380 kilometers." Zhu Jia, the on-duty commissioner of the Yinhe Bridge Replacement Power Station of Tianjin Petroleum Branch, said, "The most important thing is that 4 minutes and 30 seconds is the total time for parking and entering the position, the vehicle is out of the cabin and changing the power, and the time to replace the battery is actually only 3 minutes, which can be completely PK with the time of vehicle refueling." ”
The cost of replacing the owner's electricity is also completely acceptable. "When the owner buys the Weilai car, he can choose the battery rental form of 980 yuan a month, so that the owner can get a free battery replacement at the replacement power station 4-6 times a month." If you want to change the battery outside of this number of times, you need to charge another fee, the price is 1.8 yuan for 1 kWh of electricity, and it takes 180 yuan to change a battery of 100 kWh. Zhu Jia said.
It is precisely because of various advantages that since the date of the launch of the Yinhe Bridge Replacement Power Station, the power exchange business has shown a relatively saturated state, except for the charging period, 13 batteries are rarely shelved after full power.
Different from the first generation of replacement power stations, the second generation of Weilai power station, although there is also a replacement duty commissioner, but the power exchange duty commissioner is only responsible for supervision, inspection and management, in case the driver friend who comes to change the power has an urgent need to help deal with it. For example, in the process of changing the power, the driver master inadvertently opens the door, causing the vehicle to be interrupted in the process of changing the power, which requires the emergency handling of the duty commissioner.
"There are four AI biological eyes at the top of the four corners of the replacement cabin, which will monitor every detail in the power exchange process at any time, including whether the owner opens the window and sticks the body out of such details, and the AI biological eyes will immediately alarm and stop the power exchange." Zhu Jia told reporters, "Of course, in the event of any other unexpected situation, it is not conducive to the owner of the key to change the power, as a duty commissioner, we can also switch the power exchange mode to manual mode at any time to help the owner complete the power exchange." ”
It took only more than two years from 2018 when NIO invested in the construction of the first generation of replacement power stations and was upgraded to the second generation of WEILAI in May 2021. "The speed at which Weilai upgrades the power station is very fast. According to this momentum, it may take two years to upgrade to the third generation of replacement power plants. Zhu Jia said that if the third generation of replacement power stations appears, the replacement duty commissioner will be completely cancelled, and Weilai will set up 1-3 maintenance engineers in several replacement power stations in a large area.
A new war situation under policy signals
Sinopec and Weilai, which cooperate in the layout of the power station, are only one of the protagonists in this power exchange wave. The giants of many sectors are actively deploying in this wave.
In fact, such a surging tide of power exchange has made the former "potential stock" quickly transform into a "new track", which is closely related to the relevant policies introduced by the state in the past two years.
As early as the "Government Work Report" of the two sessions of the National People's Congress in 2020, the "new energy vehicle charging and replacing infrastructure" was listed as one of the seven important areas of new infrastructure. The Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, the National Energy Administration and other ministries and commissions have also clearly pointed out many times that they should actively support the innovation of charging and replacing business models to help achieve "carbon peaking" and "carbon neutrality".
On April 23, 2020, the Ministry of Finance and other four ministries and commissions jointly issued a new policy on new energy subsidies, clearly pointing out that new energy vehicles with a starting price of more than 300,000 yuan will no longer enjoy subsidies, but the vehicles that support the power exchange mode are exceptions, so as to encourage the development of a new business model of "power exchange".
After more than a year of warm-up, on October 28, 2021, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology issued a special notice and decided to start the pilot work of the application of the new energy vehicle power exchange mode, and 11 cities were included in the scope of the pilot. The circular clearly requires that "strengthen policy implementation, model exploration, innovation support, and accelerate the formation of replicable and generalizable experiences."
This was immediately seen by the industry as a policy signal that the replacement power station was about to usher in an outbreak.
As a result, many capitals and enterprises in the power exchange industry chain began to enter the market rapidly, including green power companies, oil companies, substation operation service providers, vehicle companies, power battery companies and so on.
