I haven't felt it well, and the May Day holiday has ended in unfinished business.
For the past few days, I don't know if you have a delusion: everywhere you go is crowded.
Taking advantage of the trend, opening the major social platforms, the news of scenic spots, high-speed congestion, and urban congestion can be said to have dominated the major hot search lists.
As an argument, according to the calculations of the data center of the Ministry of Culture and Tourism, the total number of domestic tourists traveling during the May Day holiday reached 295 million, a year-on-year increase of 7.6%, and an increase of 28.2% compared with the same period in 2019 on a comparable basis; The total travel expenditure of domestic tourists was 166.89 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 12.7%, and an increase of 13.5% on a comparable basis compared with the same period in 2019.
It must be admitted that the entire market has experienced a period of silence, and as the difficulties are gradually overcome, the vitality of all dimensions is rapidly recovering.
And among them, it must include the Chinese auto market.
On May 6th, Beijing time, the first day of construction, whether it was Hongmeng Zhixing or ideals, including ZEEKR, several new forces made cars impatiently released good news.
In contrast, what is even more gratifying is that according to the blogger "Sun Shaojun", during the May Day holiday, NIO added more than 7,000 new vehicles.
There is no doubt that the sudden take-off of this new force in the high-end pure electric market, coupled with the collective rise of teammates competing on the same track, is a disguised proof that terminal potential customers have weakened their wait-and-see sentiment towards new energy vehicles, and they have begun to place orders with real money and passion.
It's still the same sentence, "The recovery that everyone has been waiting for is coming." ”
However, even so, even if the weekly retail penetration rate of new energy vehicles exceeds the 50% mark in one fell swoop, it still cannot offset the misunderstanding of many skeptics. Especially after the baptism of the May Day holiday, people's verbal criticism of pure electric vehicles has become more and more fierce again.
The labels of "battery life", "difficult to charge", and "not easy to serve" have once again been firmly attached to the body of some products.
In the face of the above facts or misunderstandings, as a new energy media person, as an unswerving "electric blower", I still want to talk about my most sincere feelings and try to prove: "Pure electric vehicles are not so unbearable." ”
First of all, it is necessary to stand up for being beaten, and shortcomings do exist.
It must be admitted that every May Day holiday, due to various force majeure, the pain points of short battery life and difficult charging of pure electric vehicles will be thoroughly exposed.
This point has not been washed.
However, in recent years, with the efforts of major OEMs and the intensification of the government's promotion of new energy transformation, the situation has improved and progressed significantly from the product side to the infrastructure side.
In other words, the battery life of pure electric vehicles is getting longer and longer.
It can be said responsibly that if you choose a standard ternary lithium battery, a rear-wheel drive car with an 800V high-voltage architecture, cruising at a speed of 120 kilometers per hour, and running more than 400 kilometers or even longer, there is almost no big problem.
At the same time, there are more and more charging piles in high-speed service areas.
Take the service area in Huzhou, Zhejiang Province as an example, I clearly remember that two or three years ago, there were only 6 fast charging piles from the State Grid, but then it was successfully expanded.
On the other side of the service area, the State Grid has reopened a larger site and arranged 10 fast charging piles, which has greatly alleviated the problem of queuing.
Reading this, there will definitely be a rebuttal that says: "The above situation is too ideal, and it cannot represent the group portrait after all." ”
In my heart: "Pure electric vehicles are like children who are growing up rapidly, and there will inevitably be various weaknesses, and we should still give them enough tolerance and patience for this." Moreover, the general trend is irreversible, and new things must be accepted. ”
Of course, you must drive a pure electric vehicle for long-distance travel during the May Day holiday, and please do a good job of psychological expectations and path planning in advance, and take many unknown risks into account first. After all, this is the only way to get a relatively better overall experience.
In the following article, I would like to share a personal experience.
