With the gradual increase of the penetration rate of new energy vehicles, the attention of the industry to “power supplement” is also increasing, and the demand for power exchange market in the field of private cars is also gradually increasing. Based on the rising market demand, car enterprises and battery manufacturers have successively engaged in the power exchange business.
After experiencing charging difficulties such as “difficult to find” during holiday travel, solving charging anxiety through fast charging and power change has become the focus of new energy vehicle sales. Compared with half an hour of full power, one minute fast power change is becoming a new field for new energy vehicle owners and an important guarantee to help increase the sales of new energy vehicles.
The reporter of China business daily learned that at present, Guangzhou Automobile Group Co.Ltd(601238) , Geely Automobile, Weilai automobile and other automobile enterprises have made a layout for the power exchange business, or launched the electric model, or intend to explore the power exchange operation mode. At the same time, battery manufacturer Contemporary Amperex Technology Co.Limited(300750) also released the brand of power exchange service.
Indeed, behind the competition of major manufacturers to enter the power exchange market, the development of new energy vehicle power exchange business is still in its infancy, including announcement management, industry standards, business model and other aspects, there are still many problems to be solved.
However, in the implementation of the “double carbon” goal, the power exchange field is expected to be profitable with the expansion of scale, and promote new energy vehicles to build a closed-loop industrial chain at the same time.
vehicle enterprise layout and power exchange field
” Guangzhou Automobile Group Co.Ltd(601238) started to replace electricity in various car lines two years ago, and the earliest replacement was in the taxi market. The next step is to launch it successively in the household car market. According to the current overall plan, Guangzhou Automobile Group Co.Ltd(601238) is to layout according to the comprehensive replacement of electricity, that is, all models should have electric models, and the current battery types should be unified.” At the performance conference of Guangzhou Automobile Group Co.Ltd(601238) 2021, Guangzhou Automobile Group Co.Ltd(601238) general manager Feng Xingya said about the power exchange business.
In fact, this is not the first time that Feng Xingya advocated the development of power exchange business. At the 2021 Guangzhou auto show and the 2022 Guangzhou people’s Congress, Feng Xingya expressed his opinions on issues such as standards related to power exchange mode. In Feng Xingya’s view, changing power in big cities, especially in super large cities, is an important solution to the “difficulty of power supply”.
Taking a new energy vehicle with a range of 300 kilometers as an example, the DC charging pile generally needs half an hour to be fully charged, but in case of peak travel in holidays and shrinking range in winter, the charging difficulties such as charging time and charging frequency are exposed. This situation is particularly obvious for taxis, online car hailing and other operating vehicles.
Wang Liang (a pseudonym), an online car Hailing driver, told reporters that his online car Hailing is rented from an online car Hailing company. He needs to be charged at least once a day on weekdays. In case of large orders such as airport or cross city transfer, it becomes a big problem to find a charging pile on the road. “When I was most embarrassed, I was only 2 kilometers away from the charging pile, but the car couldn’t drive.”
For operators like Wang Liang, the power change mode is what they urgently need. The reporter noted that Aodong new energy, which has focused on the field of power exchange for many years, has achieved 20 second fast power exchange at the 2020 Guangzhou auto show. The rapid power change brightens the eyes of online car hailing, taxi and other groups whose time cost is particularly important. After the charging anxiety spread to the field of private cars, car companies also began to expand the scope of application of fast power exchange.
In order to implement the power exchange mode, at the end of March, Guangzhou Automobile Group Co.Ltd(601238) deliberated and passed the proposal on the establishment of GAC Energy Ecological Technology Co., Ltd. Guangzhou Automobile Group Co.Ltd(601238) and ai’an will jointly contribute to the establishment of GAC Energy Ecological Technology Co., Ltd. (tentative name), with a total investment of 4.96 billion yuan.
It is reported that GAC Energy Ecological Technology Co., Ltd. (tentative name) will focus on the national “double carbon” strategic goal, build a charging and storage energy supply ecology and battery recycling ecology, build a smart and efficient energy cloud platform, and promote the research on energy storage system technology, smart charging and storage service technology and product development and application of “vehicle station network” collaborative interaction.
Like Feng Xingya, Li Shufu, chairman of Geely Holding Group, and Zhou Fugeng, chairman of JAC group, also pay attention to the development of power exchange field. At the national two sessions in 2022, Li Shufu proposed to speed up the clarification of the relevant provisions on the construction, land and construction approval of replacement power stations, and bring them into the national market management standard system; Zhou Fugeng proposed to speed up the construction of new energy truck charging and replacement infrastructure for new energy commercial vehicles, and give priority to improving the high-frequency use scenarios of new energy trucks.
battery manufacturer’s next power exchange business
The demand of the power exchange market is expanding day by day. The potential market scale not only moves car enterprises, but also moves battery manufacturers. In January 2022, Shidai electric service, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Contemporary Amperex Technology Co.Limited(300750) company, released the power exchange service brand evogo and the overall solution of combined power exchange composed of “power exchange block, power exchange station and app”. Chen Weifeng, general manager of times electric service, said that evogo power exchange service will be launched in the first batch of 10 cities.
