However, the reality is not optimistic and anxiety still exists.
The endurance of the car has improved, and the following problems are that the price of the car has also increased and the charging time has become longer.
Aion with a battery life of 650km? Take LX as an example, its price is as high as 279,600 yuan, which is higher than Aion with a battery life of 4 10km. The entry-level version of S is twice as expensive. Home slow charging time 18.7 hours, longer than Aion? The 8-hour slow charging time of S is much 10 hour.
The pre-sale price of Tucki P7 is between 270,000 yuan and 370,000 yuan. According to the minimum calculation of 270,000 yuan, P7 is more expensive than Tucki G3 with a cruising range of 520km10000 yuan, and almost twice as expensive as Tucki G3 with a cruising range of 400km.
Obviously, simply improving the endurance of vehicles cannot solve all problems. No matter how long the battery life is, it should be powered on. People are anxious about not only the battery life of the electric car itself, but also whether it is convenient enough to power on.
As a result, "charging is more convenient than refueling" has become a homework that some electric vehicle manufacturers must do besides building cars.
Experience innovation: fancy boot
In order to let more people dispel their concerns about power supply before buying electric vehicles, Weilai established Weilai Energy Technology Co., Ltd. on 20 17, namely NIO? Power.
Weilai official is NIO? The definition of power is as follows:
NIO？ Power? This is a power-on solution based on mobile Internet, with a wide network of charging and replacing facilities. Relying on Weilaiyun technology, it provides users with exclusive boot and one-button boot experience that exceeds expectations, making boot more convenient than refueling.
NIO in 20 17? That day, when Li Bin "nervously" demonstrated the function of changing electricity for three minutes on the stage. NIO？ Power is officially unveiled.
In addition to changing electricity, NIO? Electric power can also provide customers with Weilai exclusive pile installation, public * * * fast charging pile interconnection, mobile charging pile protection, overcharging piles and door-to-door power supply services by power supply specialists. Through the Weilaiyun scheduling platform, a "one-button boot" service experience is formed.
NIO？ Power provides "rechargeable, replaceable and upgradeable" for Weilai users? The intelligent energy-replenishing service system solves the pain points of users. At present, this is almost the most comprehensive energy service system on the market.
Compared with most electric vehicle companies, NIO? Power covers all boot modes on the market.
Changing the power makes the power-on time shorter, which is close to the refueling time; Household charging piles allow users to charge at home; Third-party public * * * piles are interoperable, so that users can find charging piles to charge at will; Generation on behalf of customers can save time and trouble for users; The mobile charging car can be used as emergency support when traveling far away.
There are various ways to power on, but the core of Weilai must be to change electricity.
Power exchange forms the basis of Weilai's entire business model. With the development of power exchange technology, differentiated commercial operation schemes such as battery leasing scheme, free power exchange, expressway power exchange network and battery upgrade have emerged. There are too many benefits of changing electricity. Do it yourself. I won't go into details in this article. )
Niu Paoer at this stage, similar to a wild player, has grown rapidly and accumulated experience.
Niupaoer: Towards Opening-up
After two years of practice, we have achieved the goal of letting Weilai users enjoy high-quality boot experience. 20 19，NIO？ Power began to really mature and grow.
In April of 20 19, it became NIO? The starting point of electric power opening to the outside world.
At the Shanghai Auto Show, NIO? Power? The release of the charger super charging pile makes up for the last short board in the whole power-on system of Weilai Energy. At the same time, the one-button boot service also started in April last year and is open to customers of non-Weilai brands. Does this mean NIO? Power has embarked on a road of empowering the industry.
The introduction of super-charged piles not only gives Weilai users another way to replenish energy, but also creates more imagination space for Weilai's energy system to open to the outside world. With the super-filled pile, there will be the later electrified partner project; With the over-irrigation piles, the cooperation between Weilai and Tucki in the over-irrigation system can be realized.
As of March this year, the power partner project has landed 25 overcharged stations and 188 overcharged piles. More importantly, the construction of these super-filled piles does not require Weilai to pay.
Can the opening of one-button boot service give NIO? Power brings direct benefits. Not only the price of 100 yuan is more expensive than that of Weilai car owners, but also the scale effect after its opening makes NIO? Power sees the possibility of profit.
I remember Dr. Shen Fei, vice president of Weilai Energy, said, "If our existing subscribers triple, basically NIO? Electricity can be profitable. "
According to NIO? According to the latest data released by Power, at present, more than 300,000 single services have been completed with one-click startup, serving more than 20 vehicles of other brands. Among them, in addition to Weilai's own users, Tesla owners are the most used.
Free power exchange: the killer of accidents
NIO in 20 19? Another important event of power is the introduction of the policy of free power exchange. Can the first owner of Weilai enjoy the last? The right to exchange electricity for free.
Although the introduction of free power exchange was controversial, this policy has almost become the killer of Weilai's marketing promotion.
20 19 8? At the beginning, when Wei Lai was in financial trouble. Weilai opened the trial operation of self-driving code scanning and power exchange to users, which was free for a limited time, and said that the price after the official operation was 180 yuan.
After a week of trying, on August 24, Weilai unexpectedly announced that the first car owner would change electricity for free for life. This surprised almost everyone.
Within Weilai, there was a great controversy about the right of free convertibility, but in the end, Li Bin made the final decision and made this decision.
Since the announcement of this policy, Weilai's power station has been full in an instant, and the enthusiasm of car owners for changing electricity has been greatly improved. Some power stations even reached the record of changing electricity 76 times a day. Under normal circumstances, the designed power exchange capacity of each power exchange station is at most 72 times a day.
