Yadi Weishifu: The future battlefield of electric bicycles depends on quality and technology

According to the data, China's electric bicycle sales have exceeded 40 million units for two consecutive years, of which sales in 2020 reached 47.6 million units, and although it has declined in 2021, it still remains at the level of 41 million units. With the acceleration of the new national standard in the past two years, electric bicycles will also get rid of the previous path of barbaric growth, and gradually move towards a more solid foundation of technology, brand, word of mouth and so on.

Judging from the development of the electric vehicle market in recent years, although there are emerging brands represented by Maverick and No. 9, betting on the track of intelligence and focusing on the trend of consumer rejuvenation, the current discourse power of the electric bicycle track is still in the hands of Yadi. According to the 2021 financial report data released by Yadi, its annual revenue was 26.968 billion yuan, an increase of 39.3% year-on-year; the cumulative global sales of electric two-wheelers were 13.86 million units, up 28.3% year-on-year.

So, what is The core strength of Yadi to maintain competitiveness, and what strategies will Yadi deploy in the face of increasingly fierce market competition? Titanium Media App interviewed Wei Shifu, director of the Power Energy Center of the Product Technology Research Institute of Yadi Technology Group. As he said: "As a brand with 21 years of production and operation experience in the electric bicycle industry, Yadi has not slackened in terms of technology, product strength and quality, but I believe that these seemingly basic dimensions will become the core of the industry competition in the future." ”

2022 will be Yadi's "Year of Quality"

Unlike many manufacturers who will put hot words such as "smart", "technology" and "trend" on their lips in the face of interviews, Wei Shifu mentioned that the first keyword of Yadi's future key strategy is "quality". "Since its inception, the Yadi brand has always emphasized the spirit of pragmatism and innovation, I believe you have also noticed that although Yadi has also done a lot of deployment in intelligent interaction and trend design in the past two years, we always believe that building a reliable and durable car for consumers is the most important mission." He said.

On the market side, Yadi has taken the first step around the layout of "product quality", in March this year, Yadi brought a double warranty model of the Guanneng series, and the warranty time of the whole vehicle including motors, chargers, frames, anti-theft devices, paint and other core components was doubled.

In addition to the extension of the warranty period, Yadi will also provide users with efficient and fast maintenance services through more than 40,000 sales stores throughout the country. "For an electric bicycle, improving the warranty period requires a lot of courage from the enterprise, because in the process of use of the vehicle, its loss of parts is often not linear, such as paint surface, in the face of outdoor complex use scenarios, once aging, the protective power of the paint surface will fall rapidly." Westfu gave an example.

Like electric vehicles, the three-electric system is also a core component of electric bicycles. According to Wei Shifu, in the Guanneng series double warranty model, Yadi has also carried out a series of technical upgrades for the three-electric system, first of all, the core material has been upgraded and the Yada Link-QC quality tube platform has been applied, while improving the manufacturing and materials of the product.

Wei Shifu mentioned: "For example, on the TNFAR motor, we upgraded the original oil seal structure, but also replaced the glue process, so that the motor life is longer and less difficult to enter the water, so its warranty period can be increased from the original 24 months to 48 months." ”

At the same time, for the most important battery pack in the safety of electric bicycle use, Yadi adopts a newly upgraded carbon fiber material, bringing a TNFAR carbon fiber lithium battery, effectively reducing the battery attenuation rate. Not only to achieve lightweight, but also high-strength shock-resistant shell box, to achieve IP67 dustproof, waterproof.

In other words, the TNFAR carbon fiber lithium battery after the process upgrade can not only allow the electric bicycle equipped with this battery to travel unimpeded in the rain, but even if it encounters heavy rain, the road surface has deep water, it can still pass stably.

In response to the charge and discharge safety issues that everyone is very concerned about, Wei Shifu told titanium media App: "The upgraded TNFAR fast charger, with the addition of temperature compensation function, can solve the problem of 'winter charging dissatisfaction, summer charging drum bag', the warranty period has also been increased from the original 12 months to 24 months, users can use it with confidence." ”

With Yadi's global 6 R&D centers, 8 production bases and more than 1,000 R&D personnel's technical investment scale, Weishifu said that the double warranty will soon land in more models, and 2022 will also become Yadi's "quality year", Yadi will rely on quality improvement, driving the electric bicycle industry into a new stage of development.

Battery cells, power exchange technology empowerment, "power anxiety" is about to become a thing of the past

In the interview, the titanium media App also mentioned the "endurance anxiety" that has always lingered around the electric bicycle, Wei Shifu said: "The endurance problem will not become a bottleneck restricting the development of the industry, just like the electric vehicles in recent years, with the continuous breakthrough of technology, the user's attention to endurance will slowly decline, and gradually be attracted by other attributes." ”

Since 2014, Yadi has been looking for ways to solve problems such as electric vehicle endurance, battery durability, charging speed and so on. In the end, Yadi set its sights on graphene materials and technologies and began to lay out research and development. In 2016, Yadi graphene batteries were officially molded and introduced to the market, and have been iterated for 3 times so far.

The long-term investment of industry pioneers in these technologies and services is likely to form a "dimensionality reduction attack" on competitors at a certain stage. For example, after electric vehicles enter the era of 1000km endurance, brands that do not master this technology are naturally in a backward position in the competition. In addition to solving the endurance anxiety from the product itself, Yadi has also developed and laid out fast charging and power replacement technology, which makes the battery life no longer become a bottleneck in the development of electric bicycles.

"In the layout of technology, Yadi not only pays attention to basic research, such as batteries, motor efficiency, fast charging technology, etc., but also exerts efforts to lay out service ecology, such as the replacement power stations that have landed in many first-tier cities, which is another way to solve the anxiety of endurance, by replacing the battery, in a few minutes, the electric bicycle can be 'full of blood resurrection'." Westfu said.

Driven by the trend of continuous improvement of battery capacity and motor efficiency, the electric motorcycle category has also risen rapidly. In the interview, Wei Shifu shared an interesting scene of Yadi at the Milan International Motorcycle Show: "Although Yadi is a regular visitor to this exhibition, it can be felt that the exhibition in 2021 has changed a lot, and the attention of European and American users to electric two-wheelers has increased significantly, and both the media and the audience have a strong interest in electric motorcycles. ”

As one of the earliest manufacturers to lay out electric motorcycle products, Yadi has also long seen its market development potential. At present, Yadi has also begun to invest in a dedicated team to engage in technical research and design and production of vehicles and parts in this field.

It can be said that the current Yadi can lead the development of two-wheeled electric vehicles for many years, the core is still derived from its focus on improving quality, technology, and a very pragmatic brand base. When the market re-enters the Red Sea competition, various brands will often go hand in hand in marketing, but marketing is not the key to swaying the victory or defeat, and what can help the brand win in the final white-knife battle is the "fist product" and "stable reputation" armed with technical hard power.

In the future, with the continuous standardization of electric bicycles under the guidance of the new national standard, coupled with the gradual solution of their right-of-way problems, more users will be attracted to use them as safe and fast short-distance transportation. Therefore, this market also has a lot of potential to be tapped. (This article was first published on titanium media App)