Geely and Contemporary Amperex Technology Co., Limited entered the power exchange track, and the battery pack standardization problem needs to be solved.
Text |Owl technology Jeff
On June 21st, Ruilan Automobile, a subsidiary of Geely Automobile, announced its entry into the new energy exchange circuit. Four days later, at the Chongqing Auto Show, Ruilan Automobile brought three battery-changing models under the GBRC crystal structure-Ruilan 7 (concept car), Ruilan 9 and 80V PRO.
In addition to Ruilan Automobile, in early 2022, Contemporary Amperex Technology Co., Limited, a power battery giant, also announced its entry into the power exchange industry and released the power exchange service brand EVOGO.
The entry of two major players has ignited the enthusiasm of domestic power exchange enterprises, and has formed a "four-legged" market structure of energy central enterprises (State Grid), vehicle enterprises (Geely, Weilai, BAIC), battery manufacturers (Contemporary Amperex Technology Co., Limited) and third-party operators.
However, in the face of the sudden fire-changing track, some people questioned the cold water: Is it really a good business to change electricity? Aren’t the lessons of the past unforgettable enough?
In 2022, when BMW was interviewed by the German media European Automotive Weekly, it was rare to "pour cold water" on the power exchange technology, thinking that the power exchange technology route was a waste of time, and BMW pursued solid-state battery technology.
These doubts are not unreasonable. In fact, the power exchange industry has stumbled for more than ten years, and it has not become a climate, and it has not run out of an industry giant. However, when concepts, capital, technology and policies come together, no one dares to say that there is no "pig" on the cusp.
With the industrial opportunities created by the times, Contemporary Amperex Technology Co., Limited in 2021 and BYD in 2022 will take off strongly. How do you know that the power exchange industry can’t rise as a new giant?
It’s hot at the power exchange track.
I don’t know if anyone has noticed that there are two details worth pondering behind the launch of EVOGO, a brand of power exchange service in Contemporary Amperex Technology Co., Limited, and Ruilan Automobile by Geely Automobile:
First, in January 2022, the National Development and Reform Commission and other seven departments jointly issued the "Implementation Plan for Promoting Green Consumption", clearly strengthening the construction of supporting infrastructure such as charging and replacing electricity, and promoting the pilot work of the application of new energy vehicle replacement mode.
Second, in the motion of the two sessions in March 2022, Li Shufu, the chairman of Geely Holding, suggested to promote the standardization of battery packs, so that battery packs can be truly interchanged among different car companies, different power stations and different users.
Every decision of the bosses has a strong background of the times, and the times make heroes. When the power exchange ushered in the outbreak window with the help of policies, what the bosses had to do was to get on the bus quickly.
With the rapid increase in sales of new energy vehicles, one of their shortcomings is increasingly anxious about recharging, and many car owners spit and queue for hours, which is a serious waste of time.
Therefore, changing electricity has become an important supplementary means for new energy vehicles to replenish energy, which has attracted the attention of the state, government and enterprises.
At present, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology has released 11 pilot cities for power exchange nationwide, and plans to promote more than 100,000 power exchange vehicles and build more than 1,000 new power exchange stations. A series of policies are also encouraging all localities to lay out power exchange stations.
In order to support the development of power exchange mode, Shanghai, Jiangsu, Sichuan, Beijing, Guangzhou, Guangxi, Chongqing, Dongguan and other places successively issued relevant policies in the field of new energy vehicle power exchange in 2022 to promote the construction of power exchange infrastructure.
With the policy orientation of power exchange mode gradually becoming clear, enterprises with a keen sense of smell are rapidly expanding their layout.
Contemporary Amperex Technology Co., Limited launched EVOGO power exchange service brand in January, started the construction of power exchange station in Xiamen in April, and entered Hefei in June. By the end of 2022, Contemporary Amperex Technology Co., Limited plans to complete the operation of 30 and 20 express exchange stations in Fujian and Hefei respectively.
Ruilan Automobile, a subsidiary of Geely, aims to expand the power exchange market with Chongqing as the radius and the market demand for pure electric vehicles. However, according to its released plan, the layout of "300+" power station will be realized in 2022.
Guangzhou Automobile Aian, a subsidiary of Guangzhou Automobile Group, built the first super charging and replacing center in Guangzhou on April 21st. According to the plan, Guangzhou Automobile Aian will build over 1,000 super charging and replacing centers in Guangzhou in 2025.
According to another related report, by 2025, State Power Investment Corporation, Weilai, Sinopec, Geely Automobile and Aodong New Energy will plan to build 4,000, 4,000, 5,000, 5,000 and 10,000 power stations respectively, and GCL Nengke plans to build 5,000-6,000 power stations, totaling more than 33,000.
The power exchange mode may usher in the spring of development, and a huge power exchange network will be built quickly in the next few years. The battery-changing track is hot, and BYD, which is also hot, has also begun to lay out.
In March, Chongqing Xinjing Tengfei Automobile Sales and Service Co., Ltd., which is indirectly wholly-owned by BYD Auto Industry Co., Ltd., was established, and its business scope includes the sales of new energy vehicles; Sales of new energy vehicle power exchange facilities; Charging pile sales and so on.
BYD’s move was speculated by the outside world as an intention to carry out the layout of the new energy vehicle power exchange project in Chongqing, taking the opportunity to enter the current power exchange track.
Driven by the policy, enterprises began to break down the cost pressure and capital pressure once placed in front of power exchange. However, standardization is a difficult problem to solve.
