Fast and convenient electric bicycles, commonly known as "small electric donkeys", are a must-have for many families, but they have also become a prominent fire hazard in residential areas in recent years. According to data from the National Fire and Rescue Administration, in 2023, a total of 21,000 electric bicycle fires will be reported nationwide, an increase of 17.4% compared with 2022.
In the face of the continuous rise of e-bike fires, especially those caused by charging, how to prevent them from "burning"? A start-up in Shandong is exploring the promotion of a shared battery swap instead of self-charging mode, which may provide a new solution to reduce the fire hazard of electric bicycles.
Experience "charging and changing" in the "small yellow cabinet"
On the morning of May 12, Zhou Juan, a resident of Lily Garden, Qingyun County, Dezhou City, parked her electric bicycle in front of the yellow charging and swapping cabinet at the entrance of the community. Scan the code to open the cabinet, take out the battery of the electric bicycle from under the seat, push it into the "small yellow cabinet", and then take out a battery and put it back into your electric bicycle. In just a dozen seconds, the power changed from 20% to 100%, and Zhou Juan rode out with confidence.
Almost at the same time, at the door of Junsheng Youth Apartment in Shanghai Waigaoqiao Free Trade Zone, a "small yellow cabinet" was officially put into use after commissioning and inspection. Soon, all 2,000 "small yellow cabinets" in the city will be put into use, and more Shanghai citizens will experience the same convenience and safety as Zhou Juan, who is nearly 1,000 kilometers away.
Data shows that 80% of e-bike fires occur while charging. "The property does not allow electric cars to go upstairs for safety reasons, there are small children at home, and they don't want to bring potential risks into the house. However, there are limited charging piles in the community, and it is difficult to find charging spots after work. Behind Zhou Juan's entanglement is the voice of thousands of electric bicycle owners: how to achieve both safety and convenience in the use of electric bicycles?
A company located in Qingyun County and established less than a year ago - Jinli Battery Swap (Shandong) New Energy Technology Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "Jinli Battery Swap"), tried to give the answer with a "small yellow cabinet", and their idea was to replace self-charging with centralized shared battery swapping.
On the side of Xueyuan Road, one of the main roads in Qingyun County, Wang Hongle, the supervisor of Jinli battery swap operation and maintenance, opened the door of a "small yellow cabinet". "This battery swapping cabinet has 15 battery compartments, and the battery can be fully charged in 100 minutes under fast charging, which is much higher than the current 6-8 hours of self-charging, and users can take it at any time." Wang Hongle said that each battery compartment is individually sealed, with a hose connecting to the water tank above. Once the battery spontaneously combusts, water from the tank is injected through a small hole in the back of the battery compartment into a single battery compartment to flood the battery, extinguishing the fire. "The charging and swapping cabinets are set up outside the residential area, and the separation of people, vehicles and electricity is realized, which further ensures the safety of the use of electric bicycles."
Intelligent means are also ensuring the safety of batteries. At the headquarters of Jinli battery swap, we saw the control platform of Jinli battery swap system. "By connecting the whole system technology such as intelligent battery swap management system, vehicle control system, and digital battery to the self-developed SARS platform, we can carry out integrated management of vehicles, batteries and battery swap cabinets, and the operating status of the battery is under control." Jiao Kun, general manager of Jinli battery swap, explained that once a fire occurs, the system will immediately alarm and cut off power, split the fire, and actively extinguish the fire.
At present, Jinli battery swap in Qingyun layout of 63 charging and swapping cabinets, covering the main streets of the county, more than 70% of the community and 100% of the large supermarkets, all electric bicycles that meet the new national standard can be used, in addition to the charging cabinet can also provide services for its 1000 shared motorcycles, more and more Qingyun residents have tasted the first experience of "charging and changing".
Stick to the rules and reap unexpected "rewards"
Zhou Juan's current electric bicycle is purchased from Jinli at a discount by trade-in, and the monthly subscription is 49 yuan. "The price is about the same as charging it yourself, but it's safer and more convenient."
