With the countdown to Model Y delivery time, in addition to seeing the Shanghai factory being intensively put into production in preparation for the launch, Tesla is also "crazily" building charging stations.
Model?’s monthly sales in March have exceeded 20,000. For citizens who prefer SUVs, they should have greater expectations for Model? Before the official arrival of Model?
The reason is very simple. You can’t sell hundreds of thousands of cars. Tesla owners still have to compete with online ride-hailing drivers for charging stations. Tell the truth about Tesla’s $650 billion market value. Where should I put it? Therefore, whether it is to better increase sales in China or to gradually improve the overall layout in the Chinese market, the construction of charging piles is something Tesla cannot avoid.
Two sets of layout logic may be very useful to self-driving enthusiasts
Tesla’s speed has always been amazing, and the charging network layout is no exception. On December 15th alone, Tesla added 29 new charging stations, totaling 242 charging piles, including 162 V3 super charging piles and 80 V2 super charging piles. On December 19, with the launch of five new super charging stations, Tesla’s number of super charging stations in mainland China exceeded 600. In April 2014, the number of Tesla charging stations exceeded 0, and in July 2016, the number of charging stations exceeded 100. It took Tesla less than a year to go from 300 to 500, but it only took 100 days to go from 500 to 600. 19 days.
Quick is fast, but in my opinion, it is a lagging action by Tesla. The addition of charging stations now should be seen as an act to improve the power replenishment service for users. Sales continue to grow, but the construction of charging stations and charging piles in the region is relatively lagging behind. At least in the business district of Chongqing, we have seen queues at destination charging piles (perhaps related to the fact that some car owners have a certain amount of free charging). Fortunately, it has not reached the peak of user impatience, and the layout of charging stations across the country is developing intensively.
When the V3 super charging pile was completed in Chongqing, the author learned from Tesla staff that Tesla’s home charging ratio reached 80%. On the one hand, the price of home charging is relatively cheap (based on feedback from Chongqing car owners For example, charging at home costs about 8 cents per kilometer). On the other hand, charging at home is mainly done at night so as not to delay work. Charging at a charging station may be an emergency recharge. After all, after charging at a supercharging station, Overtime charges may be incurred. Therefore, Tesla is more interested in the dense layout of charging stations rather than charging piles. So far, it has prioritized opening up lines and shortening the recharge mileage, and then considering increasing the number of charging piles at charging stations.
Why are there two sets of logic? When opening up the line, Tesla prioritizes shortening the recharging mileage. Firstly, it means ensuring the coverage of "points" of charging stations in the city, radiating to car owners in the surrounding area, and connecting up and down while ensuring that the vehicle still has cruising range. A charging station forms a "line" situation to achieve "area" coverage of the city. In other words, this set of logic is laid out to open up the car use scenarios in and around the city.
Another meaning is that through the link between "lines" and "lines" between cities, charging stations for self-driving travel routes can be opened to alleviate the problem of mileage anxiety during self-driving travel. Isn’t it very clever and kills two birds with one stone? The author believes that this kind of operation will undoubtedly make the majority of hesitant users decisively place orders.
For car owners, there are only two reasons for range anxiety of pure electric models. One is the worry that the battery is running out and there is no place to charge. The other is that it takes 1-2 hours to charge, and there may be more charging piles. Wait in line. Owners of fuel vehicles may go to the restroom in the service area to make small adjustments, and the battery life problem can be solved in half an hour at most. However, pure electric vehicles may need to take a nap in the service area before setting off. It seems safer, but it is not suitable for car owners traveling by car. Generally speaking, there are basically two or more drivers driving alternately, and no one wants to spend most of their time staying in the service area.
Tesla uses the concept of "shortening the recharging mileage" in the layout of charging stations. If you go to one station to replenish a part of the electricity, the battery life can be sustained until the next station to recharge, and you can also take a rest. There is no need to queue or wait in one place for a long time, and there is no range anxiety. The form of "energy replenishment" has been considered to reduce the shortcomings of pure electric models in terms of battery life.
And with more and more V3 super charging piles appearing, the advantage of Tesla owners to travel easily becomes even more obvious. Taking Chongqing as an example, it has opened up many self-driving travel routes such as Chongqing-Yunnan, Chongqing-Shanghai, Chongqing-Xi'an, Chongqing-Tibet, Chongqing-Sanya, Chongqing-Gansu, etc. In other words, Tesla has considered the charging issue more comprehensively from the perspective of self-driving travel enthusiasts. Users who hesitate due to range anxiety seem to have no reason to refuse. Isn’t it because the “harvesting” work is becoming more and more difficult? Are you relaxed?
How fast is V3? A week’s commute in 15 minutes
Speaking of the power of V3, as you can see, 15 minutes can replenish about 250km of battery life. If the daily commute is within 50km, then a week’s commute is really enough. Compared with V2, V3 super charging pile uses brand-new liquid-cooled wires and charging plugs, which not only improves charging efficiency but also reduces the weight of the gun and wires. For those who love self-driving travel, for women, the charging gun is more portable; for the general public, this time reduction is not much different from refueling a fuel vehicle.
Previously, Tesla Vice President Tao Lin also said that the Tesla Shanghai Supercharger Factory, which will be completed and put into operation in 2021, will produce at least 10,000 V3 Superchargers. From this point of view, in In terms of charging network layout, Tesla is still sprinting. It hopes that in the process of opening up the lines, it will use the city as the base point and expand it to multiple points in and around the city to prevent car owners from queuing up again.
In the author’s opinion, Tesla’s approach to building its own charging stations has been different from other pure electric models from the beginning. Although the investment is large, it seems that it has indeed reaped gains on this basis. Many fans, after all, Tesla's charging piles only serve Tesla users. Whether it is online car-hailing or new forces, they can only queue up and watch the Tesla charging piles empty. If the public charging piles are available and the Tesla charging piles are full, Tesla users can also respond to emergencies at the public charging piles. At this time, the sense of superiority of Tesla users is amplified, and the convenience has been improved at the same time. It has to be said that it is very attractive and pleasing in the scope of life of using new energy vehicles.
Looking at the details, in order to make the user's power replenishment problem higher quality, for example, we have reached an agreement with the Chongqing Jiefangbei Xiexin Center to provide free parking for one hour. It is worth mentioning that Tesla’s newly built V3 super charging pile parking space is very wide, but users with poor parking skills can feel friendly, and the posture of getting off the car is relatively elegant, and it is indeed matched in many aspects of experience. Pursuing consumers.
Written at the end: Many people criticize Tesla, and there are many situations. The author admits that as the first new energy vehicle company to enter the Chinese market as a wholly-owned subsidiary, there must be some imperfections. It started early and the market is relatively blank. It has indeed lost favor on the previous price issue. It can be criticized appropriately. However, in terms of gameplay and layout speed, I have to admit that there are many things that domestic new energy vehicles can learn from. place.
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This article comes from the author of Autohome Chejiahao and does not represent the views and positions of Autohome.