The central enterprise giants entered the game to change the battery, and the "national team" platform Weilai has a deep meaning behind it

The automobile industry has not yet recovered from the dazzling array of new cars at the Guangzhou Auto Show, and Changan Automobile has joined hands with NIO to drop a "depth bomb" on the new energy automobile industry——

On November 21, Changan Automobile and NIO signed a cooperation agreement on battery swap business in Chongqing, under which the two parties will cooperate in promoting the establishment of battery swap standards, the construction and sharing of battery swap networks, the research and development of battery swap models, and the establishment of an efficient battery asset management mechanism.

For the domestic new energy vehicle industry, the cooperation between Changan and NIO is of great significance: first, Chang'an, as the "national team", enters the battery swap game, which is a high recognition of the battery swap mode that NIO has been advocating; secondly, Chang'an's participation will also accelerate the transformation of NIO's battery swap system from the private domain to public service, and promote more brands to join the battery swap camp; third, with the continuous expansion of the "circle of friends" of battery swapping, the battery swap mode may surpass overcharging to become the mainstream electric vehicle energy replenishment mode.

At present, many car companies are involved in the technology research and development of the battery swap and energy supplement mode and the construction of the network. Among them, NIO's all-round layout, technical system, network laying, and industry standards for the battery swap mode are all very mature, and it has also met the conditions for large-scale promotion and application.

In the words of Li Bin, the founder of NIO, the NIO battery swap network is a "cloud service". "If you imagine the battery swap as the time when Amazon wanted to do cloud services in 2003, you will find that there are several points that are very similar: First, the network effect is strong. The battery swap network is equivalent to the cloud service infrastructure of the energy Internet. Second, the investment scale is large and the investment cycle is long. At that time, Amazon, Google and other factories and equipment invested more than 100 billion US dollars. Third, from serving oneself to serving external customers, once it is done, the threshold will be very high. Li Bin said.

In addition, NIO also welcomes more brands to participate in the popularization of the battery swap model.

Therefore, in addition to discussing the effect of the "1+1>2" cooperation between Changan and NIO, the industry should pay more attention to the deeper industry influence and development impetus brought by the two parties.

Out of the private domain of battery swapping, what can the "national team" do?

As we all know, with the continuous improvement of the penetration rate of new energy vehicles in China, more and more people choose pure electric travel, which also makes the problem of energy replenishment always exist. At present, there are two main energy replenishment modes for domestic pure electric vehicles: one is the overcharging mode that includes 800V, and the other is the battery swap + overcharging mode that NIO has always adhered to.

Thanks to the layout in the early stage, NIO is currently the car brand with the most charging piles in China, and it is also one of the brands with the best charging experience. It has deployed nearly 20,000+ charging piles in workplaces, hotels, popular scenic spots, high-speed service areas and other scenarios, including more than 9,100 ultra-fast charging piles. However, what NIO is most praised in the industry is the battery swap and energy supplement mode that it has been silently laying out before.

As early as 2020, the National Energy Administration released the battery swap industry standards researched and formulated by NIO, of which NIO took the lead in the compilation of the three standards 10435, 10436 and 33025, and was deeply involved in the preparation of the two standards 10434 and 33004. At present, NIO has obtained more than 1,200 patents related to battery swaps, and has participated in the compilation of more than 20 battery swap standards.

However, so far, NIO's battery swap stations have basically mainly served NIO's own users, that is, although the advantages of the battery swap mode are obvious, there is still a long way to go from private domain exclusive to public services. The cooperation between Changan and NIO will undoubtedly accelerate the publicization of the battery swap mode and the introduction of relevant industry standards.

As one of the four major automobile group enterprises in China, Changan Automobile has a history of 161 years and is one of the typical representatives of Chinese automobile brands. At present, Changan Automobile is comprehensively accelerating the transformation of electric electrification, laying out the new energy vehicle market, and transforming into an intelligent low-carbon travel technology company.

The main reason why Changan is willing to cooperate with NIO is that it highly recognizes the convenience of the battery swap mode. The characteristics of the battery swap mode, which can reduce the price of the car, ensure the safety of the battery, make it easier to recycle the battery, and are more favored by users, are also one of the reasons why Changan joined the battery swap camp.

In fact, in addition to Changan Automobile, so far, NIO battery swapping has also been in full swing in cross-industry cooperation. Partners include traditional energy giants such as "Four Barrels of Oil", which have built 132 battery swap stations so far to help carbon peak and carbon neutrality, as well as commercial real estate brands such as Red Star Macalline, IKEA, Yintai, Easyhome, and China Sports.