During the May Day holiday, my family and I set off from Shanghai and drove a 2024 NIO ES8 with a price of more than 500,000 yuan and a 75-degree standard battery pack back to Liyang, Jiangsu Province, a small fourth-tier city.
For the whole journey, the navigation shows a distance of about 230 kilometers.
Early in the morning of May 1, Beijing time, after the energy replenishment of the Fengzhuang Chacheng battery swap station was completed, it entered the Shanghai-Changzhou Expressway.
Immediately, gently press the button on the left side of the steering wheel with a blue light, turn on the NOP+ high-speed navigation assist function, and hold the steering wheel to look ahead.
I have to praise that this intelligent driving system has become more and more like an "old driver" after continuous iteration and upgrading.
Whether it is the choice of overtaking timing, the grasp of the following distance, or the overall commuting efficiency, and the silky smoothness of switching between high-speed entry and exit ramps, it can give a high score, which greatly reduces the pressure on the driver.
This year, NIO has also exerted its "might" on the Shanghai-Changzhou Expressway with poor road conditions through the 4D navigation comfort function updated by OTA.
In the face of sudden shoulder or bumps, you can always adjust the softness and height of the air suspension in advance to reduce the bumps as much as possible.
Of course, for the NVH performance of the 2024 NIO ES8, I also want to give a certain amount of praise, with the excellent sound quality of the whole car audio and the very strong seat massage, long-distance self-driving can be regarded as comfortable and comfortable.
However, due to the May Day holiday, I have to complain that the traffic flow on the Shanghai-Changzhou Expressway is really outrageous.
What is very memorable is that just passing through a ramp crossing of Dianshan Lake in Suzhou, the congestion time exceeded 2 hours. From Shanghai to Liyang, it took a record more than 8 hours.
Yes, you heard it right, the 230-kilometer journey is as difficult as climbing over the mountains.
Fortunately, it is gratifying that when I arrived at the service area in Huzhou, Zhejiang Province halfway through, I suddenly found that there was no one queuing up at the NIO second-generation battery swap station here, and there were still three 75-degree standard battery packs in a free state.
Without any hesitation, decisively choose to place an order. After just three minutes, we continued to set off with a full charge.
During the entire battery swap process, looking at the State Grid charging pile and Sinopec gas station that were queuing up opposite, I couldn't help but sigh again: "Battery swapping is the best way to supplement the energy of long-distance travel of pure electric vehicles, and there is no one." ”
It is worth sharing that as of May 1, Beijing time, NIO has deployed a total of 2,413 battery swap stations and 22,292 charging piles.
It is believed that with the completion of NIO's plan to build 1,000 new battery swap stations and 20,000 charging piles this year, as well as the entry of more partners, the advantages of this new force in the energy supplement dimension will continue to expand.
In fact, during the entire May Day holiday, a visit to Liyang, Jiangsu Province found that the penetration rate of new energy vehicles in such a fourth-tier city is very gratifying, and the visibility of the "green card" is much higher than expected.
However, in the process of talking with many local consumers, it was found that the most urgent need for everyone to buy pure electric vehicles is mainly transportation, and the economy of use of vehicles is important.
On the contrary, in the high-end market of more than 300,000 yuan, the traditional fuel vehicles of joint venture luxury brands are still the unshakable favorites of the people in Liyang.
As an argument, when my relatives learned that the 2024 NIO ES8 I was driving this time was priced at more than 500,000 yuan, almost all of their first reaction was why not BBA?
The surprise and surprise was impressive.
From a rational and objective point of view, whenever we talk about the historic progress made in the transformation of new energy vehicles, we should never only take super first-tier cities such as Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou and Shenzhen as a reference.
More often than not, you need to take a walk and take a look in lower-tier cities, and I believe you will instantly understand what it means to "have a long way to go", and this is also the case in Liyang, Jiangsu, not to mention the inland areas.
And to focus again, pure electric vehicles want to "justify" themselves in the true sense, there is also a long way to go.
I wonder what will happen to the May Day holiday next year?