SPC plans to increase investment by 2025, holding 4,000 substations. At present, as many as 66 have been signed in the layout of substations nationwide;
The State Grid has also invested in the construction of 100 substations across the country, serving no less than 10,000 power exchange vehicles;
GCL Energy, a comprehensive clean energy service provider, plans to put into operation more than 5,000 substations by 2025;
Sinopec plans to build 5,000 rechargeable power stations by 2025;
NIO plans to build more than 4,000 substations by the end of 2025, and has invested in the construction of nearly 800 substations nationwide;
Geely Automobile plans to complete more than 200 substations by 2023;
Changan New Energy said that in the next five years, it will build a total of 100 substations in Chongqing with its power exchange alliance partners;
PetroChina is also involved, and at the end of last year, the first second-generation charging and replacement power station cooperated by PetroChina and NIO was inaugurated and put into operation in Xianyang, Shaanxi. In Chongqing, PetroChina cooperated with Chang'an New Energy to build the first "refueling + power exchange" integrated energy supply station;
…… ……
Entering 2022, on January 18, the power battery company Ningde Times released the power exchange brand EVOGO, officially entering the power exchange market. "Ning Wang" entered the game and stirred up the market storm, and many observers and the media believed that it was likely that the power exchange plate would open a new chapter.
At this time, the policy "east wind" is still blowing.
On January 21 this year, the National Development and Reform Commission and other departments issued the "Implementation Plan for Promoting Green Consumption", which proposed to strengthen the construction of supporting infrastructure such as charging and replacing electricity, new energy storage, and hydrogenation; and promote the pilot work of the application of new energy vehicle power exchange mode...
Immediately after that, the State Council recently issued the "14th Five-Year Plan" to promote the modernization of agriculture and rural areas, which proposes to improve the construction of charging and replacing infrastructure in counties and central towns.
Therefore, relevant industry institutions estimate that the compound growth rate of power station construction, operation and power exchange equipment in 2021-2025 will reach 80% to 107%, and the power exchange model will also enter a period of rapid growth throughout the "14th Five-Year Plan" period.
However, Weilai has planned to build more than 4,000 substations by the end of 2025, and actively participates in the construction of its own power exchange network in various provinces and cities across the country, so why should it be "tied" to Sinopec and become the protagonist of this power exchange wave?
This has to mention Sinopec's "innate advantage" - it has about 30,700 retail gas stations in the country, and the advantages of outlets and locations are very obvious. Not only can it provide a spacious site space, sufficient power capacity and convenient transportation conditions for the substation, but also involve site approval and related supporting facilities, sinopec also has a rare natural advantage. These core resource advantages can be used to make up for Weilai's own shortcomings and pain points.
With the second generation of substations put into use, NIO has become the world's first mass-produced station cloud fusion AVP solution. Power exchange is an extremely important part of its energy replenishment system, which directly affects the market share and market competitiveness of its new energy vehicles. "Bundling" with Sinopec allows WEILAI to build substations based on more gas stations, greatly reducing construction and operating costs, which is conducive to the rapid expansion of substations and can quickly seize greater weight in the power exchange market. At the same time, the Sinopec brand can also be used to improve the car experience of car owners.
Sinopec Speed
Sinopec, which is "tied" to Weilai, has performed more brightly among the many giants that have entered the game.
On December 8, 2021, Sinopec's 1,000th charging and replacing power station was officially completed and put into operation. In the change of electric war game, it can be described as a ride in the dust.
In fact, Sinopec's first fully intelligent substation, Sinopec Chaoying Station, was officially put into operation on April 15, 2021. In just over half a year, Sinopec has built and put into operation 1,000 charging and replacing power stations!
Since the official commissioning of Sinopec Chaoying Station on April 15 last year, on April 18, Sinopec Shanxi Taiyuan Petroleum Riverside Charging and Swapping Power Station was put into operation; on June 5, Sinopec Xiong'an New Area Substation was put into operation... By the end of June last year, Sinopec had built a total of 521 charging stations and 5 replacement power stations.
