On March 13, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology announced on the official website the declaration of the 354th batch of new products of the "Road Motor Vehicle Manufacturers and Product Announcements", of which the new energy heavy trucks announced in the announcement reached 87 models, which was a significant increase compared with the previous batch of 71 models. If according to the subdivision type, the number of new energy tractors is the largest.
In this batch of announcements of new energy heavy trucks, compared to the conventional pure electric heavy trucks, the replacement of heavy trucks attracted my attention, according to statistics, this batch of announcements announced a total of 25 models of heavy trucks, compared with the previous batch of 15 have a significant increase.
During the two sessions of the National People's Congress in 2022, a "Proposal on Increasing the Construction of electric Vehicle Replacement System" also triggered heated discussions in the industry, which mentioned that the power exchange mode of vehicle electricity separation has the advantages of efficient energy replenishment and cost reduction compared with the traditional charging pile power supply mode. Especially in the field of heavy trucks, taxis, and online ride-hailing, it can improve operational efficiency and make economic benefits more obvious.
Since the beginning of this year, the relevant news reports on the replacement of heavy trucks have appeared frequently, not only the reports of new models and the procurement of enterprises that change heavy trucks, but also related reports on industrial layout and enterprise cooperation, which basically cover the entire industrial chain. So will 2022 be the first year of the outbreak of power-swapping new energy heavy trucks? Will these be a harbinger of the imminent outbreak of power-swapping new energy heavy trucks?
Power-swapping new energy heavy trucks have the advantage of higher efficiency
The new energy model of the replacement type is not a new energy vehicle use mode that has just been created recently, and many manufacturers have realized it in the passenger car, and the main advantage is that it greatly saves the time to supplement energy.
In the field of commercial vehicles, this advantage can bring significant improvement to the operating efficiency, for commonly used in steel mills, coal, ports and other areas such as short-term connection, the supplementary energy mode of changing heavy trucks, from the previous need to spend several hours to recharge, to now only need less than ten minutes to complete the energy replenishment, the operating efficiency has been the same as the traditional diesel vehicles.
On the other hand, the investment in infrastructure of the replacement heavy truck is also less than that of the conventional pure electric heavy truck, according to the calculations of relevant people in the industry, compared with the ordinary pure electric heavy truck charging field station, the replacement power station in the service of the same number of new energy heavy trucks, not only needs a smaller footprint, and due to the difference in power exchange mode, the power required is only 1/4 of the charging mode, so the construction cost of the charging station can save a lot.
In these two points, for those steel mills, coal, ports of short-distance connection users or some small areas of short-distance transportation users, can bring greater convenience, aside from the purchase cost, has been infinitely close to the use of traditional fuel models.
The promotion of new energy is imperative, even in the field of heavy trucks, it is also necessary to constantly explore possible ways to achieve, in the case of pure electric heavy trucks in the applicable field, the convenience of use is limited, the emergence of heavy trucks can improve a lot of drawbacks in the use, so there are many manufacturers into the field of layout, such as we are familiar with FAW Jiefang (J6P), China National Heavy Duty Truck, Shaanxi Automobile, Liuqi Chenglong, SAIC Hongyan, Sany and other brands. The power battery brand supporting it, the most extensive cooperation is not the Ningde era.
Although the replacement of heavy trucks has obvious advantages over ordinary pure electric heavy trucks, in fact, according to the number of manufacturers in the overall commercial vehicle industry (trucks + buses), in fact, there are not many manufacturers who really do the replacement of heavy trucks, more is the first echelon of manufacturers in doing, more like a small attempt.
Although the efficiency is high, the drawbacks of electric vehicles still exist
Although the replacement of heavy trucks has the advantages of high operating efficiency and low overall cost, some of the conventional drawbacks of electric vehicles and the limitations of only suitable for some areas still exist, and it is difficult to promote and popularize on a large scale, and it is far worse to replace fuel heavy trucks.
Changing the power heavy truck, by changing the way of energy replenishment, to obtain higher efficiency, but in the final analysis, it is still an electric vehicle, and the battery on the car is still affected by performance degradation and seasonal temperature, which makes its mileage discounted.
Secondly, in use, it is also not suitable for individual users, replacing the heavy truck also means that you will no longer have the ownership of the battery, although the purchase cost of the vehicle can be greatly reduced, but every time you replace the battery, you may not be able to change the performance to meet the actual needs of the battery, and such a battery replacement method, if calculated according to the full life cycle cost of the vehicle, is not necessarily more cost-effective than buying a battery yourself.
So the company, fleet users can make good use of the heavy truck? Not necessarily, first of all, such products still have the problem of non-uniform standards, according to the power exchange method, there are three modes of top exchange mode, side power exchange mode and overall double side power exchange mode, and these three modes are not compatible in the power station, which greatly limits the range of companies and fleet users in choosing to change heavy trucks, once determined to use a mode, you can only use this mode for life.
Finally, the charging problem of the battery is the replacement of heavy trucks, the replacement involves the rental of batteries (including the cost of the battery purchased in the early stage), the construction of charging stations, battery replacement costs and other links, the specific charges are not currently on the market there is a set of mature standards, so in terms of cost, the current and ordinary pure electric heavy trucks can not be compared.
On the whole, the form of vehicle-to-electricity separation of heavy trucks is not mature at present, it is only suitable for the collective users of some companies and fleets, and in the scope of use, it can only adapt to some steel mills, coal, ports and other areas such as short-term connection.
For the new energy in the field of heavy trucks, the replacement of heavy trucks is not the final solution, but a supplementary product of relatively ordinary pure electric heavy trucks, and the working conditions and fields are basically overlapping. For industries such as commercial vehicles, which are very focused on reliability and efficiency, the performance of changing heavy trucks is not enough to meet the existing needs.
If the battery technology does not achieve a leapfrog breakthrough, then it is almost impossible for pure electric or exchange-type heavy trucks to replace fuel heavy trucks when the next emission stage is fully implemented, which we may only look forward to the arrival of hydrogen power or hydrogen fuel power. (Text/Chen Fengchuan)