Can the mileage anxiety of new energy vehicles be solved when enterprises compete to enter the circuit to change electricity?
Zhongxin Finance, January 27th (Ge Cheng) Recently, Chongqing Ruilan Automobile Technology Co., Ltd., a joint venture company under Geely, officially settled in Liangjiang New District of Chongqing. The new company is jointly invested by Geely Automobile and Lifan for 300 million yuan, which indicates that Geely will accelerate its entry into the new energy vehicle exchange circuit.
It is reported that Ruilan Automobile is an automobile company with independent production qualification jointly established by Geely Automobile and Lifan Technology, which is positioned in a new generation of new potential energy for power exchange and travel. In the future, Ruilan Automobile will develop new products based on the self-developed power exchange platform, and work together at the B-end and C-end to lay out the power exchange market.
In addition to car companies, power battery related companies are also actively deploying in the field of new energy vehicles. On January 18th, Contemporary Amperex Technology Co., Limited, the industry leader, released the power exchange brand "EVOGO", providing users with a "combined power exchange overall solution" consisting of three products: power exchange block, quick exchange station and APP.
The power exchange mode is popular.
In addition to the newly-built Ruilan Automobile and Contemporary Amperex Technology Co., Limited, Weilai, BAIC, Geely, Chang ‘an and other enterprises have successively laid out the new track of power exchange.
In 2020, Weilai was named as one of the 100 companies that changed the world by Fortune magazine because it launched a battery rental service based on the separation of vehicles and electricity. Its CEO Li Bin said: "The battery of the power station itself is an energy storage device. In the process of operation, the use of technological innovation can effectively reduce the carbon emissions per unit of electricity and the overall facilities."

Charging and replacing facilities are the bottleneck of the popularization and application of new energy vehicles, and whether the electric energy is "clean" is also the key to its energy saving and emission reduction. Chen Quanshi, a professor at Tsinghua University Institute of Vehicles and Transportation, said that centralized power exchange can make full use of the low-peak electricity at night and further reduce carbon dioxide emissions.
The power batteries of new energy vehicles can form a huge "power sponge", which can realize reverse power transmission to the power grid by centralized charging and replacing, and has the potential of dispatching energy storage. Xin Baoan, chairman of State Grid Co., Ltd. said that new energy vehicles with power batteries can effectively participate in peak shaving and valley filling, ensure the balance of power and electricity, and improve the overall operating efficiency of the power system.
On the other hand, adopting the power exchange mode can also make the new energy vehicles change and leave without waiting for charging. When a new energy vehicle is charged to 80%, it takes 30 minutes at the earliest, and the power change can be completed within 5 minutes. The appearance of power exchange mode will effectively improve the problem of long waiting time for new energy vehicles to replenish energy. Once popularized, the long-term "queuing" of charging stations will no longer exist.
In addition, the power exchange mode is also conducive to improving safety and prolonging the service life of power batteries, which can effectively reduce the use cost of new energy vehicle batteries. The centralized monitoring, management and maintenance of batteries by operating companies are more professional than users, which is conducive to prolonging the life of power batteries and improving the safety of batteries.
Although the advantages are obvious, the development speed of the new energy vehicle power exchange mode is far less than that of charging. Experts in the industry generally believe that the current standard of power exchange is not uniform, which is a major obstacle to the development of power exchange mode. Liu Yongdong, director of the Standardization Center of China Electric Power Enterprise Federation, once admitted that the power exchange standards are not completely missing, including connectors, batteries and communication protocols, but they are all related standards. However, due to the constraints and poor operability of the standards, a consensus has not been reached in the industry.
Policy promotes the development of power exchange
New energy vehicles are an important cornerstone of the development of China’s automobile industry, which has played an indispensable role in the process of China’s transformation from a big automobile country to a powerful automobile country.
According to official data, in 2021, the sales of new energy vehicles in China reached 3.521 million, a year-on-year increase of 1.6 times, ranking first in the world for seven consecutive years. Relevant policies have played a very important role in the development of new energy automobile industry.