On July 20 last year, Sinopec and Aodong New Energy strategically cooperated with the substation in Shanghai and Chongqing. On this basis, the two sides jointly signed the Strategic Agreement on Deepening the Cooperation Model to continue to accelerate the cooperation layout of substations in the Shanghai area in 2021.
Since then, on August 26, Sinopec Liaoning's first WEILAI Automobile Second Generation Replacement Power Station was officially opened at Shenggang Station; on August 31, the first charging and swapping integrated station built by Sinopec and NIO in Hainan Island was officially put into operation; at the end of August, Sinopec Guangdong Petroleum and NIO cooperated to start construction of four substations in Guangzhou, Shenzhen and Dongguan; on September 16, Sinopec Tianjin Petroleum and Tianjin NIO New Energy Technology Co., Ltd. signed a strategic cooperation framework agreement, and the first charging and substation project jointly built by the two sides was operated at Yinheqiao Station On September 26, Sinopec and Geely Group cooperated to build the first energy station of the power exchange project- the 58th comprehensive energy station in Jinan, Shandong Province, and on October 18, the first fully intelligent substation cooperated by Sinopec Jiangsu Petroleum and NIO was officially put into operation at Nanjing Petroleum Puzhu Station...
Entering 2022, Sinopec's momentum has not diminished, and on January 24, Sinopec's first charging and replacement station in Heilongjiang and currently the highest latitude of Sinopec was officially launched at the Harbin Petroleum Yuejin Gas Station.
This is the speed of Sinopec!
People familiar with the situation said that the cooperation between Sinopec and NIO is not only of landmark significance, but also a complementary advantage.
"2021 is a good opportunity for the whole Sinopec, the transformation trend of traditional energy has been very obvious, diesel sales have fallen sharply is an indisputable fact, as far as Tianjin Petroleum is concerned, diesel sales this year fell by about 30%. The formation of this state is based on the influence of a variety of factors, which have a lot to do with the development momentum of new energy. Yang Jun, manager of the development planning department of Sinopec Tianjin Petroleum Branch, said, "The development speed and scale of electric vehicles are what we did not expect in the past. In the case of Tianjin, the increasing proportion of electric vehicles used, coupled with the construction of urban subways, has formed a significant impact on the sales of traditional oil products in gas stations. ”
Yang Jun said that before the popularity of hydrogen fuel cell vehicles, electric vehicles showed a better and better development momentum. For some time, the energy storage of the battery is regarded as a problem that needs to be overcome, but the situation has changed significantly at present, the charging pile has developed from slow charging to fast charging, overcharging, and the replacement power station has turned out, and in rapid development, Sinopec must seize the opportunity to quickly keep up!
"At present, our new energy sector is developing rapidly!" Yan Guiyan, who has been committed to the development of the new energy sector of Sinopec Tianjin Petroleum Branch in the past few years, is currently the director of the company's development planning department, and she feels deeply about the comparison between the present and the past. "In 2018 and 2019, we still felt that new energy was very far away from us, but in 2021, the situation suddenly changed." In 2021, Tianjin Petroleum will be tasked with building 15 charging and replacing power stations. ”
Yan Guiyan said that with the increase in the number of power exchanges in the station of NIO and the evolution of related trends, Tianjin Petroleum will consider the extension and development of the service chain related to NIO, such as auto services.
"For the changes in the development trend of new energy, we will follow up at any time, and at present, the Yinheqiao gas station is easy to carve out a place to do a power station because the site is relatively large." For those gas stations that do not have advantages in the space of the core area of the city, we will also consider in the future, such as filling the original part of the oil tank with sand, and still be able to change the power station or fast-charging pile outside the reasonable safety spacing range. Yan Guiyan said.