"Some of the vehicles provided by the platform are from co-branded models jointly developed with car companies, and the other part is directly provided by partner car companies." Jiao Kun said that the profit of an electric bicycle is about 300 yuan, and the manufacturer can often get only about 50 yuan, and the rest is distributed in the store "customer acquisition" and other channels. The "Jinli model" has crossed the intermediate link, connecting the sales side of car companies with platform users, and attracting many car companies to "join in". "At present, the order has been lined up to 100,000 vehicles."
Model innovation has also won good benefits for enterprises. Jiao Kun introduced that the company's first project in Tongxiang, Zhejiang, had an income of 40 million yuan and a profit of 16 million yuan that year. The Qingyun project is relatively small, and it also achieved a profit of 400,000 yuan in the first two months.
The county town works, do big cities also recognize the "brocade lithium model"?
In the office of the headquarters of Jinli battery swap, the reporter saw a certificate that Jinli battery swap was "included in the supervision of the 'lithium health code' platform and will be promoted in the Shanghai market as the first batch of battery swap operators".
"'Likang Code' is a supervision platform for battery swap operators launched by Shanghai, and enterprises that have obtained the lithium Kang code must fully access the platform for lithium batteries, battery swap cabinets and other data in order to be allowed to operate charging and swapping business in Shanghai." Jiao Peng, chairman of Jinli battery swap, said that there are only 3 companies in the first batch, and Jinli battery swap is one of the first enterprises to land in the layout.
Winning the top spot in the Shanghai market is not unrelated to the self-research of the core components of Jinli battery swap, advanced technology, model innovation, and successful cases, and there is also an important factor, which is the adherence to the rules.
Many electric bicycle owners pursue long battery life, especially takeaway express delivery practitioners, who often increase the battery capacity through modification, such as changing the original 40 volt battery to 60 volts and 70 volts. In order to meet this demand, charging and swapping platform companies have deployed large-capacity battery charging and swapping cabinets on a large scale. In May 2018, the state issued the national standard of "Safety Technical Specifications for Electric Bicycles", commonly known as the "new national standard", to clarify the relevant parameters of electric bicycles, one of which is that the nominal voltage of the battery is less than or equal to 48 volts, and the implementation is becoming more and more stringent. Since the beginning of this year, the spontaneous combustion of electric bicycles has led to frequent casualties, and many places have increased the promotion of battery swap mode, and battery swap companies have been pushed to the wind.
"Battery swapping is an asset-heavy industry, and the cost of a battery swapping cabinet is 20,000-30,000 yuan." Jiao Peng said that it is difficult for the platform enterprises with large capacity to "change from big to small" in the short term, and can only look at the "wind" and sigh, and have always adhered to the "new national standard" operation of the lithium battery, which has reaped the unexpected "reward" of sticking to the rules, and the pace of expansion has stepped from Qingyun and Xuecheng in the province to Shanghai, Nanjing, Suzhou, Jiaxing, Huai'an, Xuzhou, Shaoxing, Jinhua......
The "smallest county" has big plans
Lifting the lithium battery swap to climb the wind, as well as the company's location Qingyun.
In June last year, the World Power Battery Conference was held in Sichuan, and the Qingyun cadres who participated in the meeting met Jiao Peng, a fellow Qingyun villager engaged in the new energy industry in the local area, and learned that he intended to yearn for the development of power battery cascade utilization and shared battery swapping, so he was invited to return to his hometown for inspection, and finally contributed to this cooperation.
"Qingyun is the smallest county in the province, with no mountains on the ground and no mines underground, and the natural endowment for development is relatively weak." Liu Tao, secretary of the Qingyun County Party Committee, said that based on this situation, Qingyun actively promotes the construction of the "urban mine" circular economy industrial system, relying on the two advantages of rich green power resources and lithium battery NMP battery materials, and positioning the lithium sodium battery new energy industry as the county's "No. 1 industry". Since 2022, 32 projects have been introduced and cultivated, including lithium battery swapping, covering the entire industrial chain including battery materials, battery cells, energy storage, back-end applications, and cascade recycling. "Supporting the platform of lithium battery swap, on the one hand, we take a fancy to its improvement of the chain, and on the other hand, I hope that it can play the role of the main chain player, connect related industries in series, and increase the introduction of high-quality resources."