Battery pack standardization problem to be solved
Gasoline can be injected into the fuel tanks of different vehicles, but batteries can’t. Qin Lihong, president of Weilai Automobile, said in 2021 that the power station is open to all cars, but not all cars can be changed if they want to change at Weilai Power Station. Qin Lihong pointed out that it is a vehicle design problem that cannot be replaced.
Looking at it now, this is not a problem of vehicle design, but an issue of industry standardization. Because the battery pack standard is not uniform, the battery packs of different brands and models cannot be interchanged, which affects the expansion of power exchange scale and even makes it difficult to carry out large-scale commercial operation.
On June 13th, MG MULAN, a brand-new pure electric global car of SAIC MG, made its debut. The car was the first to be equipped with SAIC’s brand-new "Rubik’s Cube" battery (English name is "ONE PACK") and its supporting technical system. As a standardized power battery system, "Rubik’s Cube" battery is similar to the "Chocolate" power exchange module previously introduced by Contemporary Amperex Technology Co., Limited, with the projected area of the battery fixed and the same as the external related connectors, except that the height of the battery pack is different, so that the power exchange can be easily realized.
However, the standardization of Rubik’s Cube battery is probably only the standardization of SAIC itself. Zhu Jun, deputy chief engineer of SAIC, once revealed that the vehicles using SAIC’s Rubik’s Cube battery technology now cover all mainstream brands and high-end brands of SAIC. The implication is that non-SAIC vehicles may not be able to change electricity.
As an early pioneer in the power exchange industry, Better Place finally died in the single-link business model (there are not enough car companies), and at the same time left a profound lesson for the latecomers: the power exchange model must pursue economies of scale in order to digest the high cost of the construction and operation of the power exchange station, and only the more models the power exchange service can be compatible with, will it be more conducive to achieving profitability.
In the end, the problems all point to standardization.
On March 18, 2022, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology issued "Key Points of Automobile Standardization in 2022", which proposed "speeding up the construction and improvement of the charging and replacing standard system for electric vehicles, and promoting the formulation of standards such as on-board battery replacement system, universal platform for battery replacement and battery replacement for pure electric vehicles".
The policy is easy to implement, but it is difficult to implement. Every car company has its own considerations when designing electric vehicles, so the battery system is very different. Many car companies often offer power exchange services only for their own cars.
Therefore, to realize the standardization of the power exchange industry requires the synergistic effect of car companies and battery manufacturers. However, many enterprises have their own worries, and it may not be so easy to unify them.
Is changing electricity a good business?
Many enterprises have already crossed the river of changing electricity and know the depth.
In 2009, at the annual meeting of Silicon Valley Index, Shai Agassi, an Israeli man, introduced his idea of changing electricity ambitiously. Better Place, the first generation of "concept of changing electricity" company he led, was a online celebrity company like Tesla, which became a global entrepreneurial project at that time, with a total investment of 850 million US dollars. Former Israeli President Shimon Perez was the platform, and Renault-Nissan Alliance was willing to produce the model for it.
When Xia Jiaxi, who is ambitious, carries out the road of electric vehicle operation in the mode of changing electricity around the world, China’s electric vehicle industry is just in the early stage of exploration, and changing electricity is one of them. So Better Place came to China naturally, and signed a contract with China Southern Power Grid in 2011 to build a power exchange experience center in Guangzhou.
At the beginning of May, 2013, Xia Jiaxi visited China with the then Israeli President and enjoyed the infinite scenery. However, just 20 days later, Better Place declared bankruptcy at the end of May of that year because of the difficult balance of investment returns. The second power exchange station in China market also fell into the sea.
At the same time as Better Place, some domestic enterprises were exploring the power exchange industry, but the "Development Plan of Energy Saving and New Energy Automobile Industry (2012-2020)" released in 2012 no longer mentioned the power exchange mode, and established charging as the main energy supply path. Since then, power exchange has entered a dormant stage.
In 2013, a large number of domestic enterprises exploring the mode of power exchange went bankrupt, and the State Grid also adjusted its strategy to stop implementing power exchange. The capital market began to shift more investment to the charging mode, so the charging mode began to triumph. In 2014, the current charging giants TELD and Star Charging were born.
During the dormant period of power exchange, Weilai automobile was ushered in. Prior to this, power exchange was aimed at buses, taxis, network agreements, logistics and other operating vehicles, which belonged to a 2B mode, because it was easier to form scale effect, but Weilai pushed the power exchange mode to the private consumption field.
Self-built power exchange system, production and manufacture of their own cars, so that Weilai bears a huge cost pressure. However, such a move also allows Weilai car owners to enjoy the exclusive power exchange service, thus building an exclusive moat for Weilai.
It is worth mentioning that Weilai is not the first automobile manufacturer to try to change power. Before that, Tesla took over the power change mantle after the bankruptcy of Better Place and released a power change plan for Model S. However, the savvy Musk just gave up decisively after a show and embarked on the road of charging without hesitation.
In the past, changing electricity was not a good business. At present, the tide of automobile electrification is surging, the sales of electric vehicles are increasing day by day, the scale of the power exchange market is beginning to take shape, the cost is also dropping sharply, and the policy orientation is clear and clear.
The power exchange is undoubtedly standing on the tuyere. Don’t forget the famous saying left by Lei Jun, who is currently leading Xiaomi to build a car: As long as you stand at the tuyere, pigs can fly.