Per reporter: Li Shuo Per editor: Sun Lei
The new "player" of the power exchange market, Ningde Era, has added another partner.
On April 27, NINGDE Times (300750. SZ) announced that it has signed a cooperation framework agreement with Aichi Automobile for the EVOGO power exchange project. According to the cooperation agreement, the two parties will jointly develop a combined power-swap model based on the AIWAYS U5, the first model of AIWAYS, and plan to introduce it to the market in the fourth quarter of 2022.
Just two weeks ago, the CATL EVOGO power exchange service was officially launched in Xiamen, and the first batch of 4 express transfer stations to start the service were distributed in Siming District, Huli District and Haicang District of Xiamen. It is expected that by the end of this year, CATL will complete the construction of 30 express change stations in Xiamen.
Image source: Courtesy of the enterprise
Coincidentally, on the same day that the Ningde era officially announced the launch of the power exchange service, WEILAI announced that the 900th WEILAI replacement power station Nanjing Jiangning Auchan Station was officially launched, and Weilai users had changed electricity more than 8 million times.
It can be seen that new energy-related car companies are intensively deploying in the field of power exchange. According to the China Electric Vehicle Charging Infrastructure Promotion Alliance, as of March this year, the total number of substations in the mainland was 1,451. Among them, Weilai and Aodong New Energy ranked first with the number of 915 and 429 substations respectively, accounting for 92.6% of the total. In contrast, what new changes will the ningde era that has just entered the game bring to the industry?
CATL TO B Weilai TO C
After entering the power exchange market, CATL first set its sights on B-end online ride-hailing users.
Users want to enjoy the cater era power exchange service, first need to choose a model equipped with the "chocolate power exchange block" of the NINGDE era. It is understood that the first model to reach relevant business cooperation with CATL in Xiamen is FAW Besturn NAT, which is a pure electric model specially built by FAW Besturn for the rental and online car markets, and has been put into operation in Shenzhen, Guangzhou, Suzhou, Wuxi, Hefei, Tianjin, Changchun, Lanzhou, Liaoyuan and other cities.
A few days ago, an insider of the Ningde era told the "Daily Economic News" reporter that the Ningde era has cooperated with many parties including car companies, vehicle operators, site resource parties, power grid parties, and even financial institutions, "FAW Besturn NAT is mainly an online car, in addition to FAW, has reached cooperation with a number of car companies, and the follow-up will release relevant progress in a timely manner." The insider said.
It is worth noting that the CATL also announced that the monthly rent of chocolate replacement blocks is from 399 yuan per block, and the rent and replacement price will be dynamically adjusted according to factors such as station site and time period. Similar to the Weilai BaaS solution, the purchase of the Pentium NAT replacement version of the model (without purchasing a battery) is about 80,000 yuan cheaper than the price of the ordinary version of the model, and the monthly rent of the battery is calculated at 399 yuan, and the cost saved is roughly equivalent to 16 years of battery rent.
Watchmaking: Per reporter Li Shuo
In contrast, Weilai, which currently has the largest number of replacement power stations, is mainly for C-end customers.
It is understood that at present, WEILAI Replacement Power Station only supports the brand model to carry out power exchange services. According to official data, as of April 18, 59.40% of Weilai users whose residence or office location is within 3 kilometers of the WEILAI replacement power station. In 2022, NIO plans to build more than 1,300 substations, more than 6,000 supercharge piles, and more than 10,000 destination charging piles in the Chinese market.
Orient Securities Research Report believes that the car-electric separation model adopted by Weilai is conducive to both car companies and consumers. For Weilai, this strategy can reduce the price threshold and face a wider consumer population; for consumers, under the replacement mode of separation of vehicle and electricity, on the one hand, the purchase price of the car is reduced, on the other hand, the depreciation of the battery does not need to be borne by the consumer, which improves the consumer's willingness to buy.
Therefore, industry analysis believes that considering the difference in the current model price and user nature, at this stage, NINGDE Times and WEILAI do not yet constitute a competitive relationship in the power exchange business.
"Ningde era of power exchange services in the early stage to operate vehicleS-end market, for the operation of vehicles, the main demand at the moment is to increase the operating time of vehicles and reduce the charging and replacement time, this part of the user's personalized demand for vehicles is relatively low, so you can accept the standardized batteries of the Ningde era." However, the C-end market is relatively different, and I think there is still a long way to go before large-scale promotion and application. On April 27, Tong Zongqi, director of the Information Department of the China Electric Vehicle Charging Infrastructure Promotion Alliance, said in an interview with reporters.
Is the problem of unified battery pack standards expected to be solved?
In fact, there are more long-term considerations for the Ningde era to enter the power exchange market. In the vision of the Ningde era, the chocolate power exchange block is a battery specially developed for the realization of "shared power exchange", the power exchange block can be freely combined, and consumers can flexibly match the vehicle according to their personal mileage needs.
CATL said at the press conference that the chocolate battery block is not only suitable for passenger cars from A00 to B and C, as well as logistics vehicles, but also can adapt to models developed by pure electric platforms that are 80% of the world's 80% that have been listed and will be listed in the next 3 years. This also reveals the biggest problem that the Ningde era tried to solve in the power exchange market: the battery pack standard is not uniform.
For car companies, the power battery is one of the core components of new energy vehicles, involving safety, mileage, charging speed and many other parameter indicators, and the willingness to be commissioned by a third party is not strong. According to incomplete statistics, 30 companies have launched 59 power-changing models.
"Automakers are reluctant to standardize battery packs because the profits of battery packs are high, accounting for about 40% to 60% of the vehicle cost. Once the power exchange is standardized, the battery pack can be done by a third party, which is something that car companies do not want to see. Zhang Xiang, dean of the New Energy Vehicle Technology Research Institute of Jiangxi New Energy Technology Vocational College, previously said in an interview with the media.
Despite the difficulties, CATL is still actively cooperating with car companies. At present, AIWAYS Automobile and FAW Besturn have become its partners, and CATL said that the details of the partners will be announced in the follow-up.
"Ningde era regardless of market share or influence in the field of power batteries are absolute leaders, in order to better cooperate with it in depth, and can get the catheter era of batteries or battery modules in a timely manner, many car companies and NINGDE times set up a joint venture company, asset binding." The strong position in the battery field has led to the Ningde era also has a strong voice in the face of car companies, which is relatively less resistance when promoting car companies to accept their battery pack business model. Therefore, the Ningde era has entered the power exchange market, and has also played a certain role in promoting and promoting the standardization of battery packs. Tong Zongqi told reporters.
"Power exchange is a market size of trillions of track, the current power exchange has received including policy, industry, capital and other aspects of the attention, many powerful head enterprises are not only because of the power exchange and power exchange, it is for the entire energy storage, as well as the overall industry to accelerate the development and efforts." The addition of the Ningde era is a good thing for the replacement of electricity. Judging from the practice of Aodong's exploration of power exchange, power exchange does require more player support and entry. In mid-April, Yang Ye, co-founder and senior vice president of Aodong New Energy, said in an interview with the media.
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