"Qingyun is deeply involved in the lithium-sodium battery new energy industry, understands the laws of industrial development, and supports enterprises to hit the pain points." Jiao Peng said. For example, be good at grasping the laws of the industry - the expansion of platform enterprises pays attention to efficiency, and the landing of a charging and swapping cabinet involves at least 4 departments such as fire protection, housing and construction, urban management, and electric power. Qingyun convened relevant departments to hold a centralized meeting, and the first phase of 60 charging and swapping cabinets completed the site selection in one day and the construction in two days.
Another example is seizing the key moment. At the end of last year, the demand for "charging and changing" began to emerge in various places, and the industry began to show signs of expansion. Qingyun held two conferences on the launch of the shared battery swap demonstration project and the promotion of the shared battery swap mode, and invited leading enterprises and institutions in the industry to participate. "After the meeting, the eight participating large enterprises did not leave, and directly signed a cooperation agreement with Jinli for battery swapping, and Ant Financial directly provided a credit of 1 billion yuan." Now looking back, Jiao Peng regards the two conferences as the key points for Jinli battery swap to enter the fast lane.
To support the development of new models, Qingyun has a long-term vision. What to do with a large number of retired batteries? The local government has laid out the "first move", and on the basis of the green energy Huanyu, which has the first national power battery echelon utilization "white list" enterprise in the province, it has carried out "chain master investment", visited the remaining 87 enterprises in the "white list", and attracted 4 battery recycling enterprises to settle down.
Speed up to the car or wait and see?
Like any industry in the explosive period, the field of electric bicycle battery swapping is a race.
"At present, there are about 300 enterprises of the same type in the country, and compared with their peers, Jinli battery swap has a first-mover advantage of about half a year." Jiao Peng clearly realized that once large enterprises cross this stage and start to enter the game, Jinli battery replacement may lose this comparative advantage, so it is necessary to "win quickly and avoid risks quickly".
Enterprises compete for orders and compete for the market, and the government drives the development of related supporting industries through the implementation of projects, and wins the opportunity for industrial transformation and upgrading. As a new infrastructure project, the construction of the charging and swapping network is a two-way rush between platform enterprises and local governments, and the process is inseparable from the word "fast".
However, for this new thing, many places now feel "unable to see", "inaccurate" and "unable to make up their minds", and the pace has slowed down. In the past few months, Jiao Peng has been in contact with many local governments, but the progress of the projects has often stalled because the company's reputation is not good enough, the scale is not large enough, and the accumulated projects are not enough.
"In contrast, many southern cities have a sense of urgency for electric bicycles to 'charge and change', and the promotion is strong and fast." He said that Shenzhen proposed to build more than 10,000 battery swap cabinets by the end of this year to promote the transformation of electric bicycles from charging-based to battery-swapping; Nanjing has launched a list of "1+10" laws and regulations for the construction of regulations, "1" is the introduction of the "Nanjing Electric Bicycle Fire Safety Management Measures", and "10" is 10 supporting system measures to build an institutional framework for the rectification of the whole chain of electric bicycles. After Suzhou approached Jinli for battery swapping, it changed the original plan to invest a total of 100 million yuan in two phases to a one-time investment of 200 million yuan, and added the Taicang project on the basis of the Kunshan project.
Do you speed up to get on the bus or wait and see? Jiao Peng, who has been running projects across the country, really perceives the temperature difference in the attitude of "charging and changing" in various places. Looking back at Qingyun, why did this small city dare to boldly "bet" on the embryonic period of Jinli's battery swap?
Liu Tao said that in addition to the high degree of compatibility with the local industry, Qingyun is optimistic about the platform economy represented by the Jinli battery swap, which is an important model for future economic development. "Electric bicycle battery replacement is a blank in the development of the industry, which hits the pain point of mass use and government management, and it is more likely that successful enterprises will be born on such a track."
(Popular Daily reporter Li Zhen, Zhang Haifeng)