GAC E-An Gu Huinan: By 2025, E-An will build a thousand super charging and swapping centers in Sui

This newspaper reporter Huang Lin Wang Jinlong reported in Guangzhou

"For a long time, everyone has been discussing the question of whether electric vehicles will be 'charged' or 'replaced' in the future, and I personally think that it must be based on 'charging' and 'changing' as a supplement." A few days ago, GAC Aean Super Charging and Replacing Center was completed in Guangzhou, and Gu Huinan, general manager of GAC Eian, told many media including China Business Daily when attending the event that the development path of GAC Eian is "fast charging as the mainstay, fast replacement as a supplement", and the combination of the two to solve the needs of users in different scenarios.

GAC Aean Super Charging and Swapping Center was inaugurated in Guangzhou. Photo courtesy of GAC Aeon

With the further expansion of the penetration rate of new energy vehicles, GAC Aeon has expanded a new layout for charging networks and energy utilization efficiency. Gu Huinan revealed that according to the plan, by 2025, GAC Aean will build more than 1,000 super charging and replacing centers in Guangzhou, achieving a radius of 1.5km coverage and less than 3 minutes to find a station.

Iteratively upgrade existing charging field stations

In August 2021, GAC Aean released super-double-speed battery technology and A480 supercharge pile, realizing 5 minutes of charging and driving 200 kilometers. At that time, GAC Aean also revealed that it is expected that by 2025, GAC E-An will build 2,000 supercharging stations in 300 cities across the country, infiltrating into prefecture-level cities and achieving full coverage.

At the completion of the GAC Aean Super Charging and Replacing Center, GAC Aeon further refined the above plan. However, it is worth noting that in the plan of GAC Aean Super Charging and Replacing Center, instead of upgrading all charging piles to high-power supercharge piles at one time, it is flexible and step-by-step construction, which is also more in line with the current capacity of Guangzhou.

Based on this, Liu Zhihui, head of GAC Energy Ecological Technology Company, said: "The next idea is the iterative upgrade of existing charging field stations. At present, many of the existing charging stations have low power, and there are even unreasonablely distributed zombie piles. We believe that more than 3200 charging stations in Guangzhou, if half of them can be transformed and upgraded, using the existing capacitors to upgrade to 480kW group pipe group control of high-power supercharge piles, it is possible to quickly form a network, which is a construction concept of ours. ”

It is understood that the Eian Super Charging and Replacing Center has four characteristics of "charging, ultra-fast, automatic and zero carbon". Users can flexibly choose A480 super charging pile charging energy according to their own needs, or they can choose Aeon's original bolt-type ultra-fast power exchange method, which can achieve a range of more than 200 kilometers after charging for 5 minutes, and take 2.5 minutes to complete the battery quick change.

Among the above four characteristics, the word "automatic" is particularly prominent. Stepping into the second half of the era of intelligent networking, automatic driving has become the focus of attention in the industry. Facing the future of unmanned driving, GAC Aion Launch launched China's first automatic charging and replacing system AION Robot Charger, which can realize fully automatic unmanned parking and unmanned charging and replacing based on flexible motion control, vehicle-machine auxiliary guidance, visual dual positioning, and non-inductive start.

In Gu Huinan's elaboration, the ideal charging and replacing mode is to go without manual driving, relying only on the vehicle itself to find a supercharge station and realize unmanned charging and replacement. Liu Zhihui said that he hopes that in GAC Eian's own field station, it must achieve "plug and charge" and "non-inductive payment", and in the future, automatic charging, automatic power exchange and other technologies will be put into use in the GAC Aean Super Charging and Replacing Center.

In addition, GAC Aean Super Charging and Swapping Center combines photovoltaic power generation with smart energy storage to achieve circular self-sufficiency in comprehensive clean energy and truly achieve green travel.

The business of charging and replacing electricity business

Focusing on the development of the power exchange model, the construction and operating costs of the substation are not cheap. The amortization cost of fixed asset investment in the replacement power station, daily maintenance and repair and other costs are quite expensive. The construction of the substation is related to the relevant procedures such as land and construction approval, and the area occupied by the substation has the most direct impact on the construction cost.

Gu Huinan said frankly that GAC E-An plans to build a "supercharged capital" in Guangzhou first of all, and it is difficult to do it if the local government does not support it." Because the land is government-owned, without this resource, it is basically impossible to build a super-charged pile. In addition, it is necessary to work with power companies to provide power resource guarantees in order to be completed. ”

Despite the high cost, Gu Huinan is quite confident in the profitability of the charging and replacing business. "Although this business is very expensive, we have calculated that it is definitely profitable," he said. It's business, and if there's business, someone does it. "At present, GAC Aean relies on high-powered supercharged piles to increase the utilization rate and thus make a profit.

In the future, GAC Aeon will build an energy supply system that integrates pre-sale, sale and after-sale, and even includes charging, power exchange, energy storage and photovoltaic integration in the exhibition hall. In Gu Huinan's view, the charging and replacing link is only a carrier, perhaps one day charging and replacing the electricity is not charged, only the owner of the service, but the consumption chain will be expanded.

For example, the GAC Aeon 25-hour experience center provides free charging services, but at the same time, the experience center provides other value-added services. In other words, the EIAN Super Charging and Swapping Center will become the carrier of the operation of the EIAN ecosystem, so as to promote the extension of the industrial chain of the aftermarket of car companies, which is also the significance of many car companies entering the charging and swapping business.

In order to effectively implement the charging and replacing business, GAC Aeon will also promote model upgrades. Previously, the AION V Plus model equipped with super-speed battery technology has been officially launched. In order to accelerate the landing of the charging and replacing business model, Aion will also take the lead in launching the "AION V Plus Time Limit Regional Promotion" activity in Guangzhou and Hainan in April and May, and the AION V Plus70 super fast charging version will be discounted by 18,000 yuan on the basis of the 20,000 yuan, and the price is only 191,600 yuan.

In addition, Gu Huinan also said that GAC Aean will soon release a new generation of pure electric exclusive platform AEP 3.0, when all cars can be quickly charged and quickly changed to achieve platformization.

(Editor: Wang Jinlong Proofreader: Yan Yuxia)