According to the introduction of Contemporary Amperex Technology Co.Limited(300750) , “chocolate power exchange block” is a mass-produced battery specially developed for shared power exchange. The weight energy density exceeds 160wh / kg and the volume energy density exceeds 325wh / L. a single battery can provide a endurance of about 200km and can adapt to 80% of the models developed by pure electric platforms that have been listed in the world and will be listed in the next three years.
In terms of matching, consumers can choose one or more batteries at will when changing electricity, so as to flexibly match the needs of different mileage. In addition, the “chocolate power exchange block” adopts wireless BMS technology, and there are only high-voltage positive and negative interfaces outside, which greatly improves the reliability of plug-in parts.
The “chocolate power exchange block” focuses on the current power exchange standardization that puzzles the power exchange field. The adaptation of battery and vehicle model is a common difficulty in the power exchange market. In the era of various new energy models, power exchange interfaces, power stations and battery packs are particularly important to promote the standardization and generalization of power exchange modes. However, at present, it is difficult for battery manufacturers to generalize and standardize their cooperative supply relationship with vehicle enterprises.
Li Shufu mentioned in the proposal of the national two sessions in 2022 that the R & D direction and progress of various battery manufacturers are different, and the energy density, battery structure, size and specification of power battery products cannot be unified, resulting in the difficulty of power exchange mode to form scale effect. The low degree of standardization of replacement batteries also restricts multiple brand models from sharing the same replacement station, delaying the development process of the replacement station. The adaptation of power change mode needs to be promoted by car enterprises and battery enterprises. Without standard promotion, all car enterprises and brands will still use different power change interfaces and cannot complete the adaptation.
In addition, the construction and operation costs of the replacement power station are not cheap. The construction of the replacement station is related to the relevant procedures such as land and construction approval, and the floor area of the fast replacement station has the most direct impact on the construction cost. In the power exchange scheme proposed by Contemporary Amperex Technology Co.Limited(300750) above, the power exchange station has the characteristics of small land occupation, fast circulation and large capacity.
Each standard station only needs three parking spaces. The power exchange of a single power block is about 1 minute, and 48 power exchange blocks can be stored in the station.
In addition, the amortization cost of fixed asset investment and daily maintenance and repair of power station are quite expensive. The reporter learned that the single station equipment of the power station is about 2.6 million yuan, which will cost 2.5 million yuan according to the allocation of 60 batteries. Combined with the above maintenance and other expenses, the single station cost of the power station is about 6 million yuan.
business model to be broken
In the development process of power exchange mode, government subsidies and policy support can not be ignored. The development plan of new energy vehicle industry (20212035) requires to promote the scientific layout and accelerate the construction of infrastructure such as charging and replacing electricity. A series of group standards in the code for the construction of shared power exchange station for electric passenger vehicles has taken an important step in the standardization of power exchange.
At present, there are roughly three business models to realize power exchange service. One is the cooperation between vehicle enterprises and power exchange operators, which construct, operate and maintain power exchange stations, power exchange packages, etc. In this process, the power exchange operator plays the role of undertaking the needs of customers such as b-end car enterprises and providing power exchange services for C-end car owners. One of the representatives is Aodong new energy and other enterprises.
In the 2022 “cloud forum” of the 8th China electric vehicle hundred people’s Congress forum, Yang Ye, co-founder of Aodong new energy, said: “in terms of business model, Aodong new energy’s power exchange station mainly makes profits by providing power exchange operation services. Under the Aodong power exchange operation mode, a city’s policy support is in place, the proportion of stations is reasonable, and it is operated continuously and effectively. Generally, it will achieve profit and loss balance in 3-4 years.”
Factors such as high input cost and long income cycle have become the threshold of entering the field of power exchange. This has also led to the dependence of enterprises on subsidies. “At present, there are still electric vehicle subsidies in some places. At the same time, financing from the capital market is also a kind of subsidy.” Dr. Shi Jie, Institute of industrial economics, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, told reporters that most enterprises are fighting for finance, but few are efficient in operation, and fewer companies have made breakthroughs in technology or organization.
After breaking through the subsidy barrier, how power exchange enterprises will survive is still a topic of internal exploration in the industry. In the current business model, in addition to the cooperation between vehicle enterprises and power exchange operators, the second is that vehicle enterprises do their own vehicle power separation business, such as Weilai automobile. The third is that the battery manufacturers make replacement blocks, such as Contemporary Amperex Technology Co.Limited(300750) .
After careful observation, it is not difficult to find that the current power exchange business has become an auxiliary tool for the sales of new energy vehicles based on the needs of the market. In other words, the significance of changing electricity is to better sell cars and solve consumers’ worries. Therefore, at present, in addition to subsidies, the important source of revenue for the incoming power exchange business of vehicle enterprises or battery manufacturers is the sales performance of new energy vehicles or the derived supply interest chain.
In the future, the significance of power exchange station also lies in energy storage and discharge, recovery business, etc. with the gradual increase of the penetration rate of new energy vehicles, the market scale of power exchange station will usher in a new situation. At that time, changing the power station will also develop a new profit model.