On average, the frequency of use of power stations after free has doubled. From a dozen times a day to more than 30 times a day.
Many people are worried about Weilai's free power exchange. However, Li Bin disagreed. "In fact, it only took a little more electricity, because the power stations are ready-made."
It can also be seen from the sales data after September last year that this policy has indeed made an important contribution to the promotion of Weilai's sales.
Shen Fei said that up to now, 2928 10/0 free power exchange services have been provided, charging about13.67 million kwh. If converted according to the electricity price per kWh in 0.5 yuan, it will cost almost 7 million yuan. If we calculate with a 500,000-yuan ES8, it is 14 ES8. This is still quite cost-effective.
The power exchange station built in the public parking lot has also become the contact point to attract traffic under the Weilai line.
At present, Weilai has built 123 power exchange stations, covering more than 50 cities across the country, and the penetration rate of power exchange stations has reached 48.7%.
According to Weilai's plan, 50 power stations will be added in 2020 and upgraded to version 2.0. If you don't need to lift the vehicle, you can change the electricity without getting off the bus. Some power stations also add lounges. It has been upgraded from efficiency and experience.
At this time, Niu Bao became a right-hand man.
New business: battery upgrade and recycling
In addition to upgrading power stations, battery technology is constantly upgrading every year.
20 19, weilai 84kwh battery landed. Under the condition of keeping the battery size unchanged, the energy density and cruising range can be upgraded.
Besides, NIO? Power also introduced a flexible daily rental plan for 84kwh battery packs. Every day in 66 yuan, when users need to travel long distances, they can rent large-capacity batteries freely to increase their battery life.
However, the reality may not be so optimistic. Perhaps because of the cost control, the 84kwh spare battery of the power station can't be used for a long time, so many car owners who bought 84kwh batteries can't enjoy the convenience of changing electricity.
In Q4 of 2020, Weilai will also launch 100kwh battery pack.
For NIO? For power, how to truly realize the interchange and flexible upgrade scheme between three different capacity batteries of 70, 84 and 100kwh in 2020 will be a new topic they need to face.
This not only tests the decision-making and scheduling ability of the cloud, but also tests Weilai's negotiation ability and financial ability for the battery supply chain.
In the recent conference call of Weilai Financial Report, Li Bin once said that another 654.38 billion yuan will be invested in the battery replacement system this year.
In addition to increasing large-capacity batteries, the step-by-step utilization of eliminated batteries also tests NIO? Power.
At present, the cascade utilization channel of power battery in China is mainly used as backup power supply in China Tower signal base station and other places.
However, for this big central enterprise with Chinese prefix, car companies have no advantage in negotiations, and many eliminated batteries are almost free. So, Wei came to find another way.
NIO？ Power is exploring cooperation with some motorcycle companies. Divide the eliminated batteries into smaller modules and use them on two-wheeled motorcycles.
"These batteries will play a greater residual value after they are circulated by changing electricity." These batteries are also included in NIO? Power's battery safety monitoring platform.
Empowerment: Will more enterprises join the power exchange?
In 2020, NIO? Another important task of electric power is to actively participate in the formulation of national power exchange standards.
The so-called first-class enterprises set standards. As the first new car-making enterprise in the field of private passenger cars, cut it down? February 2020? Finally, Weilai has more than 1200 patented technology related to power exchange.
Since last year, Weilai has participated in the formulation/revision of the industry standard of power exchange: 17. Among them, it mainly focuses on the communication of power exchange system. The guidelines and safety requirements cover the design of power exchange system and the construction of power exchange station. Operation and maintenance of replaceable battery pack, power exchange equipment, locking and unlocking mechanism, connector and power exchange station.
It is understood that at present, some OEMs are in contact with Weilai's plan to exchange electricity.
"If other OEMs follow up the power exchange, we are willing to open up and share our experience with other OEMs. At least the people behind should stop stepping on the pit we crossed. " Shen Fei said.
Not only Weilai, but also another pioneer of power exchange mode, Aodong New Energy, revealed to Che Yun that BAIC, GAC, SAIC, FAW, Dongfeng and Changan have been fully cooperating with Aodong New Energy to explore the feasibility of power exchange mode and vehicle-electricity separation.
This means that more car companies will join the TV replacement army.
However, Shen Fei believes that power exchange involves the redevelopment of vehicle chassis and battery architecture, and it will take at least two years to see the results. Therefore, it is impossible for other car companies to join the ranks of power exchange overnight.
But this does not prevent NIO? Power empowers and opens the entire electric vehicle industry.
According to Shen Fei's plan, NIO? The opening of power supply will focus on three aspects, namely, the opening of overcharge station, the opening of battery monitoring platform and the opening of one-button power-on system.
Currently NIO? Power has reached cooperation with two OEMs to connect their batteries and products to NIO? Power's battery monitoring platform. This is a project that can bring immediate results to cooperative manufacturers.
Together with the batteries used by motorcycles, this monitoring platform has reached the monitoring scale of 654.38+10,000 batteries to ensure the safety of these batteries.
"Experience, innovation, openness and persistence" is NIO? The guiding ideology of power.
Weilai clearly knows that if you want to win the overall victory of electric vehicles, you must have a team battle.
"Now the competition between electric vehicles and tankers requires comprehensive means to make the experience surpass the tanker, and the experience will always be the first." Shen Fei said, "Simply relying on subsidies and prices will not be the final solution. We must constantly innovate and iterate. It must be open, allowing all OEMs and charging and replacing operators to unite, openly discuss and define standards, and let electric vehicle users access electricity without obstacles. "
This article comes from car home, the author of the car manufacturer, and does not represent car home's position.