China Times reporter Liu Kai Yu Jianping reports from Beijing.
When electrification becomes the general trend of the transformation of the automobile industry, the problem of energy replenishment has become a hot topic in the industry.
At present, there are roughly two ways to replenish energy for pure electric vehicles. One is the over-filled pile used by Tesla, Guangzhou Automobile Ai ‘an and other enterprises. The other is the power exchange station laid out by enterprises such as Weilai and Ruilan. The former is more convenient and can be installed in residential areas, parking lots and other locations. While the latter is to improve the energy replenishment efficiency and reduce the energy replenishment time.
Although the charging pile is still the most common way to replenish energy in the current market, the power exchange station has become the favorite way for car owners because of its ultra-fast efficiency. To this end, enterprises involved in the field of power exchange have also begun to increase the construction of power exchange stations.
On March 28th, Weilai Third Generation Power Station made its debut in Haikou. It is understood that the new generation of power exchange stations will be launched simultaneously in Beijing, Wuxi, Chengdu, Zhengzhou, Shenzhen, Shanghai, Qingdao, Hefei, Harbin and other cities in early April.
Shen Fei, senior vice president of Weilai Energy, said: "After March 28, except for a few unfinished second-generation power stations, all the third-generation power stations will be launched later. It is estimated that 90% of the 1,000 new power stations in 2023 will be newly launched third-generation power stations. "
It only takes four and a half minutes to change the power.
Since China began to promote new energy vehicles, energy replenishment has become a difficult problem that puzzles the development of the industry. Due to imperfect infrastructure construction and unbalanced proportion of charging piles, many consumers cannot accept new energy vehicles. According to the data released by China Electric Vehicle Charging Infrastructure Promotion Alliance, in 2022, China’s charging infrastructure will increase by 2.593 million units, and the ratio of pile to vehicle will increase by 1∶2.7. Judging from the proportion of vehicles and piles, there is still a big gap from the national requirement of 1:1.
"I thought about the battery life of new energy vehicles before buying a car. The home is also an old community, and it is not suitable to install charging piles. The reason why Weilai automobile was chosen later is because of the perfect power exchange service. I still remember the scene when the salesman showed me how to change the electricity, and the car automatically entered the power station. At that time, I felt that I must have bought Wei, which was too convenient. " A owner of Weilai ET5 told the reporter of China Times.
Indeed, the power exchange mode has brought great convenience to car owners, and Weilai Automobile has also attracted a large number of users by the power exchange service. It is understood that it only takes about 5 minutes to change the electricity, while it takes about 1 hour to charge.
Shen Fei said that since Weilai delivered the first power station in Nanshan, Shenzhen in 2018, by March 28, 1,232 power stations had been built nationwide, with a total number of power exchanges exceeding 19 million. In addition, more than 50% of Weilai’s car owners’ energy supplement comes from electricity exchange. Compared with the charging amount and the exchange amount, the proportion of electricity exchange is constantly rising, and the proportion of charged electricity is constantly decreasing.
At the same time, in February 2023, Li Bin, founder, chairman and CEO of Weilai, released a "Thousand Stations Plan". The plan is to increase the number of new power stations in 2023 from the original 400 to 1,000. This means that Weilai will build more than 2,300 power stations by the end of 2023.
In addition to constantly increasing the layout of the power station, Weilai has been upgrading the power station to improve the customer experience. Shen Fei said that the third generation power station has a comprehensive improvement in experience and efficiency. From the user experience, the height of the platform of the third generation power station is about 100 mm lower than that of the second generation power station. At the same time, the vehicle changing position has also moved forward by 400 mm. These changes can make users feel more comfortable. In terms of efficiency, compared with the second generation, the third generation power station shortens the whole power exchange time by 20%. This means that the power exchange time of the third generation power exchange station only takes about 4 and a half minutes.
In addition, the number of battery positions in the third generation power station has increased to 21, and the number of service times per day can reach 408, and the service capacity is improved by 30% compared with that of the second generation power station. It is worth mentioning that the third generation power station has also added over-filled piles. In addition to changing electricity, eight super-charged piles can also support the energy demand of 8-10 vehicles per hour.
"Weilai will constantly update the power station. First, it is to provide better services to users and let users experience the convenience of changing electricity. The second is to let more consumers reduce their concerns about energy replenishment and accept pure electric vehicles, which is also a good way for Weilai to enhance brand awareness. " Kun Wang, an auto analyst, told the reporter of China Times.
Policy-driven, multi-enterprise entry
In fact, in order to increase the development and promotion of new energy vehicles, changing electricity has become the focus of national promotion in recent years. In 2020, the power exchange station was written into the "Government Work Report" and became one of the seven important areas of China’s new infrastructure. In 2022, various departments introduced a series of favorable policies. For example, the Key Points of Automobile Standardization Work in 2022 issued by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology proposes that it is necessary to "speed up the construction and improvement of the charging and replacing standard system for electric vehicles, and promote the formulation of standards such as on-board battery replacement system, universal battery replacement platform and battery replacement package for pure electric vehicles". Seven departments, including the National Development and Reform Commission, jointly issued the Implementation Plan for Promoting Green Consumption, which also made it clear to strengthen the construction of supporting infrastructure such as charging and replacing electricity, and promote the pilot work of the application of new energy vehicle replacement mode. In addition, Chongqing, Hainan, Chengdu and other local governments also provide subsidies and incentive policies for power exchange projects.
At the two sessions of the National People’s Congress that ended before, Feng Xingya, deputy secretary of the Party Committee of Guangzhou Automobile Group, mentioned in the "Proposal on Accelerating the Promotion of Power Exchange Mode of New Energy Vehicles and Accelerating the Transformation of Automobile Industry" that the power exchange mode has obvious advantages, but at present, China’s power exchange mode is still in its infancy, the overall planning and layout is backward, and problems such as less investment in research and development of power exchange vehicles, high construction cost of power exchange stations, different battery standards and specifications, and lack of foundation for resource sharing have yet to be solved. Feng Xingya suggested to speed up the overall layout of the promotion of the national power exchange mode, study and introduce various policies to support the power exchange mode, support and reward automobile enterprises to launch power exchange models, increase the encouragement of vehicle-electric separation policies, and exempt the purchase tax of batteries for power exchange models after the country cancels the purchase tax exemption policy for new energy vehicles.
Zhou Tianle, an analyst at Guotai Junan Securities, said: "The power exchange industry has benefited from favorable policies, technological upgrading and capital entry, and has great development potential. The battery exchange mode can solve the pain point of’ charging efficiency’ and has the advantages of battery maintenance, energy storage and reducing the cost of car purchase. It is estimated that by the end of 2025, 22,100 power exchange stations will be built in China, forming an equipment market space of 38.3 billion yuan; By the end of 2030, it is expected to build 88,300 power stations, forming an equipment market space of 109.1 billion yuan. "
In this context, enterprises have also begun to lay out in the power exchange market. In addition to Weilai Automobile, there are other automobile companies including BAIC, Geely and SAIC, as well as enterprises such as Hanchuan Intelligent, () and Bozhong Seiko.
Industrial Securities pointed out that multiple factors catalyzed the change of electricity to take advantage of the situation. The business model has taken shape and the industrial chain has entered the market. The penetration of electric vehicles was accelerated, and the market of 100 billion yuan was opened in three years. The new energy vehicle market is in the ascendant, driving the increasing demand for energy replenishment; The application of power exchange mode in specific scenarios will complement the charging mode. Thanks to policy support, mature business model and investment layout in all links of the industrial chain, the power exchange industry is about to enter the fast lane of large-scale development.