According to information released by the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers in early August, 13 parts of the group standard “Technical Specifications for Construction of Shared Changing Stations for Electric Medium and Heavy Trucks and Electric Changing Vehicles” have been completed and are now open to public comment.
By the end of the first half of this year, the number of new energy vehicles in China had exceeded 10 million. Electric replacement has become a new way to replenish energy in the new energy vehicle industry. According to the New Energy Vehicle Industry Development Plan (2021-2035), the construction of electric charging and replacement infrastructure will be accelerated, and the application of electric switching mode will be encouraged. After the development of recent years, how about the implementation of the electric switching mode? “Xinhua viewpoint” reporters launched an investigation.
Choice B or C?
The reporter found that the current layout of the electric replacement mode of enterprises are mainly divided into three categories, the first category is BAIC, NIO, Geely, GAC and other vehicle enterprises, the second category is Ningde Times and other power battery manufacturers, the third category is Sinopec, GCL energy, Aodong New Energy and other third party operators.
For new players entering the switching mode, the first question that needs to be answered is: Business users (to B) or individual users (to C)? In terms of frequency and application scenarios, different enterprises offer different choices.
For consumers, the most obvious advantage of switching is that it can save the time of replenishing energy. If the charging mode is adopted, it usually takes about half an hour to charge the battery, even if it is fast, while it usually only takes a few minutes to change the battery.
In NIO Shanghai Daning small town power change site, the reporter saw that more than 3 p.m., a stream of users came to change electricity, each car power change takes less than 5 minutes. The owner of the car, Mr. Mei, said: “Now the electric change is unmanned automatic operation, I am mainly driving in the city, with more than a year feel more convenient.”
In addition, the use of car electric separation of the sales model, but also for individual users to save a certain amount of car costs. In NIo’s case, users can pay 70,000 yuan less for a car if they opt for the battery rental service instead of the standard battery pack, which costs 980 yuan per month.
Some industry insiders believe that the electric switching mode is more suitable for commercial scenarios, including taxis and logistics heavy trucks. Deng Zhongyuan, director of the marketing center of BAIC’s Blue Valley Wisdom (Beijing) Energy Technology Co., LTD, said, “BAIC has launched nearly 40,000 electric vehicles nationwide, mainly for the taxi market, and more than 20,000 in Beijing alone. Compared with private cars, taxis need to replenish energy more frequently. If they are charged twice a day, they need to sacrifice two or three hours of operation time. At the same time, the energy replenishment cost of electric replacement vehicles is only about half of that of fuel vehicles, generally only about 30 cents per kilometer. The high frequency demand of commercial users is also more conducive to the power station to recover the investment cost and even achieve profit.”
Geely Auto and Lifan Technology jointly funded the establishment of the electric car replacement brand Rui LAN, both commercial and individual users. CAI Jianjun, vice president of Ruilan Automobile, said that Ruilan Automobile chooses to walk on two legs, because there is also transformation in the two scenarios. For example, when individual users participate in ride-hailing operation, the vehicle has commercial attributes.
“I expect that by 2025, six out of 10 new electric vehicles sold will be rechargeable and 40 out of 10 will be rechargeable. “We will introduce at least two rechargeable and exchangeable models every year from 2022 to 2024 to form a diversified product matrix to meet different needs of users.” “CAI Jianjun said.
Discussion: Is it good to change the power mode?
As of mid-July this year, there were more than 1,780 enterprises related to the upstream and downstream of power stations in China, more than 60 percent of which were established within five years, according to Tianyancha.
Shen Fei, senior vice president of NIO Energy, said: “Electric replacement is the closest to the experience of fast replenishment of fuel vehicles. We have provided customers with more than 10 million electric replacement services.”
The technology routes of new energy vehicles are rich and diverse. Whether the technology routes of extended-range vehicles and hydrogen fuel cells are worth promoting has triggered discussions inside and outside the industry, and the electric switching mode is no exception.
At present, many new energy vehicle companies aim at high pressure fast charging technology. China Merchants Securities report pointed out that the charging energy experience is infinitely close to the fuel car refueling. It is believed that with the improvement of battery life capacity, the breakthrough of fast charging technology and the popularization of charging facilities, the application scenarios of electric switching will face limitations, and the biggest advantage of electric switching mode, “fast”, will become less obvious.
Gong Min, head of China automotive industry research at UBS, said that electric switching requires enterprises to invest a lot in the construction, personnel duty, maintenance and other aspects of the power station, and as a technical route of new energy vehicles, it needs to be further verified by the market. Globally, around 2010, a company in Israel tried and failed to popularize electrical switching.
However, some industry insiders believe that in addition to its advantages in energy replenishment efficiency, electricity exchange can also regulate the power grid, and the power exchange station can become the urban distributed energy storage unit, which is conducive to the realization of the “double carbon” goal.
Traditional energy supply enterprises are also seeking transformation and upgrading under the “double carbon” goal. In April 2021, Sinopec signed strategic cooperation agreements with AITA New Energy and NIO to promote resource sharing and mutual benefit; Sinopec has announced plans to build 5,000 charging and changing stations during the 14th Five-Year Plan period. On July 20 this year, Baijiawang Integrated Energy Station, SINOPEC’s first heavy truck switching station, was put into operation in Yibin, Sichuan Province.
Li Yujun, chief technology officer of GCL Energy, said, “It is hard to say who is the only ultimate form of driving in the future, whether it is charging, changing electricity or hydrogen cars. I think several models can complement each other and play their respective strengths in different application scenarios.”
Answer: What problems should be solved to promote electric switching?
Statistics from the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology show that by the end of 2021, China had built a total of 1,298 power stations, forming the world’s largest charging and switching network.
The reporter understands that the policy support for electric power exchange industry is increasing. In recent years, led by the National Development and Reform Commission, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology and other departments, the national standard of electric power exchange safety and the local subsidy policy have been issued successively.
In the interview, the reporter found that both the vehicle enterprises focusing on the construction of power exchange stations and the energy supply enterprises trying to layout power exchange mentioned the urgent problems to be solved in the promotion of power exchange.
– Different enterprises have different battery standards and changing station standards, which may easily lead to repeated construction and low efficiency in use. Many interviewees believed that this problem was a big obstacle to the development of the industry. They suggested that the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology and other competent departments or industry associations should take the lead in developing unified standards, and that two or three standards could be retained, referring to the interface of electronic products. “As a battery supplier, we have launched modular batteries suitable for various models, trying to achieve universal standardization in terms of battery size and interface,” said Chen Weifeng, general manager of Times Electric Service, a subsidiary of Ningde Times.
Post time: Aug-09-2022