Through these cooperations, NIO has also achieved remarkable results in laying out battery swap networks. As of November 21, NIO has built 2,113 battery swap stations, including 651 highway battery swap stations, and has opened up a high-speed battery swap network in 7 vertical, 4 horizontal and 9 major urban agglomerations. There are 3,409 charging stations with 20,074 seats, and 960,000+ tripartite piles are connected.

Changan's joining the NIO battery swap camp also means that the battery swap model has been recognized by more mainstream players in the automotive industry. As a result, the battery swap system that NIO has been advocating is also expected to achieve further rapid development.

The circle of friends has expanded, and battery swapping or surpassing supercharging has become the mainstream energy supplement mode

In fact, although the battery swap mode is advocated by relevant national departments and policies, and NIO battery swap has become one of the best energy supplement solutions for pure electric vehicles, there are still many people who question the battery swap mode.

Since 2020, the General Office of the State Council, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, the Ministry of Finance, the State Administration of Taxation and other relevant state departments have successively promulgated the "New Energy Vehicle Industry Development Plan (2021-2035)", "Notice on Improving the Financial Subsidy Policy for the Application of New Energy Vehicle Push Factories", "Implementation Opinions on Further Improving the Service Guarantee Capacity of Charging and Swapping Infrastructure", "Notice on Launching the Pilot Work of the Application of Battery Swap Mode for New Energy Vehicles", and "Guiding Opinions on Further Building a High-quality Charging Infrastructure System" and other documents to promote the construction of charging and swapping networks and standard systems, encourage the promotion and application of battery swapping modes, and promote the formulation of standards for on-board battery swapping systems, battery swapping general platforms and battery swapping battery packs for pure electric vehicles, so as to maximize resource efficiency.

Under such a policy background, NIO has been precipitating the core technology of battery swapping, actively laying out the battery swap mode, and has also become an advocate and leader of the battery swap mode, and its industry-first rechargeable, swappable and upgradable energy service system NIO Power has systematically achieved technological breakthroughs and industrial promotion from 0 to 1.

"It's hard to build the capacity of the system, and it's even harder to let outsiders know about the system itself. For example, there are still many electric vehicle users who feel that battery replacement will drag down NIO. At the end of last year, Qin Lihong, president of Weilai Automobile, sighed at a media conference.

Adhering to long-termism, NIO has always attached great importance to technology accumulation and has not hesitated to invest heavily in R&D. Over the past five years, NIO has invested more than 30 billion yuan in R&D, making it the company with the largest R&D investment among new forces. As of the end of October 2023, the total number of patents pending and granted is about 7,600.

At present, NIO's core technologies have covered all segments of the intelligent electric vehicle business, including the point-swapping system, and have established a "full stack of NIO technology" composed of 12 major technologies, including chips and on-board intelligent hardware, battery systems, electric drive and high-voltage systems, vehicle engineering, vehicle global operating systems, panoramic interconnection, intelligent driving, intelligent cockpit, smart energy, intelligent manufacturing, artificial intelligence, and global digital operations.

It is precisely because of this that NIO is strengthening its leading position in China's high-end pure electric vehicle market. According to the data, in the first 10 months of this year, NIO delivered a total of 126,067 new vehicles. Among them, NIO delivered a total of 55,432 new vehicles in the third quarter of this year, a year-on-year increase of 75.4%, and the quarterly delivery volume reached a record high. From January to October this year, NIO's sales growth rate reached 40.2%, ranking first in the year-on-year growth rate of high-end brand sales.

The outside world may not be able to assess how much of a role the battery swap model it has advocated and laid out before has played behind NIO's comprehensive red "report card", but NIO itself obviously knows that in addition to many new products and technology full stack, the battery swap model with a number of world's first core technologies has contributed to NIO's market expansion.

In addition, as a leader in high-end pure electric vehicles, NIO has already opened up its energy replenishment system to the whole industry, and NIO has always hoped to use the world's largest electric vehicle battery swap ecosystem to attract more industry partners to join.

The addition of Chang'an, as a "national team", will mean that the general industry standard for the battery swap mode will be accelerated, and it will also become an important opportunity for the large-scale and large-scale popularization of the battery swap mode. The cooperation between Changan and NIO, as well as the subsequent cooperation at the ecological level, will also allow more industry brands and car companies to have a deeper understanding of battery swapping, expand the "circle of friends" of battery swap mode, and jointly promote the high-quality development of the domestic electric vehicle industry.