On October 18, Geely held an event in Jinan. This event was indeed low-key, because Li Shufu, chairman of Geely Automobile, was present to support Geely Technology Group (hereinafter referred to as "Geely Technology") and witness its signing with the Jinan Municipal Government to start the operation of Jinan's battery swap station.
Jinan Daily reported that the two parties signed a comprehensive strategic cooperation framework agreement at Shandong Building at noon that day, "to start the operation of Geely intelligent charging/swapping stations and urban travel projects, and the construction of Geely intelligent new energy vehicle factory projects" .” But the mainstream automotive media didn’t publicize it much.
In the afternoon of that day, a small number of media, including reporters, were invited to visit the battery swap demonstration station. However, based on the judgment that "a low profile must lead to big things", the reporter is curious about what "material" is behind the launch of Geely's battery swap station?
Fast, not ordinary fast
Just one word, "fast". This is the reporter’s feeling about Geely Technology’s 90-second battery swapping mode, so regarding its battery swapping efficiency, Geely uses the word “extreme speed” to define the battery swapping mode within 90 seconds without getting out of the car. It also adopts an intelligent unattended design, and the entire battery replacement process is carried out automatically without manual assistance.
This power swap station is the first smart power swap station independently developed by Geely Technology. It adopts a dual-chamber single-station design and is equipped with a reserve of 39 batteries. Compared with the reserve of 5 batteries in the NIO battery swap station, there is undoubtedly a great advantage in quantity.
In addition, let’s take a look at Aodong New Energy, which has the largest number of battery swap stations in China. An Aodong 3.0 model battery swapping station has 28 turnover batteries, can be swapped in 3 minutes, and can serve up to 420 times a day. In comparison, Geely still has an advantage in terms of quantity and battery exchange efficiency.
Wang Zhihai, head of Geely Technology’s battery swapping technology, said that Geely Technology Group has been developing battery swapping for three years, and has started research and development of battery swapping technology platforms and vehicle model architecture platforms since 2017. “We are In 3 years, a large amount of market research and analysis was conducted, and the technical route was carefully selected. During the research and development period, more than 1,000 R&D personnel participated, billions of yuan were invested, more than 30,000 related experiments were conducted, and patents related to battery replacement were obtained. More than 1,000 pieces. "More than 1,000 patents, this one is really cool.
Wang Zhihai also said that Geely Technology Group’s battery swap technology platform has the characteristics of high modularity, high compatibility, high safety, and high intelligence, which are specifically reflected in: various levels with a wheelbase of 2700~3100mm. All models are compatible; it has an advanced locking mechanism design, which is strong and reliable; the intelligent temperature control system is excellent and can operate normally and effectively in high altitudes, high temperatures, and severe cold areas; it has a complete three-level fire protection system to effectively avoid traditional new energy vehicles. Risk of spontaneous combustion during charging.
In addition, Geely has also built a 5G cloud platform from the vehicle end to the station end and then to the cloud. It enhances the experience through the interconnection between the vehicle and the station, and monitors the status of each battery pack through the interconnection between the station and the cloud. . Geely's battery swap module is committed to creating a new benchmark in the battery swap market.
“We have put safety first since we built the battery swap station.” According to Wang Zhihai, this system has been equipped with the entire vehicle to conduct various safety, durability, high temperature, high cold, and plateau tests. . Among them, 30 prototype vehicles were put into the collision safety test, and more than 100 vehicles were put into the test before and after. Completed more than 100 vehicle-level tests and more than 5,000 system and component tests. Various vehicle performance and reliability tests have been conducted, equivalent to a cumulative mileage of ***1.5 million kilometers.
In terms of core battery pack design, Geely adopts a flat standard battery design that is consistent with the current mainstream pure electric vehicle platform design in the market. The battery can have a service life of 8 years and 600,000 kilometers.
The design of the locking mechanism for battery replacement, including the new quick-change water connector and electrical connector, also fully considers safety factors. The battery-changing lock body and the quick-changing water connector have both completed more than 16,000 durability tests in one-time tests, and the system structure durability testing has exceeded 800,000 kilometers, which is equivalent to a 10-year service life of the entire vehicle, fully verifying its stability. Reliable performance.
Geely Technology also stated that it has developed a new power swap platform architecture for this power swap model. This architecture covers the battery replacement technology platform, vehicle model architecture platform, and big data operation platform.
Moreover, for the first time in the industry, it has realized the integration of the entire industry chain of battery swap stations, battery swap cars, and battery swap operations.
As for whether this battery swapping model is charged or free, Wang Zhihai said that he is responsible for the technology, so he really doesn’t know. However, a corresponding reference is that the Guangzhou Aodong battery swap station, which serves BAIC EU series models, charges taxi drivers 0.33 yuan per kilometer for battery swaps. It can actually travel more than 200 kilometers on a single charge. It costs 33 yuan per 100 kilometers. At the current oil price of 5.45 yuan/L, the cost is slightly higher than that of fuel vehicles.
In addition, Maple Leaf Motors’ first B-class battery-swap model, the Maple Leaf 80V, which I saw in the afternoon, adopts a business model of separation of vehicle and electricity. In other words, you buy a car and rent a battery, and the battery is separately Settlement. An engineer vividly compared it to a reporter, "Just like the liquefied gas cylinders we used before, you only need to change the air and don't care about the cylinder. The liquefied gas company is responsible for regular testing of the cylinders."
By the way. By the way, the 80V looks exactly like the Geely Jiaji, with a body size of 4706x1909x1699mm and a wheelbase of 2807mm. Like the Jiaji, it is a standard B-class MPV. However, this battery-swap MPV is a 5-door, 5-seater online car-hailing version, and it enters the online car-hailing operation.