It is understood that the construction cost of a Weilai generation replacement power station is about 3 million yuan. The cost of the Weilai second-generation replacement power station has dropped by a large piece because almost all the components are localized, but the input cost is still about 1.8 million to 2.4 million yuan. If Sinopec is on the way to accelerate the transformation from traditional oil sales to integrated energy service providers, develop new businesses such as substations and high-power DC fast charging, and choose to rely on its own strength, the input cost can be imagined. Adopting the cooperation route of introducing technology and funds and leveraging external resource input will greatly reduce costs, not only can achieve rapid transformation and upgrading of core resources, use their own network advantages in the country, quickly coordinate the layout of charging and replacing power stations, and summarize experience while not hurting the bones because of the big action. It can be said that the best results were achieved at the tide of the times at the lowest cost.
At present, Sinopec Tianjin's gas station and WEIlai cooperate to change the power station, the cooperation mode is still limited to the gas station out of the site, collect rent, and the replacement power station is all built by Weilai, that is to say, the two sides are still in a stage of cooperation. Trying to take the first step first makes a lot of sense for gas stations. Yang Jun told reporters: "What is particularly important is that this attempt has completed a kind of ideological change, which is of great significance to the future development of gas stations." ”
After the group logo surfaces
The road forward for the replacement power station is not a smooth road, and there is an obvious obstacle, that is, the unification of battery standards.
Nearly 20 years have passed since the power exchange model was proposed, and the national standard "Electric Passenger Car Sharing and Replacement Power Station Construction Code" was just released on December 20, 2021, and was called "group standard" by many parties. It was reviewed and released by the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers. This group standard gives a quantitative scope of how to unify the whole industrial chain from vehicle production and manufacturing to power exchange process and power station facilities, trying to open up the pain points of power exchange sharing. However, because this standard is a group standard, it is not mandatory, and industry entities voluntarily adopt it. So it is different from the national standard in the true sense.
However, all parties feel that there is a general discussion better than nothing, and there is also a benefit after the formulation of the group standard: paving the way for the introduction of industry standards and pointing out the direction for the power exchange industry.
In 2021, the establishment of the power exchange alliance also promoted the unification of battery standards for power exchange stations. The power exchange alliance jointly established by Changan New Energy, Aodong New Energy, Ningde Times, State Grid, China Tower, PetroChina, Sinopec, etc., its members Changan Automobile and Aodong New Energy released the 4.0 smart replacement power station in the Chongqing market in April last year, which is said to realize a multi-brand, multi-model compatible power exchange mode.
Aodong New Energy also put forward its new goal during the 2021 Shanghai Auto Show - to build a power exchange platform that can meet the needs of more than 2 million new energy vehicles, and these platforms will realize multi-model sharing.
"We very much hope that the replacement power station set up in the future can dock with all brands of electric vehicles, which will be very beneficial to the future development of our gas station." Yan Guiyan said, "If the battery that is replaced one day becomes a standard part, it can be applied to all brands of vehicles, which will have a very big impact on the oil sales of gas stations." We will also have new changes in the operation form of the replacement power station, no longer take the road of cooperation, but take the way of self-operation, so that the profit model is naturally no longer a problem. ”
Since 2021, the sales of electric vehicles have blown up, and the market penetration rate has exceeded 10%. This 10% is seen by many parties as an explosive threshold for emerging industries. In 2022, the forecast data of 5 million electric vehicles will be sold, which is likely to have a new impact on traditional gas stations, so Sinopec and PetroChina are more determined to go deep into the power exchange market.
"However, the 2021 power curtailment also gives us a warning that power resources are scarce, and hydrogen energy is likely to appear in the future development and energy transformation process." Sinopec's years of accumulation in the field of hydrogen energy will accumulate and lead the development of hydrogen energy in the future. Through technological innovation, Sinopec has already explored and experienced in the field of hydrogen energy conversion into electrical energy. Then, by dabbling in new energy, Sinopec gas stations that have 'trained soldiers' in the field of power exchange will have more experience to sum up and apply to the new blueprint. Yang Jun told this reporter that because Sinopec's gas station has experienced the baptism of ideological change and taken the lead in the energy revolution, standing at a new historical node, there will be new deeds.