NIO has received another 1.5 billion investment, which is a "killer feature" that has more advantages than solid-state batteries

Univision Automobile

2024-06-02 23:27Posted in Hunan automotive creators

The advantages of battery swapping have always been underestimated.

Most Chinese people's mentality towards the purchase of large consumer goods is always that buying is better than renting, and it is better to use their own hand than to use other people's second-hand. The battery swap mode means that the ownership of the battery does not belong to the user, which is a hurdle that the user can't get over.

From the perspective of the industry and industry, the popularization of the battery swap mode means that the battery pack needs to have a unified standard, and the battery swap station needs to be put into operation with heavy assets, which is not a direction that can see returns in the short term.

The 800V, 900V, ultra-fast charging technology, and solid-state batteries promoted by manufacturers are all developing in the direction of higher capacity density and faster charging speed. For a long time, only NIO insisted on making it large-scale.

But now the situation has changed dramatically.

Since the second half of last year, mainstream car companies have begun to cooperate with NIO Energy in the battery swap track. Up to now, NIO has reached battery swap cooperation with 7 car companies, including Changan, Geely, JAC, Chery, Lotus, GAC, and FAW.

At the same time, NIO Energy has also started all-round battery swap cooperation with Sinopec, CNOOC, Shell, State Grid, China Southern Power Grid, Wanneng Group, Zhongan Energy and other enterprises in the energy and power field.

On the one hand, this is because NIO has formed a scale in the field of battery swapping, and the battery swap mode has been verified. As of May 31, NIO has built 2,427 battery swap stations and 22,595 charging piles across the country, making it the car brand with the largest number of battery swap stations and charging piles in the country. Even if you look at the world, NIO is the only one that can form a scale of battery swap mode.

But more importantly, the attitude at the national level towards the battery swap mode has become clear. At the end of 2023, at the National Conference on Industry and Information Technology, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology focused on supporting the development of battery swap mode for new energy vehicles in 2024.

Without the will of the country behind the promotion, it is difficult for NIO to unite a group of mainstream car companies that are not convinced by anyone to engage in battery swapping.

Recently, NIO Energy received a strategic investment of 1.5 billion yuan from Wuhan Guangchuang Fund, which can better indicate the intention of the "national team".

The government industry fund is an extension and implementation of the country's will. According to the information of the three parties, although Wuhan Guangchuang Fund is a market-oriented fund initiated and established by Wuhan Optics Valley Industrial Investment Co., Ltd., its shareholder is a state-owned enterprise in Donghu District, Wuhan.

The advantages of battery swapping are self-evident.

If you think of the battery pack as a gas tank, the power is gasoline. The speed of charging is not as fast as the speed of refueling, but changing the battery is equivalent to changing a tank of oil, which is no different from our usual refueling in terms of efficiency.

In the context of the popularization of NIO's battery swap system, the only concern left for users is the cost of battery swapping.

One of the main reasons for the recent surge in NIO's sales is that NIO's BaaS policy has been adjusted, with rent reductions, free battery swaps, and the cost of leasing batteries and battery swaps has begun to break through the psychological price of users. This shows that as long as the price is in place, battery replacement has a huge attraction for users.

In the future, with the advancement of the cooperation of the "battery swap national team" and the entry of Ledao, a sub-brand of Wei's own family, into the market at a lower price, the battery swap mode may be accepted by users at a geometric speed.

Aside from the significance of the battery swap mode to the national energy storage and power grid pressure, from the perspective of the new energy industry, the battery swap is also of strategic significance.

At present, the bottleneck of pure electric vehicles is stuck in battery technology, and the inherent defects of pure electric vehicles have made users tired.

Since entering 2024, the market sales of pure electric vehicles have increased by less than 20%, and if the factors of the online car-hailing market are removed, some market segments such as the A0 market are even negative growth.

The increase in overall sales of new energy vehicles has shifted to a focus on PHEVs. PHEV models, which do not require large batteries and do not have range anxiety, actually restrict the growth of pure electric models to a certain extent. If pure electric vehicles want to continue to grow, they must completely break the confinement of range anxiety.

Solid-state batteries, which have been given high hopes, are still in the chaotic stage of mass production plans. Not only China, but also Japan and the United States are also accelerating the mass production of solid-state batteries, hoping to reverse the backward situation in the new energy market. On this track, it remains to be seen who will win.

In this context, the battery swap mode is a post-shot for China's new energy.

In the face of changing batteries in 3 minutes, even solid-state batteries that can be fully charged in the next 15 minutes have no advantage of winning. This is the real way to solve the range anxiety of tram users. The final winner of the new energy competition may fall on the battery swap mode. (Text/Youshi Auto Old Cannon)

Note: The picture comes from the Internet, the rights belong to the original author, if there is any infringement, please contact to delete, thank you too! This article only represents the author's personal views and does not represent the position of Youshi Auto.

View original 210K

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

Personal opinion, for reference only