In 2020, the Development Plan of New Energy Vehicle Industry (2021-2035) issued by the General Office of the State Council put forward an outline for the development of new energy vehicle charging mode: we should vigorously promote the construction of charging and charging network, encourage the application of charging and charging mode, strengthen the research and development of new charging technologies such as intelligent and orderly charging, high-power charging and wireless charging, and improve charging convenience and product reliability.
In view of the development of new energy vehicle power exchange mode, the competent authorities have also put forward corresponding policy standards to promote the innovative development of business models.
On November 1, 2021, the "Safety Requirements for Electric Vehicle Switching" promulgated by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology was officially implemented, which stipulated the safety requirements, experimental methods and inspection rules of electric vehicles, and solved the urgent problem that there was no standard to follow in the switching mode. In the future, the standards for power batteries of new energy vehicles are expected to be unified.
In addition, increasing the research and development of new technologies will also play a positive role in promoting the rapid development of new energy vehicles. On January 10th, 2022, the National Development and Reform Commission and other departments jointly issued the "Implementation Opinions of the National Development and Reform Commission and other departments on Further Improving the Service Support Capability of Electric Vehicle Charging Infrastructure", proposing to continue to increase the research and development of new technologies and continuously improve the standard system. Give full play to the energy storage characteristics of power batteries, explore and promote orderly charging, V2G and other forms, and realize the synergistic interaction between electric vehicles and the power grid. Promote the power exchange mode according to local conditions in scenes such as mines, ports and urban transshipment.
At present, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology has started the pilot work of the application of new energy vehicle power exchange mode. There are 11 cities included in this pilot project, and Beijing, Nanjing, Wuhan and other cities have been shortlisted as pilot cities for power exchange mode, and will accelerate their development in strengthening technology research and development, carrying out demonstration applications and improving infrastructure.
Business model needs to be broken through.
As a new thing, the development of new energy vehicle power exchange is not smooth sailing.
In 2019, Weilai Automobile launched Nio Power power exchange technology for private car owners. After a period of operation, some users spit out: "Change the power for three minutes and wait for one hour." On the one hand, it reflects that the power exchange service is hot and popular among car owners, which was once in short supply; On the other hand, the new business model has shortcomings and poor user experience.
By 2021, Weilai has built more than 700 power stations in China. According to the plan, in 2022, Weilai automobile power stations will exceed 1,300.

As time goes on, the power exchange mode has gradually matured in the pilot cities and has been accepted by car owners.
Master Wang, a taxi driver in Beijing, told the reporter of Zhongxin Finance and Economics that the mode of changing electricity brought convenience to the new energy taxi he was driving. In the past, it took one hour to charge, but now it only takes three or four minutes to get it, and the price is more affordable than that of a fuel car. Sixty or seventy yuan can run more than 200 kilometers. More and more taxi drivers have taken new energy taxis as the first choice for changing cars.
At present, many car companies, such as Weilai and BAIC, have launched battery-changing models and power stations, but the battery-changing business is mostly based on their own brands, and the market level has not been penetrated, and the corresponding business model has not been completely opened. The development of battery-changing mode is still hindered by many obstacles. Li Songzhe, a researcher of China Electric Vehicle committee of 100 Research and Consulting Department, mentioned that even if a car company realizes the unification of battery specifications and standards, it is still difficult to make a profit because of its small scale.
Although there are many difficulties at present, under the background that car companies and power battery manufacturers are competing to enter the new energy vehicle power exchange track, the power exchange mode will still usher in a wave of leap-forward development. The unification of relevant standards for power batteries will accelerate the popularization of power exchange mode, and then form a business model with wider coverage and more mature operation mode. By then, the last obstacle to the development of new energy vehicles will be removed, and the problems of "by going up one flight of stairs" and "mileage anxiety" will no longer exist. (End)