The battery swap mode is restarted
The battery swap mode is not new in the past two years. There has been a wave of "power swap mode" in the last round, but it has been questioned. This time, in the current era of new energy industry and new infrastructure, it has returned and become a key area in new infrastructure projects.
In May this year, the battery swap model was included in the 2020 Government Work Report for the first time, extending "building charging piles" to "increasing charging piles, battery swap stations and other facilities." At the subsequent press conference of the State Council on July 23, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology gave a detailed positive interpretation of the new energy battery swap model. This also means that the battery swap model is officially promoted through national policies.
"The prophet of spring water warms up", and the actions of car companies will naturally follow closely. In addition to NIO and Geely, the newly independent Changan New Energy recently established the Chongqing Power Swap Alliance and formally signed a contract with Aodong New Energy to serve Changan New Energy E-series models in the power swap mode.
At the same time, Softbank Energy has also reached a strategic investment cooperation with Aodong. As of June this year, Aodong New Energy has 222 battery swap stations, followed by Weilai with 136 stations and Hangzhou Bertan Technology with 94 stations in second and third place. Aodong has maintained the pace of building two power swap stations a month. NIO is twice as fast. Next year, NIO will launch a second-generation power swap station, reaching a frequency of one new station per day. In addition, NIO is also planning to jointly establish a battery management asset company with CATL.
However, the current situation is that compared with charging stations, battery swap stations are still not on the same order of magnitude. On July 23, Xin Guobin, Vice Minister of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, stated that a total of 38,000 charging stations, 449 battery swapping stations, and 1.3 million charging piles of various types have been built across the country, including 551,000 public charging piles and privately built charging piles. 749,000 piles.
According to Geely Technology’s plan, up to now, its power swap network has been deployed both at home and abroad (including Southeast Asia), and more than 1,000 power swap stations have been signed. Chongqing was the first city to start, and Jinan was the second city to start. In addition, Geely Technology Group plans to reach 5,000 battery swap stations by 2025.
As the largest battery swap station operator in China, according to Aodong New Energy’s plan, it is expected to enter 100 cities across the country by 2025, build and operate 5,000 battery swap stations, and serve more than 2 million new energy vehicles. . It seems that everyone’s dreams and ambitions are not small. However, compared with charging piles, the current battery swapping facilities on the market are still very scarce. There are still many problems that need to be solved urgently. For example, the construction and maintenance costs of battery swap stations are much higher than those of charging piles.
The pain points of the battery swap mode
Let’s take a look at the operation of the battery swap mode. According to the reporter’s understanding and interviews, the current direction is still To?B.
Why do you say that? For example, BAIC New Energy has carried out large-scale operation and promotion of battery swap stations since 2018. As of the end of May this year, 187 battery swap stations have been built and put into operation, 18,000 battery swap rental vehicles have been put into operation, and a total of 4.8 million battery swaps have been completed. . In other words, consumer power exchange on the To-C side has not yet been involved.
Huang Chunhua, general manager of Aodong New Energy Marketing Center, also said that the battery swapping model needs to be gradual from To?B to To?C. This is easy to understand. One is the standardization of batteries, and the other is the rapid breakthroughs in battery technology. With the continuous breakthroughs in battery capacity density and cruising range, the road to battery replacement mode To?C is still long.
After all, the biggest shortcoming of the battery swap mode is the inconsistent battery standards. It is a reality that there is almost no possibility of battery interchange between multiple brands, which can be regarded as everyone’s long-term “good plan”. Of course, in the current public travel fields such as buses, taxis, and online car-hailing, the battery swap model has the opportunity to grow. Geely Technology’s steps are also: “The first step is to solve the pain point of operating vehicles, and then change the layout. After clicking on the network, C-side vehicles can join.”
In addition, according to relevant surveys, in Beijing, the service radius of BAIC New Energy’s battery swap station is 2.53km in the urban area and 5.6km in the suburbs. For users, Said, the convenience is close to the gas station. Obviously, To?B is more suitable for the battery replacement business model, which is already common knowledge in the industry.
Cui Dongshu, secretary-general of the National Passenger Car Association, also made it clear to reporters that the battery swap model will not become mainstream in the future. However, the inclusion of battery swapping stations in new infrastructure will effectively promote the development of battery swapping in public sectors such as taxis and online ride-hailing services.
In addition, the reporter once met a driver of Cao Cao's special car while taking a taxi. During the chat, he talked about the battery swap mode. What he said was very good, "The issue of battery swap mode must be solved at the beginning." You can’t tell, but when the number of bikes increases, the problem will definitely be exposed, just like the original Mobike. It was good at first, but then it became more popular, right? ”
Currently, Geely’s battery swapping efficiency is comparable to or even surpasses that of fuel vehicles in terms of convenience. Furthermore, the government hopes to reduce the burden on urban power grids through distributed energy storage to "cut peaks and fill valleys." In addition, the energy efficiency of the battery swap station is more than 50 times that of the charging pile with the same area.
Moreover, the reporter believes that Geely Technology has a very good concept, that is, the concept of platform and technology sharing, and fully opens the battery swap technology platform, vehicle model architecture platform and big data to major companies in the industry. Operation platform, the ideal result is to achieve the establishment and unification of national and industry standards for battery replacement modes.
However, although the battery swap mode has many advantages, now that the battery swap mode has been restarted, reporters still hope that the new form must be based on rational market and user considerations, and cannot be just a rush. On the ground, there were chicken feathers on the ground and a sigh.
Text/Wang Xiaoxi
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This article comes from the author of Autohome Chejiahao and does not represent the views and positions of Autohome.